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| Sandhill Cemetery's Oldest Unmarked Grave, cared for by Colmesneil's Kenneth Brown, who planted the bluebonnets you see on the hillside. (April 2012) |
It actually strikes me as quite odd that it is still politically correct and unoffensive to say 'Happy Easter'. I really can't imagine why we aren't already forced to say 'Happy Spring' - particularly in our public schools.
Or has that already happened and I just don't know it? In the pre-Christian era of the world, those happy heathens, the Anglo Saxons, celebrated spring by feasting to the goddess Ostera - so perhaps we could really trip up those spiritually bereft secularists by saying 'Happy Ostera'! (FYI - Secularism Definition: ". . . a doctrine that rejects religion and religious considerations.")
Perhaps the day is coming when we see politically unoffensive pagan festivals of the ancient gods and goddesses beneath a peaceful spreading oak tree in a farmer's cow pasture, or beside the banks of a clear and beautifully flowing stream deep in the woods - all with a closely guarded secret of course - that it's a scam of the Highest Order - if you get my meaning?
The mainstream media would have a field day with that - probably run massive news coverage with the headline: Proof The United States is not a Christian Nation! or, Paganism Replacing the Pulpit! Christian city dwellers could even camp out in the public parks for some pagan tree praying! Hmmm, what would the media label them? Occupiers! Occupying for their right to worship nature . . . what conceivable argument could be found with that? They would be hailed as 21st Century hippies who actually cleaned up their trash, and would likely be interviewed with fond tolerance on the Today Show or Good Morning America.
Below you'll find some really old sayings and superstitions about Easter that are amusing, but also informative. I had no idea that getting my 'Easter dress' as a child was from traditions started hundreds of years ago; and certainly had no idea how far back the tradition of the Easter egg dates. If I'd been asked that question, I'd probably have replied without much thought that it is likely something Americans got started - I've just never really thought about it. Shame on me.
Also, I've excerpted at the end a great deal from an 1859 printing of a 'Cyclopedia' on the topic of Easter. I haven't stopped to check what a modern 'Encyclopedia' says about Easter, I just generally like to read the less politically edited versions of old topics.
Old Sayings that caught my Eye or Ear:
If you find a little calf on Easter Sunday, keep it and raise it, for it will bring you a small fortune. (Darn, wish I'd known that several years back! I've only ever had one calve on Easter, and I didn't keep the cow and calf!)
On Easter Sunday blow a loud horn into the cattle-house, and as far as the sound is heard, so far it will wild beasts keep away for the year. (Okay, I'm on board for this one, and will be blowing a fog horn through all the pastures!)
Egg rolling on Easter day used to be practiced with the idea that the farm lands over which the eggs were rolled would be sure to yield abundantly at harvest time. (I'm too old, not to mention clumsy, to do this one.)
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| Really old Red Oak Burned up by a Lightening Strike a few days ago; fortunately, no cattle were in the pasture - April 2012 |
"At Easter let your clothes be new, Or else be sure, you will it rue." In many countries it is a very general custom to wear new clothes on Easter Sunday and it is considered bad luck to wear old clothes. In East Yorkshire is the saying, that the birds, especially rooks or "crakes," will spoil the clothes, unless the person wears something new on Easter day. (I do look back fondly mostly at new dresses for Easter Sunday, mostly, as some of them were awfully stuffy and itchy . . . Note in East Yorkshire you wear new clothes or a bird might poop on you, but in Gloucestershire it was good luck if a bird pooped on your new bonnet!)
It is lucky to put on a new bonnet on Easter day, and still more lucky if a bird leaves a mark on it. (Gloucestershire, England.)
In Devonshire, the maidens rise early on Easter morning to see the dancing sun and in the center of its disk a lamb and a flag. In Scotland, superstition had it, that the sun even whirled round like a mill-wheel and gave three leaps. This unusual merriment of the sun could be seen in its reflection in a pool or a pail of water, the movement of which of course caused or strengthened the illusion. An Irish woman declared that she had seen the sun dance for joy on Easter morning: "It gave three skips just as it came over the hill, for I saw it with my own eyes!" (This is a very old belief, and maybe is the root of the modern day Sunrise Service on Easter?)
On Easter day the water is believed to possess many exceptional properties, peasants ride their horses into the water early in the morning to ward off sickness. Girls wash their faces with the morning dew, to improve their beauty. Water drawn with the stream and while the wind is due east, is supposed to have great healing virtue. Much importance is attached to rain or shine on Easter day:
"A good deal of rain on Easter Day Gives a crop of good grass, but little good hay."
Who steps not barefoot on the floor on Easter day, will be safe from fever; and if you bathe with cold water on Easter day, you will keep well the whole year. (I see no reason not to keep this tradition up, and it is so unseasonably hot these days a cold shower shouldn't be a problem at all!) |
| Vintage Easter Greeting Card - Quite Appropriate, and I have lots of Newborn Kittens to Back that up - Need a Kitty Kat? |
"The custom of the Christians to present Easter-eggs as a symbol of the resurrection, has been adopted from the peoples of the East, particularly the Persians, where the egg was since the most ancient times symbolical of creation, or the re-creation of Spring. In Christian countries the Easter-eggs were painted red in allusion to the blood of the Redeemer.
The usage of interchanging eggs at Easter has also been referred for its origin to the egg games of the Romans which they celebrated at the time of our Easter, when they ran races in an egg-shaped ring, and the victor received eggs as a prize. These games were instituted in honor of Castor and Pollux who came forth from an egg, deposited by Leda, after Jupiter had visited her in the shape of a swan.
Others allege that the custom was borrowed from the Hebrews who at the passover set on the table two unleavened cakes and two pieces of lamb. To this they added some small fishes because of the leviathan, a hard egg because of the bird Zig, and some meal because of the behemoth.
In some remote districts of France it is still customary for the priest of the parish to go around to each house at Easter and bestow on it his blessing. In return he received eggs, plain and painted.
In Italy an egg dyed scarlet like the cloak of a Roman Cardinal is carried by some for luck all the year round.
It is very unlucky to give away a colored egg that has been presented to you at Easter."
On the history of Easter as presented in 1859:
Source: THE NEW AMERICAN CYCLOPEDIA: A POPULAR DICTIONARY OF GENERAL KNOWLEDGE, Volume VI., 1859
"EASTER, the festival of the resurrection of our Lord, or the Christian passover. The English name Easter and the German Oitern have been supposed by some writers to be derived from the name of the feast of the Teutonic goddess Ostera (the goddess of spring), which was celebrated by the ancient Saxons in the spring, and for which the early missionaries substituted the Christian festival.
According to Adelung, both the English and the German words are derived from the old Saxon word otter, oaten, which signifies rising, because nature arises anew in the spring. According to the Mosaic law, the passover among the Jews was celebrated on the 14th day of the month Abib, afterward called Nisan, that is, within a day or two before or after the vernal equinox. The early Christians differed in regard to the time of celebrating Easter.
The churches in the West, taught, as they declared, by St. Philip and St. Paul, observed the nearest Sunday to the full moon of Nisan, without taking account of the day on which the passover was celebrated. The Asiatic churches, on the other hand, in accordance as they said with the tradition derived from St. John, followed the Jewish calendar, and adopting the 14th of Nisan as the day of the crucifixion, celebrated the festival of Easter on the 3rd day following, whatever day of the week that might be.
Saving occasional disputes, matters continued in this state until the time of Constantino, who had the subject brought before the council of Nice (A. D. 325). The question was fully discussed, and finally settled for the whole church by adopting the rule which makes Easter day to be always the first Sunday after the full moon which happens upon or next after March 21; and if the full moon happen on a Sunday, Easter day is the Sunday after.
By this arrangement Easter may come as early as March 22, or as late as April 25.—This sacred festival has been termed the queen of festivals; it has been observed from the very beginning, and it is celebrated in every part of the Christian world with great solemnity and devotion. The primitive Christians very early on the morning of Easter saluted each other with the words: " Christ is risen;" to which the response was made : " Christ is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon." The Greek church still retains this custom.
In nearly all Christian countries the recurrence of Easter has been celebrated with various ceremonies, popular sports, and superstitions. Among the best known is the English custom of making presents of colored eggs, called pasche or paste eggs, which were often elaborately ornamented ; and in a royal roll of the time of Edward I., preserved in the tower, appears an entry of 18d. for 400 eggs to be used for this purpose.
Colored eggs were used by children at Easter in a sort of game which consists in testing the strength of the egg shells, and this practice is retained in many places in England and the United States. In some parts of Ireland the legend is current that the sun dances in the sky on Easter Sunday morning. This was once a prevailing superstition in England also, which Sir Thomas Browne, the author of "Inquiry into Vulgar Errors," thought it not superfluous to declare unfounded."
For lots of old traditions and superstitions surrounding Easter and other events see: Encyclopedia of Superstitions, Pg. 1515.