The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1914-04-09
CASTERS ORIGIN
And SIGNIFICANCE
Ancient Missionaries Trans
formed Saxon Pagan Feast
Into a New Meaning.
Margaret Sangster, in the Kansas City
Vjma0

Margaret Sangster, in the Kansas City
Times.
With the return of spring blossoms
and birds, a general feeling of glad
ness prevails the world over. However
we may have enjoyed winter. we bid IT.
goodbye without regret, and go merrily
onward to meet the spring. In our
thoughts of winter and in the pictures
which the painters make Of that sea-
son he figures, as an old man. stern
Inc severe, with a snowy beard. and
1cfcles clfnging to his robes, while his
pretty successor is always a maiden,
dancing and singing, or scattering
flowers from full baskets.
When the old paganism of the ancient,
Saxons was given UP for the worship
of Him whom the people of Britain I'M
those days called the White Christ, the
missionaries found established a feSti-
val to the goddess Of spring, whose
name was Ostera, a word signifying
to arise" and synboliZing the awaken
ing of nature after her wintry sleep.
This, In turn, pointed to the old Greek,
myth of P~ersephone, called Proserpine
by the Romans. The story, familiar to,
youthful students as one of the dain-
test and most poetica1 of any in the
ancient mythology, was that while
Persephone was gathering narciSsus In
a field near Aetna, in Sicily, the god
Of the underworld suddenly emerged
from a dark hole in the ground, with a
chariot and four coal black horses, and
swooping down upon the hapless vir-
gin, carried her off to be queen Of his
gloomy domain.
Demeter, the mother of P%ersephone.
wild with grief. ran up n down i'm
plor1ng everybody she met to tell her
what had become of her daughter.
Finally the all-seeing and all-hearing
god OF the sun, from whom nothing
that happened could ever be kept
secret, took pity on the distressed god
dess n told her of the fate that had
befallen her child. She, of course, felt
more distressed than before. and
begged Zeus and the other deities to
interfere and restore the lost one, but
they declared themselves nah to do
this unless Persephone had eaten moth
ing In her new abode. The discovery
that she had tasted a pomegranats
made her return to earth for a whole
year impossible, but she was allowed
to come back to her mother, DemeterI
or Ceres, to the fields and the light
for half of each twelvemonth, during
which the flowers bloomed and the
fruits grew ripe, the corn and thd
wheat flourished, and the and was
glad with harvest joy. A legend similar
to this is found in nearly all the
nythologies of the world.
I have dwelt on this story and re!
ferred to the Saxon goddess Ostera,
who was Persephone's mythical relai
tive, in order to show that in the old
G religions there was a hint OF
IldL victory OIL lie ONeT uedtn WHICH
is one of the grandest articles of thd
Christian creed. Persephone's sig
months in the regions of darkness werd
emblematic of death: winter, with its
silence and chill and cessation Of aci
| tivity, being a sign Of that dreaded
state. Her return to earth was a
poetical way Of saying that the torpoH
of death had been broken, and that
| spring had given life and bloom to the
| world once more.
y, oDy,oir,y cfor.h u stan 70 tha
| higher meaning which our Easter has
for all who believe in the Lords resur-
rection. In winter, you know, there Is
no real death; 1t is only apparent: for
even when at rest. nature is busy, and
unde the SHOWS the wheat keeps on
| growing to make the next years breadi
while the sap is stirring in the heart of
the trees, although they are bare and
1eafleSs. The early missionaries. wish
Ing great happiness to the people whom
they taught to low and serve the White
Christ, In contrast with the dark and
cruel gods, to whom they had hitherto
given reverence, desired them to OBJ
serve the feast of the resurrection. 1t
always came round in the spring, and
It's name, Easter. was like that of the
old goddess, rechristened and made
beautiful and fragrant. In keeping the
Easter festival, again, the Christians
simply ndowed with a new and more
lovely life the venerable feast of the
Passover, which the Jews had observed
from the date of the xodus
Easter is full Of brightness and joys
not only because Of the lower meaning
g1ven 1T by nature. the vanishing Of the
winter death and the kindl1ng Of the
springtime life. but on account Of that
event, far greater and most mysterious
and sacred, the rising of our Lord from
the three days bondage in the tomb. /;
why Goes Easter not always occur,
on the same date. as Christmas does? is
a question asked by some little people
who have heard their elders remark
ing that there will be plenty of flowers,
to dress the churches this year, Easter,
coming SO late. There was originally
y good deal of trouble in deciding on
what day to observe the Easter festi-
val, some pleading in favor of one, and
decided. by a great church council at
Nice. A. D., 325, that Easter should al,
ways be the first Sunday after the full
moon, which happens upon or next aft
er March 81, and if his full moon hap
pens to be a Sunday. then Easter is the
Following Sunday. 1t is thus. you see,
what we call a movable feast.
In reality every Lords day. which
was the name given by early Chris
tians to Sunday. lisa feast Of the resur-
f%ection. an anniversary On which we
may devoutly say: IT believe in the
life everlasting"
The most beautiful Easter way"
that / know about is that which sends
flowers to the sick and sorrowful on
the morning of Easter Sunday.
How Diamonds Are Mined.
From Popular Mechanics.
Machinery and barbed wire have
supplanted the crude methods of break
/ Ing I'D hll,a artb op5