Show F as t air com es on y 1 VI k 4 au V M T I 1 I 1 f T J ia X 0 A 71 f 0 2 TZ 1 these youngsters arent likely to be taking A part in any april fool pranks on easter day having 4 fun of a different kind by ELMO SCOTT WATSON at the annual easter ommo eol HIS year young america ling hns a re real al egg rolling on the lawn of the white house problem on its hands por easter caster 2 this could be elther either 1 comes on april I 1 and as everybody an april fool joke C knows april 1 Is april fools ilay day or an easter symbol it i so what to do what to do I 1 would be a 2 better easter 1 shall the solemn significance of symbol if it looked easter sunday as a religious festival more like an easter illy v prevail during the lay day tile the beauty 41 than a calla lily illy but A of its symbolism unmarred by any it either its it a sacrilegious shouts of 0 april fool or r shall the young youngsters exercise their right to hollywood star wearing spoor poor each other and their elders on this day a strikingly original abich blan by tradition and by custom Is dedicated costume so if you think its a real lily illy the to the practical joker truly it Is a perplexing problem eblem of conduct and one wonders how hov they jokes on you 3 can rabbits lay will ill solve it to the satisfaction of both them easter and if so 80 selves ives and their elders eggs Is that little bunny responsible fortunately perhaps such a situation ta 0 ac for such stich a big arise ise very often the rules by which the date or Is it just another of easter sunday is teed fixed allow this to happen egg april fool joke the only ly about 11 every years within the memory lady in the picture of most people now living it has happened young only ily four times in ISM easter sunday came is wondering 4 dont be deceived on i april 1 ag again aln in and again in issa 41 logically gi cally it would seem that the next time would qa by the wise look on the face of this easter rabbit be in but due to the va vagaries garles of our cal I 1 H hes e a probably beddar dar tile the eleven year old rule work for thinking up a joke to in 1699 it was one lay day off that schedule and easter ister sunday in that year came on april 2 it play on easter day Is also which april ant get back on the eleven bear car rotation until 1 fools day this year 1923 when easter sunday and april fools coincided that happens again this year and will happen again 11 years from now in 1943 1045 although easter sunday and april idols fools day seem utterly inconsistent so far as the essential spirit of each Is concerned it Is interesting to note that historically they trace back to similar origins rell religious ious fe festivals among the ancients celebrating the coming of spring although we moderns have changed the form and the meaning of these fe we have retained some of the very same symbols which those ancients used the celebration of april fools day la Is usually traced back to the festal rites of the period of the vernal equinox in persia it was the day when the persian new year began and was very close to the old english new years day of march 25 tile the sun was then entering into the sign of the frisky and playful arles aries so BO it was appropriate that on that day the season of rural sports and vernal ernal delights began in india there was a similar celebration on march 31 called the hull festival which was a time tor for a general holiday and many jests including the practice of sending people on long iong and fruitless errands from the orient the custom came into western europe many centuries ago the ancient romans took delight in planning all sorts of practical jokes in connection with their feast of the Satur saturnalia nalla and more particularly in playing harmless though often very humiliating jokes on each other at the time of the athletic tournament held in honor of neptune around april L one solemn antiquarian has declared that the first big april fool joke in history was the time the romans invited the to attend this neptune celebration and then carried off by force the sabine women just as april fools day had its origin in pagan festivals from which it has departed a long way so did easter have such an origin the christian peoples of the world of course celebrate it as the anniversary of the resurrection of christ but in some of its elements including that essential one of a resurrection it traces far tack back beyond the beginning of the christian era to the religious rites of several dIffer different eDt ancient peoples it Is associated with the worship of a goddess of the phoenicians Phoenicia ns isis of the egyptians diana of the greeks and romans and lastre of the Teu tons in fact there are some who nho say that we get tile name of easter from this teutonic le goddess bestre who was worshipped wor shipped in the spring although others claim that it Is derived from the word east one of the four cardinal points it la is also the cardinal point which has always been most important in all religious ceremonies of all races and creeds this Is because it Is the part of the heavens where the sun Is seen to rise the sun bringer of light and heat the very giver of life itself the most primitive intelligence telli gence of the most primitive man recognized the fact that the sun and life were inseparably associated and it was only natural that when he came to worship the thing which was greater than he he should turn to the east cast whence came that greater and higher thing which he recognized as being the life giving power the symbols which we have retained from these pagan festl festivals rals to associate with our celebration of easter include the white illy the rabbit and the egg the greeks and romans prized tile the white illy above all other flowers aud and in their earlier civilizations it had already como come to symbolize purity and virtue hence an appropriate symbol tor for a festival celebrating renewed life 4 X I 1 y 51 I 1 I 1 1 i VV e 1 the association of the rabbit or hare with lfoster easter has its foundations in the ancient belief in european and asiatic countries that the hare Is the symbol for the moon the moon Is the open eyed watcher of the night and the hare Is a nocturnal animal the young of the hare are born with their eyes open and are said never to close them since the date of easter Is governed by the moon it is easily seen how the rabbit which Is the symbol for the moon came to be an easter symbol also As for the egg the egyptians regarded it as an emblem of the recreation of things and of mens regeneration and associated it with the worship of their goddess isis as did the phoenicians Phoenicia ns the greeks romans and with their goddesses who were the objects of their veneration in spring festivals then too the egg with ith its life germ destined to produce a living creature when warmed by the mother lien hen Is easily associated with the idea of the earth blossoming bloss oming forth under the warm rays of the sun in the spring both closely akin to the general idea of resurrection since the resurrection of christ occurred in the spring it la is easy to see how the symbols of the egg an and all revived life in the springtime conic came to be associated with this event in the history of christianity the egg as a symbol was taken over by the hebrews as an emblem of their delivery from bondage and next the early christians took it over as their symbol of the resurrection lon mention of the hebrews makes appropriate at this point comment on the fact that the festival now dow known as easter was celebrated by ancient israel as the passover for or many cen aurles before the birth of jesus christ it ira was 9 based upon the events which took place when the hebrews were saved from the destruction which was visited upon the Egypt egyptians lans as given in exodus 1227 the first christians being in ID the main jews continued for a long iong time to observe the passover as well as other ancient ceremonies but gradually these early followers of the cross began to substitute the christ for the paschal lamb of israel in the passover ceremonies eventually there arose a difference 0 of opinion between the christians of hebrew descent and those of gentile descent as to the time when these ceremonies should be celebrated those of hebrew descent declared that the day of the death of jesus should be the date of the ending of the paschal fast which in hebrew rites a always 1 was on the fourteenth day of the moon in fit the evening therefore the easter festival which folio followed Ned might fall on any day of the week those of gentile descent however wanted the first day of the week sunday to be the first day of the resurrection festival thus the friday preceding would be observed as the date of the crucifixion without paying any attention to the day of the month for years the difficulty between the christians of jewish descent and those of gentile descent continued not being able to decide the recurrence of easter tile the council of the early christian church finally appealed to the astronomers n in alexandria egypt for aid however the scientists were not of much assistance for they had no lunar tables such is as we now dow have computed by master mathematicians they attempted to make rules but the variations of the full moon in reference to the year would not cause easter caster to fall on sunday any more than any other day all AH wanted it to come on sunday so BO each nation celebrated to suit itself so that thai it would come on that day thus in A D the bauls celebrated easter on march 21 in italy it fell on april IS 18 and in egypt it fell on april 25 eventually the selection of a certain sunday was definitely fixed died in the sixth century A D it was designated as the sunday between the tha fifteenth and twenty first days of the moon la in the first month of the jewish lunar years it was directed that the computation should be made according to the tables of of acque balne introduced in A D because of 0 the fact that britain had bad ceased to be a part of the roman empire the sixth century decree did not affect the british church at first and it continued to calculate easter on a basis previously approved at rome the matter was finally disposed of 0 at a synod held at whitby in yorkshire in MI CG 1 A D after which the clergy of the british isles conformed to the general practice of the western church accordingly easter Is now observed by both the roman catholic and protestant churches churche on the first sunday after the full moon or fourteenth day of the on or next after march ol 01 so it cannot be earlier than march 22 nor later later than april 25 thus it Is possible for the astronomers and mathematicians to tell in advance on what dates easter will come each year and they are now known for more than a century in advance thus too we know how bow often it Is that young america will be confronted with the pro problem that confronts them this year that of celebrating on the same day two occasions which are at the opposite poles in character even eved though they trace back to a similar origin 0 by western newspaper union |