Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1918-03-29
SUNDAY
new YEARS DAY
Originally Marked the Beginning
of the Twelve NOTWITHSTANDING
Festivals in Vogue Long
Before the Time of
Christianity.
BY REV. ARTHUR HOLT.

though not the first day of the
year it was the day on which
the opening Of the year was celebrated.
Historically the Christian Easter is
simply a continuation of the Jewish
Passover. which was celebrated on the
18th day of the first month of the Jew
ish year-that is, on the day of the
first full moon next following the day
of the equinox. 1t has been questioned
whether any special observance of this
day was practiced or enjoined by the
apostles and the early Church Fa-
Tiers yet the words of st. Paul Il Cor.
5:7-8) seem to sanction if they do not
recommend an observance of some sort
and f~oreshadow the thought which
came finally to underlie it: For ever
Christ III passover is sacrificed for
us. Therefore let us keep the feast,
not with old ~leaven, neither with the
leaven of malice and w~ickedness, but
with the unleavened bread of SINGER
ity and truth" According to the Jew
ish tradition, the Passover commemo-
rated the passing Of the Angel of
Death over the houses Of the Israelites
in Egypt, the %doorposts and lintels of
which had been sprinkled with the
blood Of the paschal lamb. The Chris
tians, In adopting the festival, gave it
a new significance. For them the Saw
Tor became the true Paschal Lamb, and
the new festival commemorated His
resurrection on the third day following
the Cruciixion.
The proper day for celebrating East
Ell was one of the questions which the
Council of Nice "a. D. $3.50 was called
upon to decide. By the Eastern Chris
tians it was at that time celebrated on
without regard to the day of the week
on which it might fall. Among the
Western Christians, who held hat the
crucifxion occurred on a Friday and
the resurrection on a Sunday, there
had arisen q custom of celebrating
Easter on the first Sunday following
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 rare 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, sc
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 on 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
traceable. The name Easter, given to
the day by the Teutonic nations-the
Roman nations have retained the old
Hebrew name, pascha, under modified
forms, as the Jour de Paques, Of the
French-is derived by Bede from Eos
-, An nc%nno fhA ~ Of on 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 Tin 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
e This is made evident, aside from
the known character Of similar festi-
vals in other parts of the world, by
hidhJ VI IN OOoCI fdLCCo WAilNn IL DG-
tqueathed to Easter. Thus 1t was for
merly a custom all through the north
of Germany, on the night of Easter
Sunday or the third night following, to
Fkindle 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 Simnlv q mode of
merrymaking, but it is held with plaus-
Utility that originally the bonfire was
symbolical of the new fire that 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