The Coolidge examiner., 1931-04-03
EASTER EGG
OLD SYMBOL

If you should go into church on
Easter morning and find the clergy
playing ball you would be sure that
modern decadence had reached its
pinnacle. Yet you would only be
witnessing q spectacle that was the
accustomed scene in the churches
of England during the medieval
period, Helen Buckler writes, in
the New York Herald Tribune. The
affair began innOcently enough in
still older custom wherein the
choriSters in the nave used to toss
q paschal egg from one TO another
as the anthem was sung. Evil
dently the egg was not boiled
one. Moreover, many of the chOriS-
ters were not of the caliber to quail
ify for big league team today.
So a more durable handball was
eventually substituted and that is
how the clergy came to play ball
in the churches on Easter day. In
time, as the human race grew old
er and inevitably more decorous,
even this pleasant custom was
abandoned.
The egg. however. still remains
irrevocably bound to Easter, as
you and | admit when we break
fast upon the golden dish, for how
could we consider any other upon
Easter Sunday? Inevitably we eat
eggs on Easter. though few of US
realize how ancient is the tradition
we follow.
Egg Always Symbol.
From time immemOrial, and If
this does not mean the PleiStocene
age at least it was long before
Rome and Jerusalem and even
Athens, the egg has been regarded
by all people everywhere with ad-
miration, not to say awe. Its mys-
terious life-giving property was
reason enough. Perhaps its deli
cious versatility in the kitchen was
an added recommendation. AS a
good gourmet. | like to think so.
And so, on all counts, natures
masterpiece became involved very
early In celebrations of the resur-
reCtiOn of the new year.
Together with the Greeks the an
cient Romans used eggs in their
most solemn sacrifices. To honor
Ceres. the goddess of agriculture,
they brought in platters of eggs
with great pOmp. So highly did
the Ashantis regard the tasty
spheruIe as the symbol of creation,
they were forbidden by the fetish
to eat it. In certain other parts
of Africa this restriction was ap-
piled only to the unlucky feminine
sex, always the first to be called
upon to do whatever sacrificing
happens to be in vogue.
Old and Odd Beliefs.
Various mysterious meanings
were attached to eggs during the
Lenten season. Many old wives
used firmly TO believe that to hang
an egg on Ascension day in the
roof of the house "preServeth the
same from all shurts." Try ii if
YOU want to. 1t will not be as
risky as attempting to carry a Good
Friday egg about in your pocket or
purse to propitiate the tickle gods
of chance, a custom, il seems to
me, much more likely to bring bad
luck than good. But that was an
other ancient superstition, as was
the one whereby the French ate
eggs laid on Good Friday to pro-
tect themselves from the fever.
Just try nowadays to catch any egg
with the date on It'll However,
myself prefer that superstition to
the one claiming that eggs laid on
Maundy Thursday and Good Fri
day during divine service and kept
throughout the year would be eff
fective in putting out any fire into
which they might be thrown Many
people would prefer to let the
house burn down.
Time changes these things. Now
that incubatOrs are so efficient and
day-oId chicks ride the trains like
veterans, we are no longer con-
cerned to avoid gathering eggs or
setting hens on Sunday, or, as 9TH
ers insisted, after dark on any day.
1t is no longer a matter of impor-
tance to US not to carry setting
eggs over running water lest they
be added. Nor do we mark them
with a cross to Keep away the
weasels, though | should not be
surprised if some of our own grand
mothers did that very thing.