FOR THE GIRLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 89, 16 April 1927, Page 2 (Supplement)

FOR THE GIRLS.

QUAINT OLD EASTER CUSTOMS, THE EASTER EGG AND ITS ORIGIN. My Dear Girls, It Mim only yesterday that we were enfoying the summer holidays at Christmas; aow here is Easter and Autumn, with Winter coming fast. la England it is Spring-time, and everywhere out-of-doors is bright with the first flowers. The bluebells are making carpets in the woods, and primroses are peeping in the shady damp places; in the garden crocuses are purple, and golden daffodils are nodding their heads in the wind. All through the Winter, Nature has been resting, but now it is waking to fresh growth. Because of this sudden breaking into glad new life, Easter has always been a holiday season, and in the long ago many quaint customs were followed year by year at Easter came round. I must tell you about some of them. The runniest one was called "Lifting" or "Heaving," and when you hear what it was, I am sure you will be as glad as I am, that it is now only a tradition. From eight to twelve women would join to make a "lifting" party; first they would line an armchair with some white material, and decorate it with flowers and white streamers. Next, they would carry the chair to some place in the street and wait for a man to pass. The first one who came along would be asked to sit in their chair; if he refused or tried to run away they would ran after him and force him to sit in it. Then while he was sitting in the chair, they would lift him at high as they could three times, brt before they would let him go he had to pay something to each of then. On another day during the Easter holidays, the men •lifted" the women, and they had to loss the men before they were set free. Now are you not as glad as I said you would be, that this custom is not kept np in these days? Then there was a custom called "Dancing in the Sun," which the Irish people liked very much. They were so glad that Lent was over, because they did not have very much to eat for those sis weeks, that when Easter Eve came, they used to put all sorts of nice dungs into their pots to cook. No one was allowed to touch it until midnight, then they would clap their hands aad dance, singing gaily "Out with the Lent." The good dungs were eaten; they danced and sang for some time, then went to bed for a little while; but everyone get np at four o'clock "To see the Sun daneo in." The sun did not really rise any differently from what it always does; but they were so pleased to think that Easter had coma, and felt so like dancing for joy themselves, that they imagined the sun danced to a new day. That is a very nice thought, isn't it? Easter Eggs have been famous too, for very many years. King Edward I. is said to have bought four hundred for eighteenpence—l know Mother wishes she could buy eggs as cheaply as that—and had them stained with colours to give to his servants as presents at Easter. For his special favourites he had the eggs covered with gold leaf, so that they must have been real "golden eggs." mustn't they? As well as these fancy eggs, offerings of real eggs were taken to the Church; and I think it is an echo from these eld days that prompts us to give each ether eggs at Easter time. AHappy _ Easter to Everyone. sX/vL-^ 10^^