Quaint Customs Mark World-Wide Festival

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 70, 23 March 1940, Page 1 (Supplement)

Quaint Customs Mark World-Wide Festival

ALL. the Christian world celebrates the great Easter festival of the Church. This article tells of the rejoicing that is everywhere in progress, and of some of the curious customs which at times have marked—and in some cases still mark—the festival. Even here in New Zealand people of many tongues will join in services celebrating the event which is the heart of Christianity. "Christ is risen." ''He is indeed arisen!" So, many years ago, Christians sainted one another on Easter morning, and so this Easter members of the Greek Church will salute one another. The Place Of The Egg Go into one of the Balkan clubs of the world at this time of the year and you will still see Easter eggs —not the chocolate confections of the shops, hut real eggs, stained red, their colour being, so it is said, symbolical of the Wood shed for the salvation of mankind. Easter eggs, of course, are generally held to be older than Christianity itself, like the very name of the season, which is a survival of the Teutonic mythology. Bede says that it conies from Eostrc, or Ostara, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring to whom the month now equivalent to April in the old world, called Eostur-month, was dedicated. Xow, ,while we sink from deeper autumn into winter, when the leaves fall from our exotic trees and the. mists beiin to come up in the mornings, the Old World wakens into spring. It is the beginning of the time of flowering, when the world itself is a living symbol of eternal Resurrection. Beauty is born again, the earth puts forth new life in the miracle of the vernal resurrection. To the Christian all the world acclaims a greater Miracle. In thenseveral ways all the churches will celebrate Easter Dav, and, however the ritual may differ, there will be the same note of joy: Christ brin- raised from the dead dieth bo more; death hath no more dominion over Him.

In many tongues the rejoicings will i>o made—in English, in Latin, in Greek, in Arabic, in Kussian, in German. In Anglican churches they will sin-;: — Christ rmr rassover is sacrificed for us; therefore lot us keep the least: Not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of. malice and wickedness: but with the unleavened bread of, sincerity and trutii. In the Catholic Church there is sun-.' the sequence Victinme Pasehali, written probably in the elcvcJlth century, one of the live sequences now remaining in the Koman Missal. In the Greek Church—their Easter is a week later—the. worshippers hold tapers and wear sprigs of basil in their coats; and among the Syrians the gorgeous robes of the archimandrite will lie more joyful in colour even than the flowers. .., „ The special observances of the JJyzantinc rite include a procession overnight which leaves the church in darkness; the Resurrection is announced outside; a ceremony called "the Assault of Heaven" hikes place at the doors; and the procession re-enters the brilliantly illuminated church. '•Christ is risen," is given in greeting. "Trulv He is risen." Hells' are rung, the crosses of the clc.l"V and Hie Gospels are venerated and the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom begins. Of the old customs only the Easier egg remains. -Hot cross buns are already, for many people, only a memory of childhood. Some authorities question the pagan origin of the eggs. It is pointed'out, for instance, that in early times eggs were forbidden during Lent as articles of diet so that when Easter came the eggs which had accumulated, lamb's etc., now once more available, were specially blessed partly, perhaps, with a vie.w to restraining gluttony after long abstinence. The Bun's Uncertain History In many places the eggs were painted and brought to church for a blessing before or after Mass. Blessings for eggs, bread and lamb at Easter are provided for in the Rituale Eoraanura. Chocolate e rr(r s are, of course, in this sense merely with no real meaning. Hot Cross buns, which belong to Good Friday, seem to have a rather uncertain historv. dice upon a time they had a cry which still survives as a nursery memory: One a penny, bans. Two a penny, buns. One a penny, two a penny, Hot cross buus.

Once upon a time both clergy and laymen used to play at ball in the churches for tansy-cakes' at Eastertide, another seemingly extraordinary custom of the Middle Ages said to derive from the throwing of Easter eggs to one another by choristers during the singing of

Hot cross bun eating, some authorities hold, can be traced back only two or three centuries in England. The custom does not exist on the Continent at all. It is suggested that they may be a survival of a pre-Keformation fasting diet. Even in the remoter parts of Britain in these days of fast cars, easy transport, talkies and the gradual breaking down of old ways, it is doubtful whether many of the special Easter customs survive. Some of these, of course, were— unknown to tbe rustic participants — of pagan origin, adapted, or oven unaltered, and surviving as a means of merrymaking. A writer in Chambers' "Book of Days" records that in '-Lancashire and in Cheshire, Staffordshire and Warwickshire, and perhaps in other counties, the ridiculous custom of 'lifting' and 'heaving' is practised. "On Easter Monday the men lift the women, and on Easter Tuesday the women heave the men. The process is performed by two lusty men or women joining their hands across each other's ■ wrists; then, making the person to be heaved sit down on their arms, they lift him up aloft two or three times, and often carry him several yards along a street. <>> ••

Still Holiday Time Here In Xew Zealand to-day only a fragment survives of these ancient ways. In the Old World the peoples took, as pari of their means of celebrating Kaster. some of the ancient pagan festivities of the spring. By us, for whom Easter lacks this seasonal significance, there is even less chance of their being retained. lint Easter for us is still holiday weather, and even apart from its sacred significance still a time for happiness. No. though we lack the outward symbolism, we, too, have Nature to rejoice with us. Christians throughout the world will turn from the solemnities of Good Friday to the glad celebrations of Easter Day, as the message to which the peoples have listened for almost 2000 years is once more repeated. With incense and vestment or witti a stark simplicity there will be honour done to an occasion which has the same significance for all.

I«> •• • FOR CHRISTIAN PEOPLES throughout the world Easter is a time, of sorrow and rejoicing, because 1900 years ago Christ died on the Cross to give the world its promise of salvation. Symbolising the significance of [ the period is the head of Alois Lang in the role of Christ (upper left and riglil comer pictures), in the famous i Ohcrammergau Passion Play, presented in Bavaria every ten years. The next presentation is due in 1944 — unless War again causes its postponement. Belorv: The annual Easier sunrise service al the Tower of Legends at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Clendalc, California, U.S.A. t 1 i L? (1