Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-08
EASTER OBSERVANCE IN OLDEN
TIMES AND IN MANY LANDS

portant part. According to nany cosmolo-
gles the Worid was created at this season
fron? an egg
In the Egyptian myth Khnum, the maker
of gods and men. sits at the potters wheel
and fashions the primal egg of generation.
The Peruvians believe that three eggs
fell from heaven, out of which came priests,
mobiles and common people.
In Australian creed the earth lay in
darkness until an egg thrown into space
became the sun.
'Ormuzd and Ahriman, the Parsee powers
for good and evil, contend for the mundane
egg until the contamination of all things.
The ancient Britons considered the con-
Sumption OF eggs impious, as it destroyed
the vital principle"
And he goes on to instance many legends
about the primal egg, all more or less to
me same point, which prevailed among the
Romans, Druids, Aryans. Persians, Egyp-
tans, Gauls. Greeks, Saxons etc AS re-
CARDS the coloring of eggs, he says:
ColoTed scarlet. as typifying alike the
symbolical of life and the world their in
terchange as Easter gifts has widely been
traced
The Jews used eggs in the festival Of the
passover, ana they regarded the egg as
type OF the whole human world. from the
fact that Noah and his family were shut
up IN the ark as in an egg! They regarded
II, moreover. as type of their having
GO.
as 1t were, to new life beyond
* x
The Hindus celebrated the same great
event of the deluge and the ark. under the
fable of the God Vishnu, who once, In a
cycle of ages, inclosed all the world with
him in an egg, and foated on the ocean of
eternity till he came to reproduce himself
and all things with him
In Hesse it is the duty of sponsors to pro-
vide brilliantly colored eggs for their god
children, and there, too, the Easter game
of Eier-Klauben, or gathering the eggs, is
stlll kept up on the grandest scale This
takes place on Easter Tuesday, or some
times on Low Sunday, this being the first
Sunday after Easter. Two young men are
chosen and sent around to all the houses
beforehand to ask for eggs, then these
eggs often a couple of hundred in number
are laid along the road with an interval of
hve rect between each, every tenth egg
being a red one.
Then from the youths of the village. the
two best runners chosen, and these
adorned with trailing ribbons, begin the
race. One OF these youths hastens to the
eggs, every one of which he has to pick
up separately, and carry to the basket
which stands In front of the first egg, A
certain number of eggs may be broken, but
when a racer exceeds the number given he
is declared the loser. While the egg col
lector'' is engaged in this manner. his rival
must run to a certain point and back, and
If he returns before all the eggs are taken
up he is declared the winner The egg
race is succeeded by carnival after which
the eggs are turned into huge omelet
and of this all the villagers partake and
the day ends with dance and song.
IA
An old time Easter seems to have been
merry with many quaint frolics, which
lasted generally throughout the entire
week, and business and other serious occu-
pations gave way to fun.
Among the boys egg battles We're favorite
Easter pastines. Crowds of boys would
assemble in the streets, each furnished
with a number of hard-boiled eggs. The
battle" consisted of hitting the eggs to-
gether each boy using but one of his at a
time. The egg that held out the longest
won all the others. Several rounds were
played in this way.
Another old Easter jolllfication was that
known as lifting or ''heaving" GROUPS
of several men with large armchairs were
to be seen on the streets here and there
Any woman that ventured In their direc-
ton was grabbed and lifted high in chair
three times unless she paid fee or gave
a kiss to be let off. On Tuesday the women
returned the attention, or as many of them
as felt qualified as to muscle. And on
tuesday no one was let off for anything
In Ireland there was the sun dance at
"aiCi the peopie uiu not dance, but arose
on Easter long before dawn to watch the
sun rise and "dance4or JOY" as they really
thought 1t did on that day If they saw, or
Imagined they saw the sun dance and look
jubilant. 1t was taken as permission that
they might do likewise for the rest of the
Kissing seems to have been permitted
ad libftum through Easter week. The CIV
Ing as matter of course, and Cupid made
merry at Easter, as well as at st. valen-
tine day, IN we Olden times