Show EASTER EASTERifiSTORY iN IllSTORY ANJI LEGEND How Pagan Celebration Grew I into a Christian Festival Various I ious Observances in Different Countries The Most Elaborate Church Celebration of the Year Easter the most joyful of all the church celebrations of tile year conies again with Its glad music Its gorgeous gatherings of brilliant spring flowers Us lilies and roses and brings In Its train the most resplendent of dresses old hats of ho t HWiaon In a way It Is J the festival par excellence of the Christian year oven oversluulouIng the observances of Christmas In somo countries indeed Luster is the greatest ecclesiastical event of the whole twelvemonths twelve-months Llkc many other seasons of church I observance Easter owes Us birth to Paganism and not to I Christianity i But the wise fathers of the church foreseeing fore-seeing the Impossibility oC taking a holiday of unlvcrsay glory ana Celebration I Cele-bration from the people merely adapted adapt-ed It to the changed circumstances and so it Is that Easter holds so prominent it place In our calendar The very word ilstlf Is a survival oC theold Teuton mythology and the manner in which the day Is celebrated Is an heirloom of our old time ancestors The Saxons call the festival Osier or Osten both of which mean rising ris-ing The name by which we know the diy comes from that of the Goddess of Spring Ostera whose festival was annually celebrated at this season The eggs which were used to symbolize the birth of spring after the death and I solitude of winter were a prominent feature of tho Pagan scheme and when the transition of Christianity came It was easy enough to see In them a type of the Resurrection And as the new religion l spread slowly northward through Europe the Christian celebration celebra-tion of the day took the place of the Pagan festival The name alone was changed the observation oC the season remained the same In the early days of the church and yen today so far as the rubrios arc I concerned the festival lasted for I an octave that Is to say a full week Including In-cluding the Sunday Immediately tol loulng Easter Sunday A trace of this manner of celebration is to be seen In the name that still clings to the lat tfr day Low Sunday Easter Is the Christian passover The date of Its celebration like that of the t passover of the Hebrews Is calculated from the moon In the churches of the East the Greek Armenian Syrian and I Coptic rites the day is observed with imposing ceremonies A feature of these ceremonies Is the blessing and I lightingof the Pascal candle which I usually takes place on the day before Ester proper Holy Saturday This observance is retained also In the Latin I Lat-in church und ia foil dwell to a more or less extent by some of the xtremc ly 1 high Episcopal congregations In the Latin church Imitations of three naps made after the fashion of thoso sup povtl to have been used at the Cnid llxlon are driven Into the candle which Is a huge affair sometimes several feet high The Easter water is i blessed and the candle dipped Into the font containing con-taining It It is then returned to its pedestal at the gospel side I of the altar A deacon goes In procession to the I rear of the church and at the entrance new firo Is kindled with a Hint Then n I threefold candle stick In the shape of a Y is i taken and with the new fire one r of the candles is lighted the deacon I at the same time bowing slightly and I banting in a low voice Ecce lumen hrlstBehol the light of Christ I The procession proceeds to the center of the church where tho same voids are chanted In a little louder tone and I the second candle lighted When immediately Im-mediately before the altar the deacon bows profoundly chants the same words again this time aloud and lights the third candle Then the flame of the Pascal candle ia klndled I This is supposed j sup-posed to burn at all services for forty days after Easter In the old days hen the observance I of Lent was i ry i lrd t Ea islT INIS trllnlned aii 1 < i is iv fill t l1f fmm N < n 1 I Mlng l rInd heiy p < manses It was hiiili as a rl urn to guy and iiIrn nK clothing and a tlming off of thi vn k I ioth thai Cps 1 often unrn So luiy 011 have a trace of this In our own inamn r I of celebrating ICaster 1 Lint Is i a M > uu of more gala iparel limn ordinal but when Easier conics It Is I the tivtom of tin fair sex to blossom foilh m ill the I colors of the rainbow and many more shurloK and tones III 1 > Mwii Lnt Is useful therefore I not only as a s a I son of retirement anti meditation but also as a Unit for the preparation < > f I brilliant rulnnnt and those gorgeous articles of hcadgoai xvbirh can mv bo dcserlbed as Htunnlng ereation i The cileliiatlon of Easter l arle In I many counties Juieh nation or l racr has something in It peculiar to Itself In I America one of the prominent failures fai-lures of the day Is I the Eastern pa I rade after church Thin Is I a thing which in big cities bocomcM a iull > rnderful sight It IB the lime lnn + I men and vonin take l sidvantage of the opportunity to HI > nnd be seen and In vIcty 1 uf the bright colors and iwv gn I inrntp the t tmptatlnn to draw a par ulle Involving Solomon and all his glory SH I a J hard ono to re HHl I |