The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1918-03-30

the 18th OF the first month, and to this
custom was given the official sanction
Of the council. Furthermore, the rule
then established for fixing upon the
proper Sunday was designed partly to
prevent the possibility of Easter ever
falling on the same day as the Pass
over, but the rule has failed on several
occasions to prevent this coincidence,
and at ARE intervals the two festivals
came together.
Changes in Calendar.
The old Roman year, like the Jewish
year, began in March, when the sun en-
tered the constellation Aries. When the
calendar was reformed under julius
Caesar, the year was made to begin on
the first day of January. After the
adoption of Christianity in Europe, the
date of the beginning of the year was
changed to March in most countries, SO
that Easter became recognized as a
New Years day. The reform of the
calendar by Pope Gregory, in 1852,
again changed the day on which the
year began, although in England it
continued to begin IN the 25th of
March until the adoption Of the NEW
style" there in 1852.
Christianity found Spring festivals
already in vogue in heather Europe,
and to these oldtime festivals many of
the customs and superstitious rites still
connected with Easter are clearly
49,, 1aaI TA4 @-ao Ia1%On ivDn 20
the day by the Teutonic nations-the
Roman nations have retained the old
Hebrew name, pascha, under modified
forms, as the Jour de Paques, CT the
French-is derived by Bede from Eos
ter or Ostara, the name of an old
Anglo-Saxon goddess, in whose honor
a Spring festival was celebrated.
Grimm was unable to find any mention
of a deity of this name among the an
| cient Germans, but from the fact that
the month Of April still bears the name
| ostermonat lin Old High German os-
~tarmanoth), he did not doubt that such
a goddess, probably "the divinity of
the radiant dawn" had been known
among them. The old Oster festival
was clearly of a solar character, a eel
| ebration in honor of the birth or the
| r~ejuvenation of the sun of the new
veal. This is made evident, aside from
| the known character of similar festi-
walls in other parts of the world, by
many Of the ob%seryances which il be-
lueathed to Easter. Thus it was for
merly a custom all through the north
Of Germany, on the night of Easter
Sunday Oh the third night following, to
kindle bonires on all the heights, af-
fording a magnificent spectacle, when
these fires were to be seen here and
there over miles of country. This Gus
tom had become simply a mode of
merrymaking, but it is held with plaus-
lbility that originally the bonfire was
symbolical of the new fire hat was to
warm the earth and quicken it into re-
newed life after the cold embrace of
winter.
Ancient Popular Belief.
Another indication of the ancient
solar character of this festival is an
old popular belief, said to survive still
in Brandenburg and Saxony, that the
sun at the moment of rising on the
morning of Easter gives three joyous
leaps, that he dances with youthful
joy. This curious belief was not con-
fined to Germany. In the middle dis
tricts Of Ireland, according to Brand,
1t was customary, after spending East
er V in merrymaking and carous-
ing-watching the pot boil, the con-
tents of which were to break the long
Lenten fast, yet must not be touched
before the growing of the cock-for
the whole company of jewellers to go
out just at daybreak to see the rising
sun take his three Easter leaps. Sir
Thomas Browne, writing of popular
errors, mentions thus quantity the ex-
istence of this belief in England 1--WE
shall not, I hope, ~disparage the resur-
rection of our Redeemer, if we say that
the sun doth not dance on Easter day;