The enterprise. [volume] (Harlem, Mont.) 1899-1926, 1909-04-07
and
the
Life Festival

NV SSX& man, not woman, was
k&M& M88S made the central fig
&SW ES@ ure, 1t appears, of
kRSHSSS9X much that celebrated
E1.a'Asl1laazl<8 the triumphs of life
over death, the conquests of mankind
over the foes that beset and menaced
the highest but not the strongest of
the animals. Fatherhood was honored
more than motherhood, in some parts
of the crude, young world, and the pa
triarchal head of the family quite
eclipsed his mate or mates in such dis
tinction as came from obedience to
the injunction to "be fruitful and null
tiply and replenish the EARTH"
It is different now. In this stage of
the worlds development the festival
of the renewing and reawakening of
life is mainly feminine, notwithstand-
ing the fact that it celebrates the res
correction Of the Son of Man.
Women, not men, make of Easter the
great spectacle and day of rejoicing
which it has become in nearly all parts
of the Christian world. Women pre-
dominate in the churches. Women
give the Easter streets their glow of
color and wealth of charm.
The world understands now, II it
did not long ago, that woman is the
high priestess of the temple of life.
She is the mother, the nurse, the
guardian angel of childhood. She is
the teacher, the comforter, the home
builder. She takes few lives and saves
many. She risks her own life that
others may live. Woman earns her
primacy in the great festival of the
years new birth.
In the realm Of the spirit, also,
woman is the priestess of life She is
the embodiment, in a higher degree
than man, of the hope of the race, the
buoyancy and faith of the soul, the op-
timism of trust in the reign of good
and the triumph of life over death.
She has more of the resurrection
spirit than man.
1t Is for this reason, quite as much
as because of woman's grace and
charm and song and laughter, that
she fits so pre-eminently the Easter
environment She has the spirit and
mental outlook of spring. She re-
spends more sensitively and joyously
than man to the re-awakening of life
on the earth, the bursting of buds, the
unfolding of little leaves, the quicken
ing of forest and orchard, field and
garden.
1t is easier for woman to believe
fooyo ho, %,
and thrill to the appeal of the resur-
rection. She enters more intensely
than man into the very heart and
soul of the Easter story. And the
spirit that accepts most unreservedly
and gladly Casters religious and his
toric meaning is the spirit which is
best attuned to the springy glory of
the world.
The difference is clearly marked
early in life. Easter is far more to the
girl than to the boy. The former, not
the latter. finds that the day appeals
to her strongly before she understands
much of it's significance. The boys
interest is narrower, less certain, less
hearty. He is out of touch with much
that his sister feels in the Easter cere-
monies and the Easter customs.
From infancy to old age, therefore.
the spring festival is distinctively
wOman's festival. 1t is feminine in
outward beauty and charm. 1t is femi-
nine, also, in the inner grace of the
heart that feels and the spirit that be-
lieves in the reign of good and the I'M
ending triumphs of life over death,
the cradle over the grave. the new
over the old, the soul over the mortal
body.