Just Why Hare Is a Figure in Easter Legends Every Easter we are accustomed to see in the shop windows the hare with (his little basket of eggs or standing with some gift or reminedr of the sea- son in his paws. { But our grandmothers would tell us that when they were young they did jot bave the hare in any form at Easter. Now, why should any cne suppose that it is the hare and not the hen who is responsible for these particular eggs, and what has he got to do with Easter? asks Klyda R. Steege in the New York Times. There is a good deal to be said on this subject and it leads one into somewhat curious paths of re- search. Easter is a feast governed by a lunar period, and the hare, in many religions {and countries, is the symbol of the moon. There are several reasons for this. The hare (not the rabbit, one ‘must understand) is a nocturnal ani- ‘mal, and comes out at night to feed. ‘Hence there is a connection in the mina with something that watches as jdoes the moon. It was formerly a pop- lular belief that the hare never slept. lit is a fact that it is born with the eyes open, unlike the rabbit, which is born blind, and it was supposed never to close them. For this, by a homeo- pathic system of reasoning, the brains and eyes of the hare were used as a cure for sleeplessness, Influence of the Moon. In all old superstitions the moon was thought to be sometimes masculine and sometimes feminine, the former ‘when it was increasing and growing stronger, and the latter, as its light and power waned, The hare was sup- posed to have the power of changing its sex also like the moon. ! If we go back to Egypt we shall find, 80 Mr. Andrew Lang tells us, that the Jgyptians frequently represented the ‘god Osiris as a young hare. Many Indian races worshiped the dawn as a hare, and a leaping hare was the sym- bol of the dawn, or of the opening year, when all life is renewed. The Egyp- tian word for hare was “un,” which means to open. As in the spring feasts eggs were broken to symbolize the opening of the year, so the association of the hare with them may easily be explained. In our Easter representations of the hare, his cousin, Br'er Rabbit, is gen- erally his substitute. Tt is true that though the latter has his own stories and assoclations, they have no partie- ular connection with Faster, but he looks sufficiently like the former to please the popular taste. Saved Eggs During Lent. To the early Christian church tha ume of eggs was not prohibited ‘during jlent, but after the Fourth century (théy weré not allowed to be eaten, I customs, such as the English country custom of the women lifting the men and .the men the women on Easter Modiluy and Tuesday to receive a piece of silver money and a kiss for pay. We must not forget Paris in our men- tion of Easter celebrations. All the week of Easter women used to go about the streets, and perhaps they still do, with barrows piled high with colored eggs, generally red and white, and the people of the city used to call it the week of the eggs. Years ago there was a curious game played at Bresse, when among the spectators on one Easter were Mar- ~uerite 0° Awnstria, then gouvernante of Flanders. and Philibert the Fair of Savoy. It was the custom to scatter on a level, sandy place 100 eggs. Then a lass and a lad would take each other by the nand and dance the national dance in and out among the eggs. If they succeeded in executing it properly without breaking a single egg they were considered betrothed, even if their parents should object. On this COPYRIGHT BY LWYDERWOOD > LINDERWOOD occasion, when royalty was present, three couples one after the other failed in their attempt, but Austria and Savoy succeeded. whereupon the story goes that Philibert said, “Let us adopt the custom of Bresse.” The princess let her hand remain in his, and so they were married. But now this egg hunt leads us to the fact that Washington is not the first nor only place in he world where they roll eggs on Easter Monday. It is an old, old custom. Boys and girls used to do it in many an English vil- lage and town. There was an old song which they sang as they played and it “ore the refrain: “Garland, parland. haste egg day.” Story of the Easter Bunny. The story of the Easter bunny is told by Christoph Schuffier’s book on Easter. A Ger- man lady living among the poor in a small mountain village, where eggs were unknown, wished to introduce these delicacies to the peasants. She had a coop of fowls brought into the village and taught the people to use the eggs. When Easter approached she decided that eggs were an appro- priate gift, as a sign of the reviving spring. She boiled them with mosses and roots, to give them a variety of brilliant colors, “as the earth has just 'aid aside her white mantle and dec orated herself with many colors.” On the Easter Sunday she had the little children make each for himself a lit- tle nest of moss urd hide it in the neighboring wood. Afterward, when they went to the wood, they found each nest filled with colored eggs. The children’s efforts to account for the presence of the eggs resulted ir the bélief that the hares "had laic chem, von Schmid in | from Ash Wednesday until Easter. The hens, however, were no less rin- dustrious in Lenten days than at other times, so they kept on laying. The good hens, of course, could not know | about cold-storage warehouses or they | night have laid up riches for them- selves. But their thrifty owners saved as many of the eggs as they could and | dyed them for their children to amuse themselves with at Easter, It was the custom in England in the early time for rulers to give presents of eggs to their courtiers at Easter, and in Russia as many of fhe people as could went to kiss the hand of the empress and to receive the gift of a decorated porcelain egg. In the same country on the morning of Easter the servants brought baskets of eggs to the churches to be blessed. These were afterward eaten, kept as amulets or given away. In Italy almost every one brings eggs to be blessed, and presents are made of other eggs to the priest who comes at that season to sprinkle the houses with holy water and to give his blessing. In former times in France eggs were tribute to the king at Easter; and the largest and finest were reserved for him. During the reigns of Louis XIV and XV after mass on Easter Sunday the courtiers received gifts of gilded eggs. Bells’ Travels to Rome. There was an old tradition that the church bells went to Rome to be blessed at Easter, and that they brought back with them eggs dyed like a car- dinal's cloak to prove that they had really been there. Though how the bells managed it no one seemed to know. There was also the idea that angels came down at Easter bringing baskets of eggs for the feithful, and occa- sionally great trouble was caused by some one of the angelic baskets con- taining an egg of doubtful character. This naturally was most disturbing and what was done in such cases is difficult to surmise. There were many Easter games and * oN EASTER SONG ne Oh, I have seen the daffodil Dance vp and down the April And 1 have watched the wild flowers go : Where trod the ermine footed Snow, And 1 have heard the bluebirds spill The silver of their song . Along The. reedy banks beside the rill. The seal is broken; ecstasy Of life on earth again is free For you and me. Out of the sky, out of the sod, There looks conscious : face; ‘ of God. - ' ~—Clinton Scollard. YS (Has Alla Fair) 2 fa care vis. 2 Lodges. 1 Beck All All a ye = the ee Zh i rT i Giger. arth Th Aub y Pp Hither the body, wrapped In white linen, was taken and laid out to await embalming. Thereupon it was that certain Jews went to Pilate and said to him: “Sir, we remember that the Deceiver said, while He was yet alive: ‘After ‘hree days I will rise again’ Command, therefore, that His sepulcher be made sure, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him away, and say unto the people, ‘He is risen from the dead.” ” Pilate granted the request, and sent a squad of soldiers to guard the tomb, against- the opening of which they rolled a large bowlder, to close it. But in the night an earthquake came: the bowlder was rolled away, and, when the soldiers entered the sepul- cher, a little later, the body had dis- appeared. An Angel Appears. We read: “One of the soldiers came and said, ‘Know that Jesus is risen!” The Jews said, ‘How? And he replied, ‘First there was an earth- quake; then an angel of the Lord, bearing lightning, came down from Heaven and rolled away the stone, . 501 aad!) PERN at 114114) T/C HIN And the angel answered and said unto the woman, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus that was crucified. He is not here, for Hc is risen as He said —Matt. 28: 5-6. ro (OTHE ITHE ERATOR MOTE EERIE 30, As and sat upon it. And, through fear, all of us soldiers became as dead men, and could neither flee nor speak.” The soldiers, worried lest the dis- appearance of the body bring punish- ment upon them, sought advice from the high priests, came at night and stole Him away while we were asleep.” The priests promised to square the matter with Pilate, and so the affair was adjusted. "He Is Risen.” The same morning (Sunday), after Mary Magdalen, Peter and John had visited the tomb and gone away again, women came to embalm the body in accordance with the Jewish custom, bringing myrrh and aloes for the pur- pose. On entering the sepulcher they saw (according to St. Mark), an angel —*a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment.” They were frightened. But the angel sald: “Be not affrighted. Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was cruci- fied. He is risen; He is not here)” The immediate followers of Jesus were not only overwhelmed with dis- tress by His death, but felt a very natural alarm for their own safety. They could not feil to perceive that they were in greet danger. At any moment they might be arrested as criminals, and meet the same hideous fate as that which had overtaken their . Master, Thelr best chance was to. scatter and hide, and to remain hidden until " I chime the Qew sii grare lng Shall xi he © pith hi hip 0 Fs Ter who gave them money, saying, “Say you His disciples air birth. Bay. —From the Living Church. the excitement wes over. in fact, was what they did. They do not seem to have pail serious attention to what Jesus told ‘hem about His approaching death, or to His promise that He would rise again. That this is true is proved by tbe incredulity witn which they re- ceived the news of His resurrection. At first they refused to believe it at all. i Christ Appears to Mary. T'wo women (Luke 24:11) told them that Jesus had appeared to them near the sepulcher, and that they had actu- ally taken hold of His feet; but the Apostles thought it a foolish and in- c¢iedible story. Mary Magdalen (Mark 16:11) told them that she also had seen the Master, though He would not permit her to touch Him. They thought that she was either lying or» a victim of delusion. Two of the disciples of Jesus stated that they had seen the Savior; that He had talked with them, and had walked with them to Emmaus, a vil- lage eight miles from Jerusalem— whereupon He had suddenly vanished. Their story (Mark 16:13) received no credence. All three of these appearances oc- carred en the very day of the resur- rection; and it yas in the evening of the same day that Jesus presented Himself before eleven of the apostles who had assembled (doubtless for con- sultation) in the “upper room,” where- In the Last Supper had been held. Even the evidence of their own senses did not convince them of His corporal reality untii they touched His wounded side and saw Him par- take of food. Thomas Doubted. | Thomas was not one of the com- pany gathered on that occasion; and when they said to him afterward, “We have seen the Lord,” he refused . to believe, saying, “Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and thrust my haad into His side, I will not believe.” When Jesus appeared to the apos- tles in the “upper room,” they tor . Him for a ghost. Only by talking and eating with them was He able to sai- isfy them that Me was not a disem- bodied spirit. The two women who saw Him near the sepulcher on the morning of that day had at first. the same idea; and it is likely that the same is true of Mary Magdalen. Nor did the apostles easily over- come this first impression. When, more than a week later, He appeared to seven of them at the Sea of Gall- lee, they failed at first to recognize Him, and their first emotion was that of fear. This, too, notwithstanding the fact that all of them had seen Him again two or three days earlier, when He . convinced the doubting { Thomas that He was truly risen In the flesh by showing His wounded This; FE feet and side,