The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1930-04-11


Ignoring the worldwide cutlery against Com
munists for their attitude toward the church,
which they say is only cloak for an economic
blockade against the Soviet Union, these leaders
have issued instructions to members of the League
of Communist Youths, numbering 100000 men,
bers to have special shock brigades and groups
Of light cavalry during Easter week lead the anti
God movement and investigate the schools, uni
versities and clubs to see how the anti-regious
education of the young is being carried out.
Members are directed to organize mock reli-
gious carnivas, athestic meetings. torchlight pro-
cessons and lectures and also to fight for extermi-
nation of the kulak the complete collectvisation
of all farms in Russia and fulfllment of the 5-year
characterization plan.
ION Easter day huge bonfres of icons will be
made in all large cities and towns around which
unbeevers will celebrate the extinction of reli-
gion'
Dealing with its newly-prepared 5-year anti
God plan, the Society Of Militant Atheists, en-
bracing nearly three million members, has issued
a manifesto asserting means must be found for
exterminating religious teachings among families
and eliminating from the schools teachers who
believe in God so that in the end of the 5-year
plan there will be no such thing as religion in
Soviet schools
I'm its anti-Easter program which it says will
be carried out not only among Christians, Jews
and Moslems, but among all other religious faiths
lists says BY intensifying the struggle against
religion, we will hasten the coectivization of
peasant FARMS By liqudating the kulak (rich
peasant) as class we will quicken the fall Of
his chief support, which is religion We will con-
vert the state and collective farms into great
centers of atheism.''
Thus will Russia, under the Soviet government
not only turn from the celebration of Easter,
which under the old regime was a deeply impress
sive religious ceremony, but 1t will challenge the
faith of than one-third of all the peoples Of
the earth to whom the observance of this day is
an essential part Of their religious belief For out
of total of 1,S47, 100000 people in the world
today who accept some form of religion 6S2, AGO.
600 Christians and although their observance
of Easter may vary in form in different countries,
the essential spirit Of their celebrations of the day
is the same, whether it be in the Orient or the
Occdent.
One of the most interesting of all the Easter
celebrations is that which takes place In Jerusa-
lem, centering around the Church of the Holy
Sepulcher where took place the event which gives
Easter its deepest significance for Christians. OF
this celebration Maj. Edward Keith-Roach writing
in the National Geographic Magazine, says:
1.-THE supreme ceremony Of the Eastern churches,
the appearance Of the Holy Fire, takes place at
midday Easter eve, according to the calendar
of Eastern Chrstendom, in the Church of the
Holy Sepulcher. It's origin is uncertain but that
IL is uSrlFSu AIom Illuul anu SymUoISIH III usage
by the very early church is undoubted. In essence
the ceremony symbolizes the triumph of the
Christian faith, renewed yearly in commemoration
of the first victory after Calvary.
1.-THE Orthodox patriarch, the primus inter pares
among the princes of the Eastern churches, enters
the edicue the tomb in which. for this one oc-
cason. all lamps are extinguished From here he
passes out holy fire and distributes it to the crowd
throngng the church, which carries it far and
wide. Before the World war the fire was borne
to the farthest corners of Russia. The patriarch
is assisted by bishop of the Armenian patriarch
ate. Representatives of Coptc and Jacobite, or
Syriac sects take part as well.
1.-THE ceremony is, however, essentially a rite Of