The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-04-16
The Social Realm

HE is RISEN.
Sweet the chime the bells are ringing
Sweet the carol the angels singing;
Risen is our Lord most glorious,
Over sin and death Victorious
He is risen-tell the story
Waited from his throne of glory;
From the bonds of death set free
o, grave where is thy victory?
Angels, strike your harps of glory;
Watt, ye winds, the joyful story
While with happy voice We sing,
Praises to our risen King.
.**xA
Easter, celebrated all over the
world by the Christian churches as
the anniversary of the resurrection
of Christ, is one of the oldest fes-
tival days known. OF it's origin little
can be learned, but the name is said
to have been derived from that of
the goddess of the heather SaXons,
called Ostra, Osterr, or Eastre. She
was the goddess of the east, the re-
vival of the new day and fresh ac-
tivity, particularly of the coming of
the spring and the revival of nature.
AS the Christian Easter signifies a
new birth into life everlasting, the
analogy between the revival of the
natural life in the spring after the
long winter of bright and the resur-
rection of the Savior is quite evident.
The month of April was dedicated
by the Saxons to this goddess and the
name, Oster Monat, is still used by
the Germans to denote it.
One of the first policies of the early
Christian church was the practice of
turning as many as possible Of the
pagan festivals into holy days and
giving them a religious significance.
Easter, the spring festival Of the
pagans, the resurrecting of the nat
ural life, was therefore seized eager
ly upon and made a day of rejoicing
signifying the resurrection of Christ
and the hope of new spiritual life.
In the first days of the religious OBJ
servance of Easter the people went
to the church clothed in special dress
and the priests recited humorous po-
ems and told funny stories. This odd
obersvance was so abused by the peo
pie, however and so much license
was taken that few years later the
day was changed into one of silent
rejoicing.
1t was not until A. d. $40 that the
first real Easter hymn was written.
St Ambrose was the author of this
and it was typical of the spring and
the resurrection and filled with the
faith of the new life to come.
AS Easter typifes new birth it is
also easy to trace the old pagan idea
that the egg was the beginning of
life and understand how it came to
be accepted in the Christian mind
as the symbol of the life eternal. This
idea goes back to the ancient Egypt
ians, who worshipped the beetle be-
cause that insect was thought to have
the power of burying itself and ris-
ing again. When it's eggs were dis
covered the symbolism was transfer
red to them.
The first colored eggs were a vivid
red, typifying the blood of Christ,
and as early as 1889 these eggs were
the treasured exchanges among all
classes. In the expense book of Ed
ward the First of England there is a
record of Easter eggs, one item call
ing for 450 eggs stained with gold.
xxx**
Meeting Postponed.
Since the members of the Orio club
were neither aquatic or amphibious,
the meeting of Friday was postponed
a week.
x%kkx
Inasmuch as Lent ends today, there
will doubtless begin with the coming
week a period of social gayety.
The Bridge club will begin meeting
again, as well as a number of smaller
clubs that closed at the beginning OF
Lent
Lenten penance has been strictly
observed this year.
&kkkA
Mr.. and Mrs. J. r. Brady and Mrs.