| Show EASTER BEFORE CHRIST rrollyt1041SO31 ron before the advent ot Christian sty eastern nation had long olerved the sprlngllmo by elahotatc rellslou I < lonles TheJe festival occoslo Iversully commemorated the god or i vlor of the people who held them In Persia Mithras the savior and I mediator between Rod And i man man I 1lIelOd to hit m risen from the dead and the 1IIterln connected mith Ills I I Ihlp mere celebrated In thc latter I i part of Irh The body ot a young mnn Apparently dd men xhlulted to ait tie I tored to life Th a priests itched 7 soin h until midnIghtwIth loud cries I I I and In datkncv nbeb all at once the light burot forth tlUIII all partand the Priests cried Rejoice 0 acreJ In I I h it I 11 I I I I NJ l t I X i h m 1 iTj1 mr I 1 t lZ I I rl w J1n M J I w I I il 11 IMI 4 it I Lxl I 7 I 1 I V I I tl V I N 7j P jXrgx I If tA t I r N Z I t iiI ii-I jFr y X Ir IM 19 111 if iAzi 1111 Ic V1 I I t li V 117 I 1 0 I I I 1 I I t I 11111 I i 11 I I I 11IW fv Q I I q I 111 11 I I I 3 I LLLL I I 11 Ile I I I I I 1 1 11 01 I I I I 1 11 5 Z 1 2 it I 4 1 I 1 il 0 1 1 7 n W 11 1 I It V I I s I I I 11 I I I I L Itlated your god has risen His death his pains his sufferings have worked our ahntlonl Theme ceremunl wer accompanied by lighting the sacicd candle can-dle and anointing the Imago with perfume per-fume turnTh The Principal religious festivals ot the year not only I in 1 Ignt but I In I Syria ill I ryg A and G rco nno In fact Ihroughout the at wr solemnized at the latter end of autumn and again at the beginning of spring Those which occurred In spring were particularly characterized by mirth nnd revelry The rnrrectlonot AdunKorTharninuzma celebrated throughout the cast Julius IIrmlru In an Grafton or address tie livered to the Emperors Constans and Constnntlus f crlbed th e rites In de till I The wo Ipers laid un Image upon up-on a bed and bewailed In mournful I Police Mte continuing the lonta Ions for a considerable time light was ll brought Into the room and the mouths ot the mourners were anointed by the priests Lon which the young man im personating Adonis gently murmured Trust > e communicants The god hnv Irg been raved there shall be to us out ot pain salvation In Alexandria the fenet ot the resurrection ut Adonis wa Observed on the 25th of March In very much the same way as described by Julius rirmlcus These festivals were observed In Egypt as late as the year m and at Antioch the ancient capital of the Onik kings In Syria aa lat as the year MJ Adonis ur Thammuz had his altar even In the temple of Jerusalem Several Sev-eral of the psalms of David were pirti of the liturgical service employee In his worship With the same ceremonies as In Egpt unit elsewhere the Easter rIl I ng ot Adonis me commemorated nt liyblls In Phirnlcla The ancient Greeks also celebrated this festival In honor of the resurrection of Adonis In the course of which a figure of him was produced and the ceremony of burying bury-ing with weeping and songs of walling gone through After these a Joyful shout was raised Adonis lives and Is I rig n again 111sem here In the cast the Easter fiBllvlllos w ere of a similar char actor and the priests addressed the worshipers with tho formula Comfort yoursilvcH all Je who have been partakers par-takers of the mysteries of the deity thus preserved for we shall I now cnjov some respite from our labors to which were nddi il thiso words 11 have esiap cd a sad calamity and my loll Is greatly great-ly I mended The people answered by chanting the Inv rnllun Hall to tho clove the restorer of light I Olhei ceremonies cere-monies were similar to those now held In Human Catholic countries on flood Is Way and Easter Sunday The urrctlon still rolgn over an eternal kingdom by nn Incarnate mediating medi-ating deity born of a vlioln says Pro comer MihatTy was a theological con teptlon which pervaded the oldest reUnion re-Union of r 9 lit Osiris was the popular I popu-lar god of that country preeminently good and dear to the hearts of the pro pk Ills resurreitlon and ascension inen wcio celebrated annually In early spring about the time known In Chris limit cuuntrl no raster Tile annlver entry of his death or disappearance In Nonmoor ot each year Was observed with rites oat mourning Similar In nature na-ture ere cerento lien In other countries at the Same season such aa the The I tuophorla of the Atbcnla and the Electable of the llaotlani Later on came other hnanc8 describing the catch for Olrl mile I as hearing tile Sacred chest and arks with I at fresh water spices I and costly perfumes watched to the temples The sacitd cow man i led I around the temple cven I times hlrh Indicated that the god did not cnllllete his telurn until see A I months after These observances look place In the eatly iprlns March or Aprll Phrygla was celebrated throughout the east for the mysteries of Allis and In these mvsterles At > s was represented bv a young man tied to a tree ns though suspended upon a cross and here wr got cmonl attending Ills release iv hlch Ins typical of the resurrection These inysteres which bgan with the days of mourning wer followed Immediately by a feast of Itllarles or diy of rejoicing a festival th it occurred on the 2oth day of March or the eighth day before the calends otA ot-A prll In connection therewith a sons hlch nfterwnrd became the Hallelu tell of the Christian church was sung and also the Hieo Dies etc This Is t the day made by our lord let It bo for us a day ut rejoicing and cheerfulness The famous prose IQ mil et nlla was Able ung Th Ancient Scandinavians also had their Easter celebration In fact the word Easter AngloSaxon Eastro anl Eoster nnd Cleiman Osternls a our vied from the old Teutonic mythology It Is I derived from Eostri or Otaro tile A rig OSaxon godde ot spring lito corresponded to the Sidonian Atroth or Aoeto To Iotr the fourth month answering 10 our April wa1 dedicated and was called notur monolh Tills IIIonth wa the same as the Paschal month ot the Jw and the old tBllval was observed with the gladness glad-ness ot a nw solemnity The month ot AIrlll still knomn In Germany an Os lee monh and the worship ot Otera on Iatr look deep root In northern Germany mbenee It mas carried Into England by the Saxons Down to the beginning ot the present century Iho Iater time continued to be celebrated In many parts or Germany by the kindling kin-dling of bonflri and numerous other rites that were ot remote antiquity The fire rite was the great tturq ot these early observances In Germany And afterward In Great Britain and tho universality through Europe In heath I ell times of the worship of the personlfl cation ot the un suit IIghl Ihrough the kindling of ft fire and other lights Is I c graojc testified by the let surviving practice of periodically lighting bonfires The fire festival of Ostera wns originally hell about the lot of way and wns shifted 10 coincide with the church fee thai ot raster Unable 10 extirpate these heathen slice the early church sought to Chrlllnnlze them by ao elating them with rites of her oil A and for this purpose either appointed a church festival nt tho limo of the dtim1ills heathen one or endeavored to shift the time ot the heathen observance 10 that of an already fired church festival These observances continued to bo celebrated with seriousness and enthusiasm enthu-siasm aB late na the Sixteenth and seventeenth sev-enteenth centuries but the kindling of bonfires was after a time put down by the government the earlier InterdIcts alleging the unChrlstlan nature of the rites ant th later the danger occasioned occa-sioned to the forests After Christian It came joy at the rising ot the natural nat-ural Bun and at the aaklng ot nature from the death of winter became Joy at the rising of the Sun of utghtcousness the resurrection of Christ from the grave A survival of these bonfires can be traced In I the great paschal tapers vometlmea weighing 300 pounds with which the early churches were lighted on 1aler ee Even the use of Easter eggs was of ancient origin There can be little doubt that this custom was originally designed design-ed as symbolical of the revivification of nature the springing forth of life and spring Long litter the jears of the Christian church the Jews t PIn eggs P-In observing the feast of the Passover When the Persians keep the festival of the molar now year they present each other with colored eggs a custom that has been handed down 10 thom from the remotest antiquity |
