On Good Friday the death of Jesus is commemorated, and that being so it
is a day of gloom and sadness. On Easter Sunday the rising of Jesus from
the dead is commemorated, and that being so it is regarded by the
Christian Church as a day of great joy. In the old times, indeed, it was
called the Sunday of Joy, and in the Eastern world it is still called
the Bright Day. When friends met each other upon Easter Sunday the
favourite salutation used to be: "He is risen," and to this was given
the reply: "Verily he is risen." Everywhere there was happiness, and
this happiness was shown in many ways. At Easter slaves used to receive
their freedom, while at the present day, in Russia, birds that have been
shut up in a cage have their cage-doors opened, and are permitted to fly
away. That is a beautiful custom; an emblem of the freedom that Jesus
brought to the world when he broke the power of Death in rising from the
grave. In England this happiness is expressed in a practical manner by
many marriages at Eastertide.
Easter Sunday is what is called a movable feast; it is not held each
year upon the same day of the month. The rule is, that Easter Sunday is
always the first Sunday after the full moon that happens upon, or next
after, the 21st of March; and if the full moon happens upon a Sunday,
Easter Day is the Sunday after. As regards the name "Easter," it is very
likely derived from an old Saxon deity called Eastre; for when the
Christian religion was first preached to the heathen the missionaries
often took an old heathen festival and turned it into a new Christian
festival. Now, in the ancient heathen world there was always great joy
and feasting in the spring-time when the sun began to rise higher and
higher in the heavens, and there is little doubt that the early
missionaries, when they converted the heathen, gave a new meaning to the
old joy. Jesus, the Sun of Righteousness, had risen from the dead; that
was the new gladness.
But Christianity did not quite remove all the rites and ceremonies of
the heathen worship; some of them, indeed, linger to this day. The
ceremonies connected with fire, for instance, were very prominent in
the heathen ritual, and in some parts of Europe bonfires are lit at
Easter, while in the Roman Catholic Church great importance is given to
the lighting of candles and tapers. Then again, there are the Pasch or
Easter eggs--boiled hard and dyed in various colours--which are so
interesting to children. This name of Pasch is derived from the Jewish
festival of the Passover, and the egg we now regard as an emblem of the
resurrection; but all the old peoples of the world looked upon the egg
as a symbol of new life coming forth with blessing. It was, in some
respects, a sacred thing in the old heathen world of the Egyptians and
Persians; while here in this country the Easter eggs used to be blessed
by the priests at the altar, and kept all the year as a charm against
various ailments. Is it not curious to think, children, how races and
religions have come to be linked together by small things? These
coloured eggs which please you so much at Easter link you with strange
old peoples and their strange old customs.