“Aren’t my hands a _sight_!” laughed the boy named Billy. “Wish
Somebody would tell me how to get these colors off.”
“I should say they are a sight,” said Somebody; “all the colors
of the rainbow and several more besides. What’s on them?”
“Easter egg dyes,” said Billy; “they splashed, but we got some
beauties.”
“Try some salt and vinegar and a nail brush and soap,” said
Somebody. “You’ll find some on my wash stand.”
The boy named Billy scrubbed with right good will. “It’s coming
off,” he said. “Say, Somebody, please tell me why Easter doesn’t
stand still, like Christmas and New Year’s Day. What makes it
come in March one year, and likely as not in April the next? A
day is a day, isn’t it? Then why do we never know when to look
for it? Last year we gathered pussy willows, and this year it’s
cold enough to skate.”
“It is puzzling until you understand about it,” said Somebody,
as Billy came back with his hands as clean as could be expected.
“Let’s talk about it. There seems to be no authentic record of
the actual date of Christ’s death and burial and resurrection. We
know that the Crucifixion was on Friday, and the Resurrection was
on Sunday, but the date has never been accounted for, although
Easter has been celebrated as a church festival since the early
days of the Christian church.
“To settle all such disputes it was finally decided by the
Council of Nicaea in 325 A. D. that the celebration of the
festival commemorating the Resurrection should fall on the first
Sunday after March 21st and the full moon.”
“And why was the festival called Easter?” asked the boy named
Billy.
“It is a sort of made-over festival,” said Somebody. “The early
Christians called it the Paschal festival, and it was so called
until the Christian religion was introduced among the Saxons,
who had a Spring festival themselves of which they were very
fond, held in honor of their Spring goddess Eostre. They seemed
inclined to like the new religion, but refused to give up their
goddess, so the Christians decided to keep the festival and the
name, but to use it in commemoration of the resurrection of
Christ.”
“Who was this lady named Eostre?” asked the boy named Billy. “She
must have been pretty important.”
“Eostre, meaning ‘from the East, or Venus, the goddess of
beauty,’ was supposed to have been hatched by doves from an
immense egg which descended from heaven and rested on the
Euphrates. Out of it came the goddess of Spring and of beauty to
bring warmth and sunshine into the world,” said Somebody.
“That must be where the idea of the Easter egg comes from,”
said the boy named Billy. “I was wondering about that. It’s
interesting; tell me some more.”
“There are many beautiful legends concerning Easter,” said
Somebody. “One which was quite generally believed in Ireland was
that on Easter morning the sun dances. But of course we take that
with a grain of salt.”
“Just as we take our Easter eggs,” laughed the boy named Billy.
“Thank you so much, Somebody; and now I’ll run and get some
flowers for Mother. I’m going to get her a beautiful Easter
lily.”