The Festival of Spring.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22391, 11 April 1936, Page 6 (Supplement)

The Festival of Spring.

EASTER EGGS AS THE SYMBOL OF NEW LIFE

By A.L.R.

HARD-BOILED hen's egg, with the shell dyed a clever pink or blue and tied round the middle with a becoming bow, was the popular Easter Egg of a century ago. Nowadays, even the humblest of sweetshops making its turnover from penny bags of blackballs sold to passing school children boasts a fine display of chocolate Easter Eggs. In fact, they are of so many designs, that the choosing of one presents quite a problem. Would little Susy like the one with the cheekiest of fluffy yellow chicks peeping from out its top; or the large one covered with the most fascinating of tinsel paper, and full of unknown chocolate mysteries; or, better still, the egg perched on the sugar sledge, drawn by chocolate horses and driven by a rooster in a scarlet coat? Great thought we give to our decision, but how many of us give even a passing thought to the antiquity of this custom of giving Easter, or, as thej'

were called of old, " Paschal " Eggs? We read that in the tombs of the very early Christians polished marble eggs were buried, as a symbol of the hope of the new life. If a marble egg could not be obtained, egg-shells were cast into the graves instead. Besides the custom of the " Paschal " Eggs, there are many very old practices connected with Easter. According to Bede, the word " Easter " was derived from " Eostre," a Saxon goddess, whose festival was the great spring festival. For, although Easter comes with us at the end of our summer, in England and the Continent it comes in the glory of the spring, and many of the old customs connected with Easter are relics of the feasts and festivals

of the spring. The early Christians purged these festivals of their heathen rites, using the day as their own great day of rejoicing. In early times, Easter Day used to be the first day of the glad New Year, and at that time all Anglo-Saxon peoples enacted the great ceremony of " The Hallowing of the Paschal Fire." On Easter Saturday, the eve of the dying year, every spark of fire in all dwellings, from the King's Palace and the churches to the hovel of the lowliest serf, had to be allowed to die out. The hearths had to be brushed and cleaned and hung with garlands of spring tlower3, so as to be ready to receive the Holy Fire from heaven, which was to bless and burn in the hearth during the coming year. The Paschal Fire for the New Year was then kindled with great ceremony by the priests, by means of a crystal catching the rays of the sun. From it the new clean fire for the New Year was carried to relight every homo hearth! A very charming custom used to be the rising very early to see tho sun dance on Easter Morn I

An age-old rite in many of the villages in England was the distribution of Easter Cakes, especially made, of flour, butter, currants, and powdered with sugar. A writer of 1778 tells how in the village of Biddenden there was a piece of land consisting of 20 acres, named Bread and Cheese Land," the revenue from which was devoted yearly to providing the poor of the parish with thdse Easter Cakes, and also with a loaf of bread and a pound and a-half of cheese each I

A very quaint custom, found as late as the last century, in Lancashire. Cheshire and Birmingham was that of " heaving a woman." If any woman was caught unprotected on the streets on Easter Monday, she could be " heaved " by any two men who took a fancy so to do! To " heave," the men had to make a seat by holding each other's wrists; here the lady was forced to sit, and be thrice heaved up and down! Another even more trying custom was that on Easter Monday a man was at liberty to take the shoes off a woman's feet, while on Easter Tuesday the woman was allowed to retaliate if she could! The liberation of slaves and captives used to be an outstanding feature of the Eastertides of the past, the idea being symbolic of the Easter Egg—the slave bursting the bondage of his captivity, just as the chicken bursts the bondage of the shell. Half-forgotten though thoso Easter customs are, they are worth a thought, don't you think, as you unwrap the coloured paper from that Easter Egg?