The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-02-10
TRADITIONS Of HOLY WEEK
CELEBRATIONS OF PAST CENTUR-
les WHICH ARE OBSERVED
IN THE PRESENT DAY
CUSTOMS REGARDING EASTER
Eggs Typifying Life Popular Favors
for Spring Feasts-Germans be-
lieve in Sun Dances
Rise to See 1t.

world and one of the most universal 1t
| is celebrated by every Christian church,
no mater how conservative or how Ii
beral. Easter and the week preceding
Easter, holy week, are as old as the
Christian church, of which they are the
main celebrations. A century ago
Lent was perhaps more vigorously OBJ
served than today, the fasts were more
generally kept, and the feasting remem-
bered, but the day and the week were not
more universally recognized. in the
united States, says the Chicago Chron-
lcle, the observance Of many of the old
customs has been revived within the
past ten years and today it is difficult
10 md the restaurant, the bakery or
the home which has not its hot-cross
buns for Good Friday The baking of
not buns for this day before the COM
ing OF Easter is an English custom which
was known to comparatively few Ameri-
cans twenty-five years ago. 1t is one of
the customs which have been popuIarized
by the merchants to please the popular
fancy of young generation
Americans of the early day did not
ceieprate the Easter feast by the eating
OF special Easter dishes or the singing of
carols, however much they may have
liked these same special Dishes Holy
week ana even Easter day was predomi-
mated by the element Of sorrow which is
vital feature of the event The pur-
1tans, the early Episcopalians, the Cath
ohcs made more of the weeks fasting
than they did of the days feasting The
| spirit of the church men upon the occa-
sion can be witnessed from the diary Of
President Edwards, written in 1742 and
describing the circumstances attending
the subscription of the famous covenant
of that year at Northampton He wrote:
CELEBRATION OF A COVENANT
q
| pie into solemn public renewal of their
covenant with God. To that end. hav-
| ing made draft of a covenant first
| proposed 1t to some of the principal men
OF the church, then to the people in their
several religious associations in various
| parts OF the town, then to the Whole Con-
| gregatlon In public then to the people
IN general that were above fourteen wears
| or age The people first subscribed the
covenant with their hands and then on
| DAY OF Tasting and prayer all together
presented themselves to God in the house
| and stood up and solemnIy manifested
Ihelr consent to it as their VOW to Cod
| But that was a century ago; TODAY
| the week, with it's various DAYS is cole
prated by the various churches and
thelr several congregations with such
rehglous services as are fitting to their
| various beliefs For many years there
mas been a proposition brought bafore
the people of this country to make Good
Friday a legal holiday and a number
VI Iihes such action has really been
| pending before the proper legislative
bodies. The step has, however never
peen taken and there are many Ieadino
church men who protest against it. saw
ing 1t is a religious holiday and sho,11d
pc celebrated as such; to bring IT into
the realm of civil or national HOLIDAYS
F @oulo oetract from its religious signi-
ncance and from It's proper Observance
AS the matter now stands the dav has
been made a. school holiday in the ma
JoIlty or the large cities of the country
ana steps to make it so are being taken
III many educational centers
CUSTOMS FOR HOLY WEEK
Lent, and particularly holy week with
It's various feast days, is replete with tbo
oud customs and quaint beliefs of early
peopIeS Although many OF these chs.
toms are forgotten year by wear as tbe
world grows as many more have remain
ep 70 take their place among the
People opservances of these DAYS. THE
S "a CHRISTIANS had certain things they
uiu and particularly certain things thew
ate and in these various customs thero
IS TO be found a wealth Of personality
eEdoWed by the people themselves
4Hefe Is theory Of substantial tas;s
tEat these Christian feast DAYS with
many OF their customs are come down
from the days when Christianity was
unknown. When the pagan peoples were
converted in the wholesale fashion of
early times it was impossible for Thorn
20 forget the holidays of their old faith.
moreover, the conquerors found it a piece
OF wisdom to adjust the new religion to
the old feasts, since there were no feasts
IN the early Christian plan. And the new
rehglon fitted easily to this requirement.
Tor there was really something to ceIe
brate. The belief in witches, in the evil
eye, in the Spirits in a thousand and
che strange superstitions which the
world has held in common since the be-
ginning of history. have nothing to 90
| with the Christian religion. They came
| down with the holidays, so closely asso-
GATED that they could never be quite
| rooted out
In connection with this it will be re-
membered that the coIored egg. so neces-
sary a part of the Easter celebration. is
| far older than Christianity. Eggs have
always been connected with the worship
! of the powers of nature; they contain
| within them the germs of fertility and
| life. In the spring nature weakens from
her sleep of winter and the earth is once
more fruitful, thus eggs as a sign Of
that fertility of nature were very easily
associated by the heather people with
their spring celebrations. Parsees dis
| tributed eggs at their spring festival,
their practice dating SO far back that the
facts concerning its origin cannot be
| learned.
| In Hungary 1t is still a practice for
boys to sprinkle the girls with rosewater,
| in return for which they receive faVors
in the shape of eggs. The practice of