New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1918-03-27
EASTER SYMBOLS
THROUGH AGES
Egg and Hare Have Always Beer
Connected Feast Of Resur-
rection a Mingling Of Gel
ebrations Common to
Many Peoples.
=By MARRY R1cHARps GRAY,

symbols Of Easter? Why ",
connect the two? They are
symbols as old as man himself. East
er, apparently a solar festival con
nected with the equinox, is in realit,
moon festival. The hare is the sym.
dol of the moon, the measurer OF
time, and the egg with its buried germ
represents the revival of life. In thu
mythology and religion of the most an
cient peoples both are used. Mod
ern people have Joined them in curious
fashion. .-- = ...-
Our Feast of the Resurrection is q
mingling Of the many feasts of many
peoples. 1t had it's direct origin in thu
Festival of the Jewish Passover which
Christians continued to observe &C
eording to established traditions. A,
an appointed time in a Certain 1unaf
month the Lord commanded the Jews
to. make prescribed sacrifices and to
eat certain foods-roast lamb, unleav-
ened bread, and bitter herbs-saying
lit is the sacrifice of the Lords Pass
over, who passed over the houses OF
the children of Israel in Egypt when
he smote the Egyptians and delivered
our houses" Later ito suit the cir.
cumstance of their history as a type OF
their departure from the land Of Egypt
the egg was made part of the fur.
nishing Of the table with the Paschal
Lamb" go -. ~ ',,'. '"..- - ~ :,
Celebrating the Passover. =. <
Through the centuries the fundamen.
tai ideas Of why and when to cele-
brate the Passover. have not changed.
AS a moon festival we still give thanks
for salvation through rebirth. In de-
termining the time Of the festival the
Jews and the eastern church follow
the old lunar reckoning which some
times brings it before the vernal 1equi.
nox. The western church, though ii
adopted the sun reckonings-the Gregg,
rian correction of the calendar-for
other things yet clings to moon reck-
oning for Easter and makes it ''the
first Sunday after the full moon which
happens upon or next after the 21st
of March. If the full moon comes on
Sunday, Easter is the next Sunday.
thereafter" This fixes the date be.
tween the 22nd Of March and the 25tli
: of April. Twice in the nineteenth
century Jews and Christians cele::
brated on the same day and three
times during this century the dates
will coincide. That the holiday pc
Rod connected with Easter has been
shortened, that orner 1easrs having
ideas in common with it have been
merged, that sacrifices have been done
away with, that the original foods,
with the exception of the egg, have
fallen into disuse -these are non-essen-
tials. The feast retains it's original
character. ..~
Egg Always Easter Symbol.
The egg as symbol did not originate
with and was not confined to the Jews
but was common to Persians, Phoeni-
clans, Egyptians, japanese, Greeks and
Romans, as we'll as the Teutonic tribes
Of Gaul. The Persians made it repre-
sent the triumph Of the Sun of Nature
and used it as their New Year ceIe-
bration. They believed that the world
was Matched from an egg at the vernal
equinox. Hindus, many Eastern peo-
pies, and Romans, had it typify the
universe, the work of the Supreme De-
ity; the Teutonic tribes used it at
their celebration in honor of Ostara-
really Ashtorath, the Egyptian God
CESS of the Moon-whom they called
Goddess of Spring, and from whom we
get the name now applied to ourfeast.
Our use Of it is that Of q symbol for
4 symbolic idea. ~: :..>,.
The egg, at all times symbol,
serves three-fold purpose--food,
plaything, and gift. Everywhere the
prescribed manner of use is to boil it
hard in some non-poisonous stain, pref
erably red, the color of Christ's blood,
and decorate it with notices, land
scapes or symbols of the resurrection.
Accounts of the use Of Easter eggs
made interesting many pages Of re,
ligious history.
Italian Easter Customs. =
Emilianne gives the following de.
scription Of an italian practice: ION
Easter eve and Easter day all the
heads Of families send great chargers
full of hard-boiled eggs to the church.
to get them blessed, which the priests
perform by making several appointed
prayers and making great signs of
the cross over them, and sprtnkling
them with holy water. These blessed
eggs have the virtue of sanctifying the
entrails of the body and are the first
FAT or feshy nourishment they take
after the abstinence of Lent. AS soon
rs the eggs are blessed everyone car
ries his portion home and causeth
'arge table to be set in the best room
in the house, which they cover with
their best linen bestrewn with flow
ers, and place round about 1t dozen
dishes Of meat and the great charger
Of eggs in the midst. IT'S very pleas
Siuhf fr. fD,x,