Putnam patriot., 1916-04-21
OBSERVANCE OF
 EASTER SUNDAY

QdY Cates DaCh 10 the founding
 of the early Christian church,
 in commemoration Of the resur- rection of Jesus. It is generally be- lieved by all Christians that Jesus was erucifed on Friday and buried The following Sunday certain women of Judea went to the tomb early in the morning to anoint his body.
 Saturday was the Sabbath day of the Jews. That accounts for the delayed visit to the tomb. Jesus was buried so late Friday the women did not have time to anoint his body As soon as day dawned that Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, and. accord ing to sacred accounts, found Christ had gone.
 The stone which sealed the mouth of the tomb was rolled away At first they were filled with grief. believing his body was stolen. Then they re- membered the words of their Master, that he would rise from the tomb the third day. His reappearance and as surance that all could conquer the grave was the cause of great rejoicing
 From the time of the flight of the children of Israel from Egypt. the Jews had observed the Passover to commemorate the night when the an- gel of death passed over the houses of the Hebrews and slew the first-born in the houses of the Egyptians. The feast of the Passover was being ob- served by the citizens of Jerusalem at the time of the crucifxion. The fol- lowers of Christ continued to observe the feast of the Passover, but the ob- servance took on a new meaning.
 The exact time of the feast was not settled until the council of Nice, called by Emperor Constantine of Rome in the year 325. It was then decided that the feast should be observed the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. The only great astronomical observatory in the world al that time was at Alexandria, Egypt. II was left to the astronomers there to determine when Easter should come.
 The early Christians did not know the feast by the name of Easter. The name is of Saxon origin and came from the feast of the paschal lamb of the early Christian church with the feast of the coming of spring of the Saxons
 Ostara, the goddess of spring of the Saxons, was worshiped in England and Germany before the first missionaries to the north of Europe brought the story of Christ The Saxons, in ac- cel ting Christianity, continued to ob- serve their old feasts just as the Jew ish Christians continued to observe the feast of the Passover. The mis- sionaries persuaded the Saxons to ac- cept the feast of the paschal lamb and simply change the name to that of the feast of Ostara, which later was aHgH- eized to Easter.
 The Easter egg also had it's origin among non=Christians. The people of northern Europe hunted eggs in the springtime, believing that 1t was good luck to find them and eat them Of course wild birds laid eggs only in the spring of the year. The Christian missionaries to our ancestors saw an opportunity to win men to a belief in Christianity by adopting the egghunt- ing day and combining it with Easter. The egg was shown to typify life. As the chick lies imprisoned in the egg enly to burst forth, so will our bodies lie in the tomb only to be resurrected at the call of God
 The hunting and eating of eggs is observed today in Persia and in other Asiatic lands where there is no Chris tianity. showing that the custom does not come with Christianity.