| Show TNT EAstER BONNET IS Tim HUNDRED TENS OLn1 Who wore the first Easter bonnet I That is a question the most distinguished distin-guished archaeologist would scarcely I i dare to answer offhand However I I this pretty custom of freshly and sally arraying the feminine head on the most notable and glorious day of spring can easily and safely rfae traced for 13 cen Curies Going back that far riot only Is It flattering to feminine taste and conservatism con-servatism to find that a charming custom cus-tom hasendured so long but that to the pious and zealous women Is due all the honor of having Inaugurated the i first official Easter Sunday celebra j tions In western Europe I It is all very well for St Martin ant an-t I heroic worker among the barbarous 1 Frankish hosts as early as the year 300 A D to claim the glory of celebrating I the first Easter Sunday at Tours I where a remnant of his shrine still exists ex-ists but it was not until fair Clotilda 1 married pagan Clovis thai the annl t versary of the resurrection became ah f 1U UU IG I I i Z I n 1 y I i 1 n ° r r ii j J f rl Ii 1P j d jI J y J imposing national religious function Clotilda it is written was a pious Burgundlan princess who took Clovis for better or worse and so worked on his spirit that she softened his heathen soul with Christian doctrine and persuaded per-suaded him to submit to baptism That was in the year 495 and in 510 Clovis founded the cathedral at Strasburg where the Franks whom Clovis had either persuaded or forced to follow his example came to celebrate their first grand Easter festival Nowit is neither frivolous nor foolishly fool-ishly imaginative to suppose that Queen Clotilda and the women of the Frank lsh hosts decorated themselves in especial es-pecial honor of this Sunday of Sundays and worshiped beneath the cathedral roof in fervor thanksgiving and lovely love-ly fresh headdresses This good lady outlived her husband and on his death retired to a convent but Strasburg cathedral ca-thedral stands as a monument to the greatness of feminine influence and it was in England next that a woman contrived to have celebrated the first Easter Sunday among the AngloSaxon barbarians Everybody who visits the cathedral city of Canterbury takes the time to knock up the sexton and investigate the little church of St Martin As a church it dates back 1301 years exactly exact-ly and memories of Its founder Queen Bertha cling as closely about It as the Ivy to Its tower Bertha came from France and could claim rather close blood relationship with the pious Clo tilda She too was married to a pagan husband that hardened old sinner i Ethelbert great great grandson of the i immortal Henglst Invader of England i Bertha however labored not in vain i with Ethelberts conscience for the king invited St Augustine to Kent and built on the ruins of a Roman palace the present tiny church which is but 50 feet long and 23 wide i The font from which St Augustine took water to baptize the king still i d al 1 1j 1 j 1I I L UINe ° F 4 aM ES T OWN Berthas stone I rests in the church and coffin is exhibited to visitors As to the I debt Englishspeaking people owe this lady for her inauguration of Christian rites and Christian rule there can be 1 I no doubt and because she came from France none need question that she and her women brought over the embryo I I Easter for all headgear time in Great to develop Britain nobly and I i I j There Is a lapse of about 1100 years before Easter Sunday enjoyed its first I official recognition In what constituted I i the original 13 United States The I Puritan sternly regarded Easter festivities I 1 fes-tivities as popish rites and refused toI I I observe them so that to the Pilgrim mothers cannot be given any of the j I credit enjoyed by Queens Clotilda or J I Bertha An Easter bonnet would probably prob-ably have bcn put in the stocks had < It beta found abroad In Plymouth or Boston in the seventeenth century I In consequence to Virginia goes the j honor of holding the first Easter service serv-ice at Jamestown about ISO There a j was a certain Parson Hunt who came J I over with the early settlers to care for rf I j I their spiritual needs and steel caps on I masculine heads were the only Easter I bonnets Virginia saw for a long time 1 There is now only an ivygrown brick < j tovner to mirk the spot where oj Jamestowns little church stood and 1 5 where the Easter feast with proper rites floral altar decorations and a sound doctrinal sermon received Initial i j I J 1 1 Y I I I celebration in the states This church did not owe its erection to any especial feminine Influence so far as the annals of Virginia record The bricks and altar al-tar decorations were all brought from England but there is not a shadow of a doubt that the first Easter bonnet ever seen in the states flaunted its Innocent i In-nocent splendors among the rough oak snto goffit7fi 7fie r Uj I I pews of the little edifice In Jamestown James-town and that the church was built to shelter at their devotions the wives of the colonists to whom Easter was something more Important from every standpoint than any of the other 51 Sundays in the year |
