The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-02-05

$ u, Crucihxion of Christ, is the cul- lrrlinationS of the mourning of Lent From its earliest observance the day has been marked by a specially rigor- 5ous fast and a tendency to simplicity in the services The ritual of the Ro- man Catholic church for Good Friday is marked by solemn features most or which can be traced back to date at least prior to the close of the eighth clergy are draped in black, this being the only day in which that color IS permitted The gospel of the day consists of the history of the Passion as recorded by St. John, and follow ed by prayers for all ranks and condi- stions of men.
 The ceremony Of the Elaboration Of the Cress;s said to date back to near the time Of St. Helena, is next then the ssdass of the Presanctified, named from the fact that 1t Is cele- brated with clements consecrated the day before. There is also a special three4hour service in the afternoon, with commemoration Of the seven last words of Christ
 In the Greek church the observ- ance Of the day is similar to that in the Roman, and in the Church Of England the history of the Passion from the gospel of St. John is also read and collects for the day are based upon the bidding prayers found in the Ol.do Romanus. The three hours service borrowed from Roman Catholic usage has also be- come popular in the Anglican church Even in the Nonconfcrrrl bodies II, scotland the observance of the day is more marked than formerly, and in the Lutheran churches drapE cries of black are used.
 Easter Day.
 After Good Friday comes the Sat- urday during which the body of Christ reposed in the tomb, and then Easter Sunday. Easter is the annual festival observed throughout Chrls- tendom in commemorationg V of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and it is not surpassed in joyful significance by any other day of the year It was reckoned as the beginning of the year by a regulation Of Con stantine, a reckoning when Angereo in France. until 1885, when by an ordinance of Charles TX. the first of January finally took it's place.
 The nturgical color for Easter has been everywhere white, as signtfy1ng joy light and purity and churches and aItars for long have been adorn- ed with the best ornaments that each possessed. Evidence goes to show that flowers and shrubs were used less in the middle ages than today, but the most lavish wealth of flowers seems well suited to the joyous feast and app propriate as representative Of the life in nature. Many ecclesiastical cere- monies preserved from earliest times cluster around the celebration of this festival, notable among them the use of the pascha1 candle. This was a candle of large dimensions set in a candlestck to match, usually placed on the north side just below the first ascent to the high altar. The one at Durham cathedral in England before the Reformation reached a total height of seventy feet and other not able ones were in other prominent churches The spaschaI candle is a part of the Easter ceremonial in the Roman Catholic church.
 Four different periods may be mentioned as connected with the ob- servance of Easter, First, the pre- paratory fast of the forty days of Lent; second, the fifteen days be- ginning with the Sunday before (Palm Sunday and ending with the Sunday after, during which the services of the Octave of Easter and Holy Week are observed; third, the Octave of Easter, during which the newly baptized. in former times wore their white garments which they laid aside on the Sunday after Easter, som etimes called t'Pascha clausun' or the tsclose of Easter" from which .aza English. name of Low Sunday is believed to be derived; and fourth, Eastertfde, proper, or the paschal season beginning at Easter and last ing until Whitsunday, during which the festival character of the season is maintained in the services of the church.
 There is no indication of the ob- servance of the Easter festival in the New Testament or in the writings of the apostolic fathers. It was at a very early period the practice of the Christian church and it is be-
 ieved that as the ecclesiastical his- torian Socrates indicates, the first Christians continued to observe the Jewish festivals, though in a new spirit, as commemoration of events which those festivals had foreshadow- ed. Thus the Passover with a new | conception added to it of Christ as the