The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1916-04-20
OBSERVANCE Of
EASTER SUNDAY
day dates back to the founding
of the early Christian church,

of the early Christian church,
in commemoraticn of the resur.
rection of Jesus. It is generally be-
lieved by all Christians that Jesus was
crucifed 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 Don 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 temperance 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 passc3 over the houses OF
the Hebrews and slew the first-born
in the houses Of the Egyptians. The
feast of the Passover was being OBJ
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 OBJ
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. 1926. 1t was then decided that
the feast should be observed the first
the spring equinox. The only great
astronomical observatory in the world
at that time was at Alexandria, Egypt.
1t 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 &C
cepting Christianity, continued to OBJ
serve their old feasts just as the Jew.
ish Christians continued to observe
the feast of the Passover. The mis-
%sionarles persuaded the oaxons 10 az.
cept the feast of the paschal lamb and
simply change the name to that of the
feast of Ostara, which later was angli-
cized 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 it 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 egg-hunt-
ing day and combining it with Easter.
The egg was shown to typify life. As
the chick lies imprisoned in the egg
only to burst forth, so will u 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.
Hanity, showing that the custom does
not come with Christianity.