The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-04-11
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| fined and fragrant lily that comes out
of the Orient.
Onions came from the Near East
and in ancient days furnished sta
pie food for the rural inhabitants OF
Greece and Italy. Not only was gar
lie food, but it was reputed to have
medicinal value and to be helpful to
the stomach in its functions.
These two bulb vegetables, the Gin
derellas of the plant food world, ride
about the earth in trainloads and ship
loads. The material service they rem
der is greater than that of all the 9th
er lilies put together. One would have
to look far in all the relationships of
nature to find a contrast more strik-
ing than that of the Easter lily and
the garlic of the Mediterranean.
Even though the lily is the one per-
feet symbol of Easter, there are two
others which through the centuries
have become so closely associated
with this red-letter day in our calen-
dars that we think of them almost as
quickly, in thinking of Easter, as we
do of the lily. They are the rabbit
and the egg.
The association of the rabbit or hare
with Easter has its foundations in the
ancient belief in European and Asiatic
countries that the hare is the symbol
for the moon. In fact, the Chinese
represent the moon as rabbit pound
;,,r -, Il
Japanese artists paint the hare across
the face of the moon. AS the time of
the Easter festival is governed by the
phases of the moon this may be an ex-
PLANTATION of their connection.
The mythical natural history of the
Hindus tells us that hares live or
the shores of the lake of the moon.
In Swabia the children are not al
lowed to make shadow pictures of rab-
bits on the wall, because it is consid-
cred sin against the moon.
The colored folk of the southern
states have a strong belief in the pow
er of the "left hind foot of a grave
yard rabbit" killed in the dark of the
moon.
In County Warwick, England. If the
young men of the town can catch a
hare and bring it to the parson of
the parish before ten o'clock on Eas-
ter morning he must give them Calls
head. one hundred eggs for their
breakfast and groat in money.
Nowadays the Easter bunny has be-
come so confused with the Easter egg
custom that the hares are supposed to
lay the many colored eggs the children
find on Easter morning.
The association of the egg with
Easter goes back to certain beliefs of
the ancients also. Eggs had been as
ISOLATED with the worship of Ash
toreth, of the Astarte of the Phoe-
nicians, Isis of the Egyptians, Diana
Of the Greeks and Romans and Eostre,
whom the Teutons worshiped in the
spring. Incidentally, the name Easter
is said by some to be derived from the
name of this Teutonic goddess, al
though others assert that it was
named for an old pagan spring festi-
val in honor of the suns new birth
in the east.
The Egyptians regarded the egg as
an emblem of the recreation of things
and of mans regeneration. Then, too.
the egg with its life germ destined to
produce living creature when
warmed by the mother hen is easily
associated with the idea of the earth
blOssoming under the warm sun.
Since the Resurrection of Christ oc-
Cured in the spring, it is easy to see
how the symbols of the egg and all
revived life in the springtime came to
be associated with this event in the
history of Christianity. The egg as
symbol was taken over by the lie
brews as an emblem of their delivery
from bondage and next the early
Christians took it over as their sym
Dol Of the resurrection.