Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-08

which the Russians go home to breakfast,
inviting their friends, and often bidding
strangers welcome to their table.
Early dawn finds the streets OF the towns
SWaminS with merrymakerS, dressed IN gaia
attire and with faces as bright as their
dutterfng ribbons and kerchiefs 1t is a
great day for the wateTmen. who go about
selling this liquid merchandise, for water
is rather a luxury in some parts of Russia.
hlther and thfther the merrymakers fit,
and every one wears violets, and every
where one sees the vendors of these de-
uclous flowers crying their bouquets until
they are hoarse. There is abundant good
nature everywhere, and every one is enti-
tied to exactly three Easter kisses from
any one he may choose to salute, although
the appearance of this feeling of brotherly
love is somewhat offset by the vision of the
many money changers, who squat around,
getting usurious rates for their money,
which they keep tightly rolled In a leather
bag on one end of the stand before them.
This is protected by a heavy wire netting.
However, It must be said. with all just
ness that there is not much wrangling
about such matters-the day is too full of
pleasures for that-and there is very little
brawling Thus the day wears or, and
thus the downtrodden forget their miseries
and the nihilist leaves plots and plotting
for the pot and pudding.
+ y
During the Easter festival time In Saxony
there are many customs still observed which
can be traced back hundreds of years and
which are kept up precisely as In olden
times. That one of the peasants decorat
ing their cottages early in holy week with
wooden horse heads as a charm against
evil spirits may partially have died out, 1t
Is true. but the habit of mailing a horseshoe
over the barn door for exactly the same
purpose on the Saturday preceding Easter
day Is still strictly adhered to in lower
Saxony
Another custom. very old. IS the lighting
of Easter fires uron the mountains And
as dusk approaches it is interesting to see
the village people issue from their houses,
group together and watch eagerly for the
first spark of fire to appear upon the dis
tant hills. There suddenly appears only
one tiny tiame-then another and another
here. there, before, behind, until finally it
actually seems as If the pretty village was
encircled by beautiful chain of brilants
AS the fires are continually fed with peat
and twgs the excitement of the watchers
Increases in proportion, the boys and girls
showing appreciation by brandishing
torches, swinging lanterns and screaming
with sheer delight. in which joyous demon
stration the grown people join.
Perhaps the queerest custom of ALL and
certainly an expensive one, Is the destruc-
ton Easter evening of all the earthen
pots and stone vessels in the household.
typifying the sacrifice of the old and the
resurrection of the new. Such broken
scraps. with all the shells of eggs eaten at
the Easter breakfast, are thrown upon a
great heap of similar debris collected upon
the village green weeks before by the viii
lage boys, which stuff is used to cover up
the Easter fires. it being considered good
LUCK to keep them burning as long as pos
Sible.
The custom of Easter eggs has come to
be universal one in Christian countries,
and 1t is one of ancient origin being de-
r;,y
and Romans of employing eggs, and I'M
doubtedly colored eggs, as accessories for
their pagan festivals. At any rate magical
powers have always been ascrbed to eggs
in time gone by, and Cesarius Won Hester
bach, who wrote in the middle ages tells
many stories of bewitched eggs; they were
said to be able to fly of their own accord
toward the sun; and a certain celebrated
egg was believed to have been laid by
rabbit which egg, when Matched, produced
a basilisk. Throughout Germany the hare
is popularity supposed to lay Easter eggs
while the Corinthian peasantry say that the
church bells go to Rome to fetch them on
Maundy Thursday, whence red is the favor
lite tint hue given Easter eggs. and the only
color used by the Russians when preparing
the eggs for their little people. Easter
eggs were believed to have peculiar prop
critics. and maiden could awaken love in
q mans heart by sending him an egg which
she had got on Maundy Thursday and boiled
on Easter eve. In the Tyrol peasant will
cast an egg which has been laid on Maundy
Thursday, and consecrated on Easter day
over his roof-tree. He then buries 1t where
II falls, and this, as he believes. will pre-
serve his house from fire and lightning.
r. A. Cakes says OF the numerous tradi-
lions about eggs in mythology:
'In the primitive festivals of the yernal
equinox eggs have always played an i'm