Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-04-06
The Egg Has Always Been the
Symbol Of Easter.
ITS PART In MANY QUEER CUSTOMS
How the Festival is Celebrated
All Over the World.
RIOUS SUPERSTITIONS

Written for The Evening Star.
Allied to the solemn religious ceremonials
Of the Eastertide there are in many coun-
tries customs and superstitions which are
quaint to the verge of farcicality. These
go back to an origin earlier than the Chris
tan era, when the Saxons and Angles cele-
brated the green days of April as sacred
to the Goddess Ostara, the personification
in the northern mythology of the warming
and quckening east. Some part of her
worship. taken over by the more austere
Christians. survives still in the spring
time festivals connected with the latter
day Easter. For long the Christian era
was an eight-day thanksgiving. approx
imating the time devoted by the pagans to
their spring festivities. 1t was afterward
cut down to three days, then to two, and
finally dwindled to a single day festival,
CONNIE morative Of the resurrection of
Christ.
The egg, typical of birth, has been for
centuries the special token and symbol of
Easter. One of the most curious of egg
customs is the game of ecclesiastical ball.
played with eggs in the churches of Eng
land in the middle ages by monks. These
eggs were colored red, in allusion to the
blood shed for sinners. From the records
1t would appear that the rules of the game
varied in different churches, but in the
main the paStime consisted in tossing the
iran OBJECTS Tdpluly from mOUklSn manu-
to monkish hand, back and forth and cross
wise in bewildering confusion. AS a missed
egg meant smashed egg this pastime
proved detrimental to the church furnish
ingS, and in time an egg-Shaped ball was
substituted, the prizes for skllful playing
still being bright-hued eggs. The associa-
ton of the church and the egg is still
maintained in some of the remote parts of
France, where to this day the priest makes
Easter visits to his parishioners to bless
their homes, and is presented with eggs.
both plain and colored.
Collecting Eggs.
In parts of England, Scotland and Wales
a country custom survives among the
children of the poor farmers Of going col
lecting eggs from the more prosperous
neighbors, the form of request being this
old rhyme, repeated IN a sort of sing-song
cadence:
please Mr. Smith please
Give an Easter egg
If YOU do not give us one,
Your hen shall lay added one,
Your cock shall lay a stone"
In Northumberland. if man asks a
woman for an egg on Easter and is re-
fused, he may take off her shoes and keep
them until she pays PENALTY. If ii is the
man who refuses an egg to the woman,
she snatches away his cap and holds 1t
for redemption by money forfeit. Egg
contests survive in many rural parts of
England, and also in Switzerland. A pop
ular game is that of egg smashing. Eggs
are pitted against each other in she'll
breaking contest, the owner of the egg
that cracks the other taking the spoiIs
home in a bucket for omelet. A York
shire Strategist once colored a guinea
hens egg white, and with its Tock-like
carapace won the products Of the roosts
OF whole countryside before his trick was
discovered and he himself forced to flee
in shower of eggs of the previous Easter
or therea bouts. Another pastime is to roll
eggs down hill, the one which reaches
the bottom intact winning the rest. In this
case, however, the prize of victory is of
little worth A survival of this custom is
found in this city, where the children
gather in the White House grounds on
Easter Monday and ,oI eggs down the
slopes in the rear of The building,
Russian Customs.
Nowhere is the Easter egg more in evil
dence than in Russia. No man starts out
OF Easter Sunday in the country districts
without supply of eggs. After the morn
ing service is over the priests and the
laymen click eggs together, as diners
touch glasses in a toast, as a ceremonial
of kindly feeling 1t is Russian usage that
no lady. however lofty of birth, may re-
fuse a kiss to the humblest petitioner if
the request is preceded by the proffer of an
Easter egg. This Is commonly compro-
missed. however, by the payment OF
small coin.
In Germany not the hen but the hare. is
in which good children live visited at
night by a white hare who hides numbers
of beautifully colored eggs in hooks and
corners. A Roman Catholic belief is that
the bells. which are silent during passion
week. have set out for Rome to get the
pope's blessing. They return on Easter
eve, to welcome the resurrection, bringing
with them gay-hued eggs for good children.
Curious SuperstftiOns.
Easter superstitions are as numerous as
80 ID
widespread is that which makes the sun
participate in the general felicity by dane
7 ing in the heavens on Easter day. Devon
shire maidens still get up early on Easter
to see not only the dancing sun, but also a
lamb and a flag in the center of its disk
In Scotland the sun Is even more active,
for there it is expected to whirl around like
a mill wheel and give three leaps. One way
of looking at the suns unusual feat was to
watch for it's reflections in a pond or a pail
of water where any movement on the sur
face would materially strengthen the illu-
sion. In imitation of the sun. supposed to
rise on Easter Monday in these leaps, the
curious custom of lifting in a chair still
exists in some parts OF England and Ire
land The men lift the women on Easter
Monday, the women on Easter Tuesday re-
turn the compliment, the victim being
lifted three times and then kissed.
1t is considered by many unlucky to omit
wearing new clothes on Easter day. To see
a lamb out of the window on Easter morn
ing is a good omen, especially IL Its head
be turned in the direction of the house. To
meet lamb is lucky, as. according to the
popular notion. the devil can take any
other form than that of lamb or a dove
II the wind is in the east on Easter it is
regarded in some places as a wise Ian to
draw water and to wash In it, as by this
means one will avoid the various i'll effects
from the east wind throughout the
naming months of the year.
This superstition exists on the European
continent. 1t is said to be a preventative
against Illness for the whole year to wash
ones self in snow or rain water fallen on
Easter. In Saxony the peasants also bring
their horses into the water to ward on sick
ness from them. The Easter water, how