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.
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No Human Being
Saw the Savior
Leave the Tomb
It is strange to consider the fact
that the most extraordinary event in
the world’s history was witnessed by
no human being.
Jesus rose from the dead,
hody beheld His resurrection.
The soldiers placed as guards at the
sepulcher were first to discover that
the body was gone. They saw the
stone (which sealed the entrance)
rolled away, and soon afterward, go-
ing in, they found the tomb empty.
Mary Magdalen was first to arrive
at the tomb the next morning, which
was Sunday. Finding it empty, save
for the white linen cloths in which the
body had been wrapped, she hastened
in great distress to Peter and John,
her supposition being that it had been
stolen.
Peter and John could hardly believe
what she toid them, but, going to the
sepulcher thereupon, they verified her
statement.
John had been an eyewitness of the
crucifixion. He knew that Jesus was
dead, and to his mind that tremendous
fact was final. To all the follow-
ers of the Master His death was a
shock peculiarly dreadful because
they had taken it for granted that He
could never die. After Hls execution,
they had no notion that He would
return to them, and, as will presently
be shown, even the apostles were at
first wholly incredulous of His resur-
rection.
John tells how he saw the soldiers
break the bones of the two thieves,
as they hung on their crosses, to
hasten their death; and, further,
that they did not do this to Christ
because He was dead already—a fact
which was made sure by a spear which
one of the soldiers thrust into Jesus’
side.
Tomb Guarded by Soldiers.
Jesus had preached doctrines which
the authorities in Jerusalem regarded
as dangerously soclalisticc In add!-
tion, His teachings had given offense
to the Jewish priesthood, which stirred
up popular feeling against Him. Ar-
but no-
rested on trumped-up charges, He was
condemned to death to satisfy the
mob and appease the rsucor of His
high-placed enemies,
Pilate, though hc weakly ylelded to
+ie demand for Jesus’ condemnation,
had himself no sympathy with the pro-
ceedings. It was therefore with en-
tire willingness that he granted to
Joseph of Arimathea permission to
take down the body and see to its In-
terment.
Joseph of Arimathea was a rich
man. He had, a short time previous
ly, ordered the construction, of a burial
vault, cut out of solld rock—presum-
ably for the use of his own family.
- lies with, in -cenge rave
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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,
.
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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,