By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
Ae” F11S year Young America has a real
problem on Its hands, For Easter
comes on April 1 and, as everybody
Sol knows, April 1 is April Fools’ day.
< So, what to do, what to do!
Shall the solemn significance of
Easter Sunday as a religious festival
prevail during the day, the beauty
of its symboll unmarred by 3
sacrilegious s of “April fool!
Or shall the youngs I igl
“spoof” each other an
which, by tradition an
to the pract
problem of cor
will sols
selves
iries of our cal
endar, the eleven- { il lidn't work, For
in 1809 it was on ay of sch and
Easter Sunday in that year came on April 2. It
didn’t get back on the eleven-vear rotation until
1023 when Easter Sunday and April Fools' day
coincided. That happens again this year and
will happen again 11 years from now In 1045
Although Easter Sunday and April Fools’ day
seem utterly inconsistent, so far as the essential
spirit of each | neerned, it is inter
note that, historically, they trace back
lar origins—reli g
ni Q 16) 1
cients celebrating
in vit {nig
nteresting to
close Year's day of
March 25, h n wa h entering into the
sign of the f y and layful Aries, so it was
appropriate that on that day the “season of rur-
al sports and vernal delights” began, n India
there was a 8 lar celebration on March 31,
called the Huli festival, which was a time for a
general holiday and many Jests, Including the
practice of sending people on long and fruitless
errands,
From the Orient the custom came Into western
Europe many centuries ago. The ancient Ro-
mans took delight in planning all sorts of prac-
tical jokes in connection with their feast of the
Saturnalia and particularly in
harmless, hits
more playing
though often very iliating Jokes, on
each other at the time of the athletic tourna
ment, held in honor of Neptune, around April
1. One solemn antiquarian has declared that
the first big April Fool joke in history was the
time the Romans invited the Sabines to attend
this Neptune celebration and then carried off
by force the Sabine women,
Just as April Fools’ day had It
festivals,
8 origin In pagan
from which it has departed a long
way, so did Easter have such an origin, The
Christian peoples of the world, of course, cele.
brate it as the anniversary of the resurrection
of Christ, but in some of its elements, includ.
Ing that essential one of a resurrection, it traces
far Lack beyond the beginning of the Christian
era to the religious rites of several different
ancient peoples, It 18 associated with the wor.
ship of Astarte, a goddess of the Phoenicians
Isis of the Egyptians, Diana of the Greeks and
Romans and Eostre of the Teutons,
In fact, there are some who say that we get
the name of Easter from this Teutonic goddess,
Eostre, who was worshipped fn the spring, als
though others claim that it is derived from the
word “east,” one of the four cardinal points, It
is also the cardinal point which has always
been most important in all religious ceremonies
of all races and creeds, This is because it is the
part of the heavens where the sun Is seen to
rise—the sun, bringer of light and heat, the
very giver of life itself. The most primitive in.
telligence of the most primitive man recognized
the fact that the sun and life were inseparably
associated and it was only natural that when
he came to worship the thing which was greater
than he, he should turn to the East whence
came that greater and higher thing which he
recognized ag being the life-giving power,
The symbols which we have retained from
these pagan festivals to associate with our cele.
bration of Easter include the white lily, the rab
bit and the egg. The Greeks and Romans prized
the white lily above all other flowers and in
their earlier eclvilizations it had already come
to symbolize purity and virtue, hence an appro.
priate symbol for a festival celebrating renewed
life,
>
BRA Eat
N
J
1. These youngsters
aren't likely to be tak.
ing part in any April
Fool! pranks on Easter
day. They're having
fun of a different kind
at the annual Easter
egg-rolling on the lawn
of the White House.
2. This could be ei
ther an April Fool joke
or an Easter symbol, it
would be a better East.
er symbol If it looked
more like an Easter lily
than a calla lily, But
it isn't either. It's a
Hollywood star wearing
a strikingly original
costume, so if you think
it's a real lily, the
joke's on you.
3. Can rabbits lay
Easter eggs and, If so,
is that little bunny re.
sponsible for such a big
egg? Or is it just anoth.
er April Fool joke? The
young lady in the pic.
ture is wondering!
4, Don't be deceived
by the wise look on the
face of this Easter rab.
bit! He's probably
thinking up a joke to
play on Easter day
which is =ziso pril
Fools’ day this year,
The association of the rabbit or hare with
Easter has its foundations in the ancient be-
lief in European and Asiatic countries that the
hare is the symbol for the moon, The moon Is
the “open-eyed watcher of the night,” and the
hare is a nocturnal animal. The young of the
hare are born with their eyes open and are said
never to close them, Since the date of Easter is
governed by the moon, it is easily seen how the
rabbit, which is the symbol for the moon, came
to be an Easter symbol also,
As for the egg, the Egyptians regarded it as an
emblem of the recreation of things and of men's
regeneration and associated it with the worship
of their goddess, Isis, as did fhe Phoenicians,
the Greeks, Romans and Teutons with their god.
desses who were the objects of their veneration
in spring festivals,
Then, too, the egg with its life germ destined
to produce a living creature when warmed by
the mother hen is easily associated with the idea
of the earth blossoming forth under the warm
rays of the sun in the spring, both closely akin
to the general idea of resurrection, Since the
resurrection of Christ occurred In the spring,
it is easy to see how the symbols of the egg and
all revived life in the springtime came (0 be
asgocinted with this event In the history of
Christianity, The egg as a symbol was taken
over by the Hebrews as an emblem of their de
livery from bondage and next the early Christ.
fans took it over as thelr symbol of the resur-
rection,
Mention of the Hebrews makes appropriate at
this point comment on the fact that the fos.
tival now known as Easter was celebrated by
ancient Israel he Passover
tues before
based upon the
be celebrated
w descent declared that the das
f Heb
atl Jesus should be the date of the endin
¢ paschal fast, which in Hebrew rites
ways was on the fourteenth day of the moon in
the evening.
followed, might fall on any day of the week
Those of G
first day of the week, Sunday, to be the first
day of the resurrection festival, Thus the Friday
preceding workd be observed as the date of the
crucifixion without paving any attention to the
day of the month
For 320 years the difficulty between the Christ.
tang of Jewish descent and those of Gentile
descent continued, Not being able to decide the
recurrence of Easter, the council of the early
Christian church finally appealed to the astron
omers in Alexandria, Egypt, for ald, However,
the scientists were not of much assistance, for
they had no lunar tables such as we now have,
They nt.
tempted to make rules, but the variations of the
full moon In reference to the year would not
cause Easter to fall on Sunday any more than
any other day, All wanted it to come on Sunday,
so each nation celebrated to suit itself so that
Thus in A. D. 387
the Gaulzs celebrated Easter on March 21, in
Italy It fell on April 18 and in Egypt it fell on
April 25
Eventually the selection of a certain Sanday
was definitely fixed in the Sixth century A, D.
It was designated as the Sunday between the
fifteenth and twenty first days of the moon in the
first month of the Jewish junar years, It was
directed that the computation should be made
according to the tables of Victorius of Aequi.
taine, introduced in 457 A. D. Because of the
fact that Britain had ceased to be a part of the
Roman empire, the Sixth century decree did not
affect the British church at first, and It con-
tinued to calculate Easter on a basis previously
approved at Rome, The matter was finally dis
posed of at a synod held at Whitby in Yorkshire
in 664 A. D., after which the clergy of the British
Isles conformed to the general practice of the
western church,
Accordingly Easter Is now observed by both
the Noman Catholic and Protestant churches on
the first Sunday after the full moon (or four.
teenth dag of the moon) on or next after March
21. So it cannot be earlier than March 22 nor
later than April 25, Thus it is possible for the
astronomers and mathematicians to tell in ad.
vance on what dates Easter will come each year,
and they are now known for more than a century
in advance. Thus, too, we know how often It is
that young America will be confronted with the
problem that confronts them this year—that of
celebrating on the same day two occasions which
are at the opposite poles in character even
though they trace back to a similar origin,
© by Wentorn Newspaper Union,
computed by master mathematicians
it would come on that day.
7
4
van,
A
\
By Ethelyn Jackson Vance
Ds the first weet day of Easter.
Women went at bresk of day
To the tomb without the city;
There, where hate had hed its way.
Woman's heart by God crested
For her work, & heart with room;
Last to leave the foot of Calvary,
First to hasten to the tomb.
She, whom Birth has crowned its usher,
Braving death each life to bring,
First received the wondrous message
That from Death removed the sting,
Flowers in that holy garden,
Mingled sweetness breathed shove,
And the yearning hearts of women
Poured the fragrance of their love.
We of God are truly honored,
Ours of life a sacred pan;
Let us on our knees accord Him
Incense of & grateful heart,
BLOSSOMS
Easter Time
HEN an old Dutch resident
declares, of an April morn-
ing, that “the Paas lilies by
the stoop are out,” he is not
referring the American
or to Easter
i beloved,
Lt eh Fh y mn daffodil, Nar-
silod al %
illed also the
nhers of the
amaryllis family
gardeners, says riter in the New
concern our
Tribune,
#1
vonfasion ths
not agree about
3
&
clus nd Jonqguils all
which Is right and safe if not specifi
The Modern Easter Lily.
Modern methods of cold
have made the best-known
storage
lily, an all-year adornment, The Amer-
jean pasque flower is a wild anemone
which keeps to the northern central
states and is not familiar here. The
pasque flower of Europe is also an
anemone, and It Is possible that the
poppy-flowered anemone of Mediter-
ranean meadows—red, blue and pure
ple like those local florists are selling
todayv-—was the gorgeous bloom to
which Christ pointed when he admired
“the lilies of the field” In Mexico
the poinsettia Is often called flor de
Pasena. The “Easter cactus” (Schlume-
bergera) beldngs to homy old kitchen
windows.
priate of all to Easter is too rarely
geen since grandma's conservatory
waned--the cerulean passion flower,
In itgelf and in its story it is exquis-
ite, not to be forgotten at the season
of earth's resurrection and of the tri-
umphant festival of the church. The
first Spanish explorers, beholding It as
it trailed from branches in South
American forests, were struck with
wonder, finding in its strange form the
land's own glorification of their task
of conversion.
Legend gathered quickly about Passi.
flora. A drawing of it, brought from
Mexico, created a sensation at Rome
in 1610. It was proclaimed to enfold
“all the mysteries of the Passion™ The
ten colored parts of the floral envelope,
says Balley, to an ardent fancy repre
sented the ten apostles present at the
Crucifixion. The inner fringes became
the Crown of Thorns, the five stamens
the Five Wounds, or else the hammers
that drove In the Thrge Nails (in that
ease represented by s three styles).
The vine's coiling tendrils were the
cords or scourges, while the leaves,
with thelr “fingers” might have been
the hands of Christ's tormentors, That
this natural manifestation of Chris.
tian bellef should have been hidden
in the New world's untrodden jungles
astounded Europe. And not long ago
even Dutch Reformed households
would as soon have lacked Paas lilies
4s passion vines at Easter,
i
TICKLING THE PALATL
“This duck is certainly enough
tickle the palate,” the hoarder tole
bis landlady, The woman |
“I'm very glad you like
ghe replied.
The boarder looked squarely
“1 didn't say 1 liked your
he quickly replied. *1 said
duck Is enough to tickle
I was referring to the
left on it."—lLondon
Lacks Finesse
Mrs. E. C. M. writes A
three and a half
and 1 sald
have, you'll
not like that,
“1 wouldn't
me,” was the res
“Why not?
“He doesn't know how
-—Boston Transcript,
Stretching It
“Now, wha KOT
suggested the
who was get
Aberdeen shop
FAIRLY WARNED
support
ute goes
Advanced Less
ng Wife-——_G
ons
Names
“How did you like the reception?”
“Very much,” answered Miss Cay-
enne. vas it noteworthy
becans yf } listinguished people
present, but it was
cause of several who
interesting be-
were proml-
nently listed among those absent.”
Dead Letter Baritone
“Yeasah, Ah's a great singah”
“Wheah did youall learn to sing?"
“Ah graduated from a correspond
ence school.”
“Boy, you sho’ lost lots of ‘yo
mail."—Florida Times-Union.
She Tried
“How ean you let your wife go
round saying she made a man of
you? My wife eonld never do that”
“No, but she told my wife she did
her best.”
Proof
“Rastus, are you a married man?”
“No, sah, boss, Ah earns mah own
living."—Lendon Tit-Bits.
THE FLAVOR
‘|
EVERYWHER