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Show n BHHBBBPPPPBM . Slice of Life l iiiiiiBBMMMiiiiiiiHSplBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBp I I By JUDY JENSEN Easter traditions are just not what they're cracked up to be As you are hurriedly looking up the number of the poison control department because your two-year-old just drank the blue Easter egg dye, all the time explaining to your four-year-old why he should not eat the egg shells, you may wonder "Who thought up the idea of coloring color-ing Easter eggs?" Well it wasn't Mr. Paas. Many of the customs we observe . on Easter date back to heathen rites which accompanied the Teutonic tribes of central Europe's observance obser-vance of their spring festival. This was the celebration dedicated to Eostre, goddess of spring, and was the most joyous festival of the Teutons, held in honor of the death of winter, the birth of a new year and the return of the sun. The conception of the egg as a symbol of fertility and of renewed life, goes back to the ancient Egyptians Egyp-tians and Persians, who had the custom of coloring and eating eggs during their spring festival This ancient idea of the egg as a symbol of new life readily became the idea of the egg as a symbol of the resurrection as it came to be interpreted in-terpreted by Christians. Myths coming down from the past have shown man's relationship with the egg to be a very profound one. In Europe, it was believed that eggs laid on Good Friday, if kept for a hundred years, would have their yolks turn to diamonds. It was also believed that eggs cooked on Easter would protect against sudden death. Easter egg games have been popular for hundreds of years. For a while, at least in Chester Cathedral in England, something of a game was played with eggs in church on Easter Sunday. According to "The Complete Book of American Holidays," Holi-days," "The bishop and dean took eggs into the cathedral, and at certain cer-tain stages in the service, engaged in an egg-throwing match with the choristers." The egg throwers were eventually eventual-ly asked to stop the practice, but it could certainly liven up an otherwise other-wise dull sermon. Another favorite game has been rolling eggs on a field, crashing them into each other until only one unbroken egg remains. This custom was brought to America by the English. One of the best known egg rolls is held on the lawn of the White House on Easter Monday. This was started during the presidency of James Madison in the early 1800s. This is the only chance the public has to walk about on the famous White House lawn. Grownups are admitted only if accompanied by children. In America, it is believed that two yolks in an Easter egg is a sign of coming financial prosperity; and to refuse an Easter egg is to endanger en-danger your friendship with the person per-son offering it, so just when you think you can't possibly look at another an-other Easter egg, let alone eat one, just remember by refusing it you may lose a friend. Your only hope is that it will have two yolks. Another well-known Easter symbol sym-bol is the Easter Bunny. To be perfectly correct, it is the hare, not the rabbit, who should be honored at Easter. According to Egyptian legends, the hare is the symbol of the moon, and the date of Easter is determined by the moon. In the year A.D. 325, Con st an tine had the uncertain date of Easter settled for all time by taking the matter before the Council of Nicea. The men on the council decided that Easter should fall on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the twenty-first day of March. And so, the hare came into prominence pro-minence because of the moon's importance im-portance in deciding the date of Easter. The hare belongs to the night, since it comes out only then to feed. It is bom with its eyes open and like the moon is "the open-eyed watcher wat-cher of the skies." As such the hare became associated with Easter. In the United States, rabbits are associated with fertility because of their ability to reproduce many young. We tell our children that during the night the Easter Bunny laid or hid all of their Easter Continued page 7 Strange Easter traditions CONT. FROM PG.6-A goodies, and you'll have to admit with all of the new Easter surprises he leaves every year, this must be a bionic bunny. How would you like to give birth to a wheelbarrow full of jelly beans? Since you've spoken to the doctor doc-tor and found there will be no permanent per-manent damage to your child, just a blue tongue for a few days, and you're just cleaning up the last remnants of the dye from the For mica, hoping it isn't permanently discolored, you can be thankful that we don't observe the custom of the Christians of Mesopotamia. On Easter Day and for forty days afterward, the children buy for themselves as many eggs as they can and color them. Sometimes no less than 20 dozen of them. It makes you thankful that our main after-Easter custom is shopping shopp-ing K-Mart's Blue Light Specials for the next year's Easter eggs and bunnies. |