FASTER

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20775, 8 April 1939, Page 16 (Supplement)

FASTER

Its Meaning, Its Legends and Its Customs

A UTHORITIES tell os that the word Raster comes from the Saxon Eostre, a heathen goddess who was worshipped with ranch ceremony ha AprlL The early Christians called the festival Pascha or Pasch, a Hebrew word meaning passage, in remembrance of the Jewish Passover, to which the festival of EastCr corresponds. The Latins still use this name. For centuries there, was much controversy as .to the date on which the feast should be kept As our Lord’s resurrection traditionally took place on Sunday Nlsan April 16). many were in favour of keeping that date, no matter on what day of the week it felL Others thought that the right day was the Sunday following the 16th. Nisan. The controversy became acute about A.D. 191, when Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus, wrote a protest against the Roman usage to Victor. Bishop of the Western Churches. ' He pleaded for the observance of Easter at the same time as the Jewish Passover. Nothing was settled until the Conncil of Nice, A.D. 324, when it was decided that the Pasch should always he kept on a Sunday. For 200 years longer, however. East ami West kept up a continual dispute as to the proper date, until m A.D. 525 Dionysius Exiguus brought in the Paschal Canon, which fixed Easter on the Sunday af.ter the fourteenth day of the vernal moon. This makes March 22 the earliest and April 25 the latest date possible for its observance. But the Eastern (or Greek; Church has not fallen in with this arrangement. The Haro and Easter The hare has always been associated with Easter, and m Germany ft la as important a figure as Santa Claus is at Christmas in Australia. Children are told that if they are good a white hare will steal down the chimney and hide brightly-coloured eggs in the house. The association between Easter and the hare springs from Easter’s connection with the moon. Easter is a Lunar holiday, and in ancient times the hare was the moon symbol. Both the hare and the moon were thought to have the power of changing their sex; the r#;w’ moon was considered masculine ami the waning moon feminine. Hares, being born with eyes open, were identified with the full moon, and in olden times the brain and eyes of a hare were used as a cure for insomnia, A quaint Easter custom still survives in the lovely village of Coleshm. Warwickshire. If the young villagers can catch a hare and present ft to the parson before ten o’clock on Easter Monday, he is bound by an old law to give them 100 eggs, a calf’s head and a groat. The eggs are symbolical of Easter, the calf’s head a survival of the worship of the sun as the Golden Calf, and a groat to-day is usually reckoned as the price of & pint of good ale. Leicester, too, had an Easter Monday custom which is now submerged In the famous Leicester Hare-Bunt Fair. The Mayor and eivic officials, roi>ed in searlet, used to go to Black Amrtfl’s Bower Close for the ostensible purpose of hunting a hare. As there afe no hares daring this season, a dead cat was soaked in aniseed water and used as a drag for the hunt. This, of course, has long been abolished, but the other main features of the festival still survive in the Eas tee Saturday Ritual On Easier Saturday tn Rome, during a particular part of the service to the Sts tine Chapel, which takes place about 11.30 a.m., the bells of | St. Peter’s are ruing, the guns are fired from the Castle of St. Angelo, and all the bells in the city at once break forth as if rejoicing in their j renewed liberty of ringing, having been silenced since Maundy Thursday. i The" most Important part of the ceremony consists of the blessing of the fire and tbe lighting of the Paschal Candle. For this purpose “new fire** (as It is called) is struck from a flint in the sacristy, where the chief sacristan privately blesses the water, the fire, and the five grains cf incense which are to be fixed in the paschal candle. Formerly all fires in Rome were lighted anew from this holy fire, but to-day it is confined to St. Peter’s. In the Abruzzi the statue of Christ is put on an altar by a marketplace, and all the statues of the local saints are carried round it. The bearers of these run off with them to a church, whence they fetch the Madonna to tell her that her Son is risen and to bring her to Him. Memories of Forgotten Ages Except In Ireland and a few places in Scotland young people no longer get up before dawn and climb some neighbouring hill to see the sun dance, as it was supposed to do on Easter morning for joy at the resurrection. Those who saw it were supposed to have good luck for the year. At one time this custom was almost universal in England, and sometimes a sort of artificial sun-dance was made by putting out a large vessel of water in which the bright beams of the sun were reflected. the rays seeming to dance or play on the water. This was known in some districts as the lamb-playing. In some places children still go round a few days before Easter asking for their “pask,” “past” or “pace eggs’’—all these words, of course, meaning Paschal or Easter. In the north of England they are usually dyed or coloured by boiling for about ten minutes with some colouring substance. Nowadays cochineal is used for red, and some of the various colourings obtained at shops are used for pink, purple, green, yellow, etc.; but in former days primitive home-made dyes were the rule—saffron, onion-parings or gorse for yellow; various plants, such as spinach or cabbage for a green tint; the homely blue-bag for azure hue. The purple-blossomed “pasque-flower anemone” owed its name to the fact that it was used to oolour Easter eggs. In many parts children still play games with these dyed and col-, oured Easter eggs—on Easter Monday and Tuesday—either .Using them as balls, rolling them along the ground, making them run races, tossing them into the air and catching them, or playing with them in similar fashion to the boyish game of conkers, played with horse-chestnuts. The lads hold the eggs between linger and thumb and strike them one against the other, the owner of the egg remaining unbroken at last being the winner. Consequently hard-shelled eggs were sought. Bail games ■were formerly general at Easter, and at one time the gaily-coloured balls were in some instances taken into the churches themselves, the choristers throwing them one to the other 1 Out of doors young girls and men played at stool-ball and hand-ball for prizes, which were generally tansy-cakes, a special Easter dainty, supposed .to typify the bitter herbs of the Passover. Tansy-puddings were often eaten on Easter Sunday for the same reason. An old verse describes the Easter ball-playing ; At stool-ball, Lucia, let us play, For sugar-cakes or wine; Or for a taDsy let us pay, The loss be thine or mine. In Poor Robin's Almanac for Easter Monday and Tuesday, 1677, we find ; Young men and maids. Now very brisk. At barley-break And stool-ball frisk. Barley-break was a popular game In former days, and seems to have been in great favour at Easter, when dancing for a cake was another j favourite amusement. In Newcastle-on-Tyne and the north lads and lasses danced for this prize before the Mayor and burgesses. Hence the expression to “Take the cake.” In Iceland flags are flown at half-mast on Good Friday. This custom has been carried out in all the Republics of the River Plate, South America, not only l»y the ships in port but on all public buildings for over half a century. Passing to the present and the New World, there is nothing more impressive in the world than the Sunrise Service held in the great Bowl at Hollywood on Easter Sunday. All through the night people arrive by car and tram. Quickly they fill the vast amphitheatre in the cool darkness of a Californian night. As ihe sun rises behind the hills trumpirters sMind reveille, and a white-clad choir of children, standing forn igainst the hillside, sing an Easter hymn as the r>jw nir - r to a memorable service. v ..id English custom was to extinguish all fires and re-light them on Kj- 'r r>_ a new life. Consecrated flints were obtained f ron i .. . U! 7 for the special purpose, the popular belief being • ion from storms, drought and famine.