The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1907-03-24
CORRESPONDENT writes as
follows.

n Why eggs at Easter? mas
much as we have been sur
feited with eggs and fish for forty
days. why not give us rest
from them and a change Of diet now
that Lent if over and done with Ohank
gOodnessD for the year2 I foresee that
your Easter talk viii be of eggs, eggs!
eggsl when a fair majority of your read
ers would be glad not 10 see another
for six months to come. Why not dis
course instead OF the juiciness and saw
DRY steam Of roast beef and the tender
sweetness Of spring lamb?
OF course, / know this protest viii
be of no use. Whatever we. the NAL
contents, may feel, think. and say-and
Vrite-the Christian world wiz go egg
mad on Easter Sunday, and every
breakfast table display eggs in some
disguise or unadorned on Easter Mon
day.
Yet. why eggs at Easter-I repeat with
agonized emphasis-mOre than on July
/. or on WhitsUnday. or on ShrOve Tues
day? MADELINE philadelphia
A woman who is neither so bright,
nor so we'll educated as Madeline"
supposed" seriously in my hearing the
other day that everybody eats eggs at
Easter because the hens all over the
country begin to lay just then, and eggs
are cheap after being so high all
winter"
I was 1eminded-aIthough I kept the
Renaissance 10 myself-Of man who
once remarked to me, How lucky II Is
that Lent is appointed at season when
FISH is plenty and cheap. But, Of course,
the fellows who set the ume-whOever
they may be-stand in with the fish
merchants and make good thing out
of it,
He was more or less Of a fool, but
Madeline has brains and knows how
TO put her thoughts into words.
Before entering upon the business Of
setting our Easter feast in order, let
US reason together for a few minutes
as 10 the significance Of the Easter egg.
Down From Antiquity.
A noted scholar observes. in connec-
ton with the custom among the mem
bers of the Greek and Roman Catholic
Churches Of exchanging gifts of eggs
on Easter morning: THE practice of
presenting eggs to our friends at Eas-
ter is Magian, or Persian" It is. then.
OF more remote antiquity than is gen.
orally supposed. Whatever il may have
meant In the far Orient, we find the
Jews adopting the Paschal egg as the
emblem of the renewed creation Of the
world in the spring. The Passover Feast
fell at the same time as what the
Christian Church calls the first Easter
The word Easter" which occurs in
the Book Of Acts in King James YER
sion Twelfth chapter, fourth verse;. IS
Passover in the Revised Version. The
Paschal Passover egg OF the Hebrew
became the symbol 10 the early Christ
ian of the Resurrection OF the Crucified
Christ. We. who adopt the custom Of
selves of the fact that the primitive
Christians used but one color in their
Easter day offerings, and that red. in
allusiOn TO the Likelihood shed on the
cross as "a ransom for many"
1t was an age of types and symbols
We, living in the clearer light OF re-
vealed and established religion, retain
some of these. and employ them as
illustrations Of belief rather than guides
10 devotion.
Even the staid burghers Of our Dutch
ancestry, stanChly stubborn in Prot
estantism, chung to an observance re-
pudiated by their New England brethren
as 'Popish.' Washington Irving tells
US that in the reign of cody Peter Stuy-
Vesant there was "a great cracking. Of
eggs at Paas. or Easter" Pas was
an evident perversion of ''Pasch" OF
"FasChaL"
have answered Madeline" at great
eT- length than some readers may think
expedient, and. IL may be, more serious
" than she expected. The subject is
interesting TO deVOut believers in what
the crimsOned esq represents, and curl
Ou5 TO those who like 10 trace the IGN
Of faiths and usages we are prone 70
take Tor granted.
Symbols of Resurrection.
To the ancient Greeks the butterfly
was an emblem of the immortal SOU
springing into new and more beautiful
life from the dead chrysalis. The Chris
ti9ns deduced the glorious fact of the
resurrection of all the blessed dead from
the rising OF their Lord They saw
IA Ahe broken shell Of the ogg the sym