Amador ledger. (Jackson, Amador County, Calif.) 1875-19??, 1908-04-24
ABOUT EASTER.

Friday aud EasterY They arc both
movable feasts in the Christian
church. Good Friday is so called be-
cause it was good for the world that
j esus died on the cross that day, and
we celebrate Easter as the day he
rose from the dead. In the early
church Good Friday was kept as
strict fast. There we're no bells
rung, no joyful anthems sung, and no
kiss of charity was given, because on
that day Judas betrayed the Lord
with kiss. These two feasts days
are regulated in some way by the
moon. The sun crosses the equator
on the DIST of March. and we have
what we call the spring equinox, and
the first Sunday after the first full
moon, after the 2lst of March is
Easter Sunday and the Friday pre-
ceding is, of course, Good Friday.
The word Easter comes from an old
Saxon word, which means, Ito rise"
or "rising," the coming forth or ris-
ing of new life in the vegetable world
in the spring. The Saxons offered
sacrifices annually to the goddess
Astacle, about the time of the Jewish
passover, and by the association of
ideas, the Saxon word ''seaster" be-
came attached to the festival of the
resurrection. This was a joyous
festival and in the ancient church it
lasted for eight days. The Lords
supper was solemnly administered,
aims we're given to the poor and slaves
were often freed. The people greeted
each other with kiss, saying, "He
is risenl" The reply being, "He
risen, indeed - The forty days fast
before Easter Sunday, commonly
called Lent, was instituted early in
the history of the Christian church,
not only as memorial of Christ's
forty days. fast in the wilderness,
but as preparation for the anniver-
sary of his resurrection. The using
of eggs on Easter is an old custom,
and when the children of today break
an egg at breakfast on Faster morn
ing, they are doing just what the
boys and girls did centuries ago. In
some countries the young people go
out early Easter morning and hunt
for wild fowls eggs to be used at
breakfast, and it is considered good
omen to be able to find them. The
egg is looked upon as a symbol of the
resurrection and the future life, for
it contains new life wrapped up in
its shell and the breaking of the she'll
opens up the new life. There is
quite pretty legend connected with
the bright colored Easter eggs. 1t is
said that when there was darkness all
| over the land from the sixth hour
unto the ninth hour on the day OF the
crucltixlon of our Savior, all the
birds of evrey kind became gloomy
and silent, refusing to sing note
and soscontinued until Easter Sun
day, when the living Christ came
forth from the sepulcher, when they
broke forth into joyous strains of
music, and laid all manner of bright
colored eggs, in token of their joy.
The Persians present each other with
colored eggs on March 20, when they
! hold their great festival of the solar
new year, and the Russians salute
each other on Easter morning with
"Christ is risen!" and offer an Easter
egg. The offering of Easter eggs is
considered mark of friendship and
! the custom is almost universal in
France and Germany. Heather
nations regard the egg as emblem
atical of the universe, as we'll as
the renovation of man after the flood.
English and Irish nurses are said to
instruct children when they eat a
boiled egg to push the spoon through
the bottom of the shell to climber
the witches from making boat out of
it," The egg in all countries has
been the subject of myths and le-
gends. The Films believed that a
mystic bird laid an egg and that it
fell into the water and broke, and
! that the lower she'll formed the earth,
and the upper paIt the sky. The
white of the egg became the sun, the
yolk the moon and the little broken
! pieces of the she'll, the stars.