The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-03-30


ing of bird songs, OF the breaking OF
ice-bonEd waters. Of the passing Of
winter. and OF the return of the sun.
bringing with II seedtlme, and the
birth OF new hopes and desires. sym
bolized 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 tIindus, the Syrians. the
Burmese, the Chinese, the Australians,
the Hawaiians-aIl 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
Ahriman. Ahriman, showing jealousy
OF his brother, Ormuzd. was condemn.
cd 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
colorcd eggs as gifts.
The Chinese have story that the
first man, Poo Koo Wong. came from
an egg, and that having been born he
used the upper part Of the shell to
mako 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 a 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 1t passed over the seas.
The Egyptians regarded the cgg as
sacred emblem of the renovation Of
mankind after the food. and the Jews
used II as a type OF their departure
from the land of the Egyptians, and
with the Paschal lamb 1t was a 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 a 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,
MS the hens did not stop laying Eat
ing them on Easter day signified that
fasting time was over and fcasting
begun, so they We're connected with
Joy just as were the bells which, hush
cd during the period preceding Easter
day, broke into Joyous pealing ut lis
dawn.
The name for easter In the romance
larguages-paqnes in French, pasqua
In Italian. and pascua In Snanish--
comes through the Latin pascha from
the Chaldean form of the Hebrew
name for the Passover festival, Hence
the eggs are pace, pashe, paschal, or
pasque eggs, as we'll as easter eggs.
When the early Christians began to
observe Easter as a Christian festival
controversy as to the time of its
observance, known as the Paschal
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 or the Jewish lunar
month Of Nissan. which most often
corresponds W our month Of April,