Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1911-04-08
English Name Derived From
Old Saxon Tongue and Is
Unchrfstian.
Celebration of the Feast Dates
From Earliest Era of
Christianity.
OBSERVANCE OF The PASSOVER

After the Lenten fast of forty
days Easter comes. 1t is called
Easter in the English language,
and those who speak the English
tongue understand it's meaning. To
those unaccustomed to the language
Easter would have no meaning.
Easter Sunday commentaries the
resurrection of our Lord and
Saviour from the tomb. The word
Easter is derived from that of the
Saxon neurological goddess Eastre,
the same mythical deity that later
Germans called Ostara and honored
as the divinity of the dawn. The
English language is also indebted to
the Saxons for East, that part of
the horizon where the sun rises.
The venerable Bede, one of the
first writer's of English whose work
Is still extant, tells us that the
spring month was called Eoster-
monaht. Similarly Eginhard calls
April Ostarmonath. Naturally the
name continued long after the
heather goddess had been forgotten,
just as we continue to call the names
of the days of the week "Wednesday,
or Wednesday, after the heather
god Wooden, and Thursday after the
neurological god Thor All Chris
tians, except those of the German
family of which the English is part,
call the feast by some modification
of pascha, the term which the church
herself uses in her liturgy. This
term is of Jewish origin, from which
the feast is in a certain sense de-
rived. The Pasch commentaries
the Jewish Passover of the Hebrews.
1t is observed by the Jews because
of the miraculous deliverance of the
Jews from Egypt.
AS in every other phase of his
life, Jesus Christ obeyed The laws of
his church or creed as then consti-
tuted. 1t is certain that He observed
the feast of the Passover on the
night before his crucifixion; that
He made the occasion forever. mem
orable by instituting the sacrament
of the Holy Eucharist. The celebra-
tion of the special Pasehal feast
among Christians dates back to the
remotest antiquity. To all Catholics
1t is the crowning work of the re-
demption of mankind. Christ's death
on the cross without his resurrection
would have availed naught.
Easter is, as St. Leo calls it, the
feast of feasts, the greatest of
solemnities Down to the
twelfth century each day in Easter
week was a holy day OF obligation.
In these years Easter Monday alone
is observed as day of devotion.
On Easter Sunday the church
marks the joyful character of the
time. The altars in the churches
are bedecked with flowers and are
Illuminated. The choir
sings its Gloria in gladdest tones.
The priests wear the white vestments
so long abandoned.
The resurrection means every
thing to the Christian. For four
thousand years the old peoples of
The earth had looked forward to the
coming of the promised Messiah.
When He came He was not
acknowledged by his own people, the
Hebrews. His life, his miracles, his
passion ana ueaIn are cOlnmemol-
ated during the Lenten season. On
Easter He arose from he dead, as
He promised, thus completing the
of mankind.
On Easter every good Catholic
celebrates the day by receiving the
holy sacrament of the Eucharist,
and there could be no more fitting
of the day