Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-04-02

LenbeH fast, yet must net be touched
before the Growing Of the eeek-for
the whole compaRg of revelsrs 10 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: eve
rection of our Redeemer, if we say that
the sun doth not dance on Easter day;
and though l would willingly assent
unto any sympathetic exultation, yet
we cannot conceive therein more than
a tropical (igurative) expression"
Perhaps there is no more striking illus
tration than this of the power of an
inherited belief to live on in spite of
the testimony of all experience against
it. In some places, apparently as an
alternative for giving up the belief
wholly, it was held that in order to
witness these three leaps one must
look, not at the sun itself, but at the
reflection of it in pool of clear water.
AS last resort, to save the belief, the
sun might be made to dance. Brand
could recall that when he was a boy
he had seen "a vessel full of water set
in the open air, in which the reflected
sun seemed to dance, from the tremu-
lous motion of the water" If the
mountain will not come to Mahomet,
then Mahomet must go to the noun
tain.
Among the customs handed down
through long ages and accepted by the
Church were those of Easter eggs and
the Easter tale which the preacher told
from the pulpit, in lieu of sermon,
connecting it with Christian reminis-
cenceS. Later still there were in Ger
many dramatic shows, named Oster-
one of whom, apparently, was the
leader, and represented Summer beat
ing Winter out of the land. The dances
and sports prevalent at this season in
Germany among the youths and maid
ems appear sometimes to have been
marked with something of the loose
ness characteristic of the floral games
in Italy, as they were probably prac-
ticed among the people in the days of
the republic and before license had
degenerated into the grOssness of the
exhibitions on the Roman stage.
Egg Part of Passover Feast.
Easter eggs can hardly be said strict
ly to have been adopted from heathen-
dom, for they formed an essential part
Of the Feast of the Passover. Indeed,
the association of eggs with the festi-
val of the New Year is so general that
it may almost be said to be universal.
The Chinese, the Hindus, the Persians,
the Egyptians-all used eggs, and,
what is more remarkable, colored eggs,
in one way or another, in connection
with their sun-god festivals. Symbol
ism lies, probably, at the bottom of
this practice. The principle omnia ex
ova was recognized long before Harvey
pronounced it as a scientific dictum.
Away back in NEUROLOGICAL times the
egg had come to be symbol of the be-
ginning of life. In both the Hindu and
the Greek mythologies the egg-the
great mundane egg-was the primeval
source of all things. 1t contained the
germ of all things yet to be, "the earth,
the sky, the continents and seas, riv-
ers, mountains, towns and men, and all
their deeds" In fact, it was the
world; for what is this vast globular
universe but a gigantic egg? And chill
dren, peeping through show windows
at Eeaster time may still see this
world-egg in miniature, and may catch
glimpses of the castles and landscapes,
the gardens and fairies, and other Won
ders that it holds.