OUR AUTUMN EASTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19916, 9 April 1928, Page 12

OUR AUTUMN EASTER.

Hi' WILLIAM GXOUDESLEV.

SOME COMPARISONS. OUT OF TUNE WITH OLD IDEAS. AN INVIGORATING PAUSE.

Easter, like Christmas, is a double festival, a spiritual and a material one; for while Easter is, of course, the Church's High Feast, commemorative of Jesus Christ's Resurrection, tho central truth of Christianity, yet it is also the great reminder of that wonderful attribute of life, reviviscencc.

Look Nature through, Alt change; no death. All to re-flourish, fades; Ah in a. wheel, all sinks, to re ascend Emblems of man, who passes, not expires

And there can bo no suggestion of disparagement, for the lesser idea is itself symbolic of victory over death.

In the Northern Hemisphere Eastcr-limc coincides with tho early part of the vernal season, when all around arc signs of tho awakening from tho sleep of winter, the arousing from a state of inactivity and apparent death. It is at this season that tho trees burst out into new leaf, tho hedges bud forth, afresh, and the flowers of spring begin to appear. All life seems gay and glad, for winter is past and spring is come. It is tho Feast of Dawn. Tho European nations in 'their pagan days celebrated the departure of winter's frosts and snows and icy blasts, and welcomed tho awakening to now life of everything in Nature. In early Anglo-Saxon times this feast, held at tho spring equinox, was (according to tho Venerable Bede) dedicated to tho goddess Eastre. Old Associations. Now, as Christmas is a hallowing of tho old Yuletidc festival by tho supcrimposition of our Saviour's birthday celebration upon tho ancient heathen feast, so tho Christian Easter has carried along with it the spirit of the pagan Eastre, and has uplifted the older feast beyond the plane of mere materialism. While remembering tho sacred side of this great feast quite to tho sanio extent as do tho peoples of the older countries, we of the Southern Hemisphere cannot readily comprehend tho full meaning of a Festival of Morning held at Eastertime, because, coining as it does in the autumn, our Easter is in a way out of tune with Nature, or at least with the old associations of Easter, for, with us, at this time of the year, Nature is not asserting herself with youthful vigour; her triumph is then complete, and we behold her in all the glory of her victory; incedit regina. And, although it is the evening of the seasons, is it not the time of mellow fruitfulness, and can we not say with Euripides: " Of ail fair things, the autumn, too, is fair?" Nothing could more fittingly describe this season than Shakespeare's well-known words, which might almost have been written in praise of an Auckland early autumn day; " Shall I compare thee to a summer's day ? Thou art more lovely and more temperate." For autumn, aureate autumn, is, as far as the Auckland province is concerned, the most delightful part of the year, beginning, as it does, as a veritable overflowing of the beauties and joys of summer, but minus that season's excessive heat. Invigorating Eastertide.

What can surpass the invigorating freshness at daybreak, when the clew-laden cobwebs are strewn across the garden paths, and, to the melodious singing of the thrush, the night's veil is lifted from the fair, sweet face of an Eastertime morning? Again, what is morerestful than the solemn stillness of the afternoon, when the barking of a distant dog, the lowing of a cow, or the sound of an axe, conies through the air with a clearness not noticeable at any other time of the year? And what nights! For this glorious holiday is invariably accompanied by lovely moonlight nights—which, bv the way, would be lost to us if Easter were to be given a fixed date. Coming midway between the burning heat of summer and the chilly winds oi winter, our Easter-time is usually blessed with temperate weather, ideal for taking a farewell spell of camping, bathing and boating, just one more motor tour or yachting trip, or a last pleasant wandering through the bush and over the hills. Invigorating Eastertide! Who does not at this time take the full advantage of the opportunity of getting that greatest and cheapest of all tonics: moving air on which the sun is shining? And who does not come back to the daily task feeling refreshed and in a measure fortified against the rigours of winter? Few of us, indeed, would wish to change our autumn Easter for a spring one. Easter and Passover. Recurring about the same time as Easter is Pasch, the Jewish Feast of the Passover. The early Christian Eastern Churches, in fact, made their Easter coincide with the Passover celebration; although the Western Churches have always held to a Sunday observance of Easter Day, seeing that Christ's .Resurrection occurred on the first day of the week, and that Easter commemorates, not the Passover, but the Resurrection. Yet there is a much closer relation between the two gtcat festivals than the mere date of celebration. Passover being a sacred solemnisation of delivery ironi bondage—a passing over to freedom and a new life—a comparison can be made between the Christian Easter and the Jewish Passover, and again without disparagement, for Ho is the Cod loosed from Pharaoh's bitter yoke Jacob s sons and daughters," whose Son's Resurrection we rejoice in when we sing: Jesus Christ is risen to-day. For as the beast of ihe Passover is heM in remembrance nT the passing of the Israelites over tue Jied Sea and their escape from servitude, so Easter is the feast of a greater passover—the passing from the thraldom of death to life eternal.