Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1907-03-29

ing of bird songs, of the breaking of
lce-bound waters, of the passing of
winter, and of the return of the sun,
bringing with it seedtime, and the
birth OF new hopes and desires, SYM
pollzed In the celebration of Easter.
And everywhere the egg, symbolic
OF the universe and of life, of the
springing forth from the germ of new
forces and powers, has been in evil
dence.
The Egyptians, the Jews, the Per-
slams and Hindus, the Syrians, the
Burmese, the Chinese, the Australians,
the Hawaiians-all have connected the
egg with the creation or renewal of
life
The fire worshippers of Persia, wor-
shipping Zoroaster as a prophet, be-
lieved in a first great spirit from
whom came two brothers, Ormuzd and
Ahrlman. Ahriman, showing jealousy
of his brother, Ormuzd, was condemn
ed to darkness for thousands of years.
Angered, he longed for revenge, and
when Ormuzd made an egg contain
ing good genii Ahriman made another
full of evil spirits, and broke the two
together, so that from the beginning
good and evil were mixed In mem
ory of this legend of creation, the
Persians at the festival of the solar
new year, held in March, exchanged
.colored eggs as gifts.
The Chinese have a story that the
first man, Poo Koo Wong, came from
an app and that HAVING baap 1,orn In
used the upper part of the shell to
make the heavens, while the lower
part became the earth.
The Burmese tell that the first man
and woman, their Adam and Eve,
were.hatched from single egg.
The Syrians say that. their gods
from whom they were descended were
hatched from eggs.
The Australians believe the earth
was darkened space until one of their
race threw up an egg, which exploded
and became the sun.
Hawaii, the islanders declare, was a
great egg which some mammoth bird
dropped as it passed over the seas.
The Egyptians regarded the egg as
a
mankind after the flood, and the Jews
used it as type of their departure
from the land of the Egyptians, and
with the Paschal lamb it was part
of the Passover feast.
The early Christians were, of
course, Jewish, and when they began
to observe Easter as Christian feast
gave to the egg as part of the cere-
monial of the season a new signifi-
cance, that of the resurrection from the
dead. Eggs were forbidden during
Lent, and so naturally accumulated,
as the hens did not stop laying. Eat
ing them on Easter day signified that
fasting time was over and feasting
begun, so they were connected with
joy just as were the bells which, hush
ed during the period preceding Easter
day, broke into Joyous pealing at its
dawn.
The name for Easter in the romance
anguages-paques in French, pasqua
In Italian, and pascua in Spanish
comes through the Latin pascha, from
the Chaldean form of the Hebrew
name for the Passover festival Hence
the eggs are pace, pashe, paschal, OIL
basque eggs. as well as Easter eggs.
When the early Christians began tc
observe Easter as Christian festival
controversy as to the time of Its
observance, known as the PaScha
controversy. and extending from the
second to the fourth centuries, arose
The Eastern churches kept 1t at the
same time as the Jewish Passover
the 14th day of the Jewish lunar
month of Nissan, which most Otter
corresponds TO our month of April