EASTER TRADITIONS

Northern Advocate, 25 March 1937, Page 6

EASTER TRADITIONS

Than' Easter, there is no season more richly endowed with mythological and traditional interest. It is quite probable .that New Zealanders regard these matters in a light different from that in which , the people of European countries survey them, for whereas in many of those countries agelong customs are preserved, we In this newly settled land are perhaps acquainted with only hotcross buns and Easter eggs as links with past ceremonies regarded seriously by ancestors. It is interesting to recall some of the traditions. The giving of Easter eggs as presents is one which is found amongst many peoples. It is said that the Parsees distributed red eggs at their ancient spring festival, whilst even amongst Russians today red eggs are exchanged at Easter-time. A curious association of the egg’ with Easter is also found in modern times in the .custom of the Copts, or Egyptian Christians, holding their Easter services at Jerusalem at the back of the Holy Sepulchre under a canopy of threaded and coloured ostrich egg shells. The egg, of course; is a symbol of creation, often -associated, as in Persia, with the creation of the world, and thus becomes a fit emblem for the recreation of the earth at springtime, and fruitfulness in general. Hence its connection with Easter, which derives its .very name from a spring goddess, Eastre, -and the festival held in the spring month, whilst Easter Day was fixed as the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox. In j England, the old sport of egg-i rolling was indulged in at Easter amongst the villagers in certain parishes, while other Easter observances were the harescramble, the Easter-ales, the hot cross buns and the Lancashire “lifting” of persons by joining hands across the wrist. This is thought to have been regarded as a symbol of Christ’s rising from the grave. We have mentioned only some of the customs associated with the Easter season, but the literature dealing with the rites and ceremonies of sun and spring worshippers, and the way in which Christianity, in its earliest days, incorporated the rites of older religions into its own ceremonies, is as extensive as it is fascinating.