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EASTER
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EASTER , the See also:annual festival observed throughout Christendom in See also:commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus See also:Christ. The name Easter (Ger. Ostern), like the names of the days of the See also:week, is a survival from the old See also:Teutonic See also:mythology. According to See also:Bede (De Temp. See also:Rat. c. xv.) it is Serived from Eostre, or Ostdra, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of See also:spring, to whom the See also:month answering to our See also:April, and called Eostur-monath, was dedicated. This month, Bede says, was the same as the mensis paschalis, " when the old festival was observed with the gladness of a new solemnity."
The name of the festival in other See also:languages (as Fr. pdques; Ital. pasqua; Span. Pascua; See also:Dan. paaske; Dutch paasch; Welsh pasg) is derived from the See also:Lat. pascha and the Gr. 7riur a. These in turn come from the See also:Chaldee or Aramaean See also:form H?pv pascha', of the See also:Hebrew name of the See also:Passover festival np.; pesach, from nu " he passed over," in memory of the See also:great deliverance, when the destroying See also:angel " passed over the houses, of the See also:children of See also:Israel in See also:Egypt when he smote the Egyptians " (Exod. xii. 27).
An erroneous derivation of the word pascha from the See also:Greek lr&axav, " to suffer," thus connected with the sufferings or See also:passion of the See also:Lord, is given by some of the Fathers of the See also: See also:Tract. 55) notices this false See also:etymology, shows how similarity of See also:sound had led to it, and gives the correct derivation. There is no indication of the observance of the Easter festival in the New Testament, or in the writings of the apostolic Fathers. The sanctity of See also:special times was an See also:idea absent from the minds of the first Christians. " The whole of See also:time is a festival unto Christians because of the See also:excellency of the See also:good things which have been given " is the comment of St See also:Chrysostom on r See also:Cor. v. 7, which has been erroneously supposed to refer to an apostolic observance of Easter. The ecclesiastical historian See also:Socrates (Hist. Eccl. v. 22) states, with perfect truth, that neither the Lord nor his apostles enjoined the keeping of this or any other festival. He says: " The apostles had no thought of appointing festival days, but of promoting a See also:life of blamelessness and piety "; and he attributes the observance of Easter by the church to the perpetuation of an old usage, " just as many other customs have been established." This is doubtless the true statement of the See also:case. The first Christians continued to observe the Jewish festivals, though in a new spirit, as commemorations of events which those festivals had foreshadowed. Thus the Passover, with a new conception added to it of Christ as the true See also:Paschal See also:Lamb and the first fruits from the dead, continued to be observed, and became the See also:Christian Easter. Although the observance of Easter was at a very See also:early See also:period the practice of the Christian church, a serious difference as to the See also:day for its observance soon arose between the Christians of Jewish and those of See also:Gentile descent, which led to a See also:long and See also:bitter controversy. The point at issue was when the Paschal fast was to be reckoned as ending. With the Jewish Christians, whose leading thought was the See also:death of Christ as the Paschal Lamb, the fast ended at the same time as that of the See also:Jews, on the fourteenth day of the See also:moon at evening, and the Easter festival immediately followed, without regard to the day of the week. The Gentile Christians, on the other See also:hand, unfettered by Jewish traditions, identified the first day of the week with the Resurrection, and kept the preceding See also:Friday as the commemoration of the crucifixion, irrespective of the day of the month. With the one the observance of the day of the month, with the other the observance of the day of the week, was the guiding principle.
Generally speaking, the Western churches kept Easter on the first day of the week, while the Eastern churches followed the Jewish See also:rule, and kept Easter on the fourteenth day. St See also:Polycarp, the See also:disciple of St See also: See also:Peace was thus maintained, and the See also:Asiatic churches retained their usage unmolested (Euseb. H.E. v. 23-25). We find the Jewish usage from time to time reasserting itself after this, but it never prevailed to any large extent.
A final See also:settlement of the dispute was one among the other reasons which led See also:Constantine to summon the See also:council of See also:Nicaea in 325. At that time the Syrians and Antiochenes were the solitary champions of the observance of the fourteenth day. The decision of the council was unanimous that Easter was to be kept on See also:Sunday, and on the same Sunday throughout the See also:world,
and " that none should hereafter follow the See also:blindness of the 1 See also:calendar according to the Gregorian See also:reformation, and thus their Easter usually falls before, or after, that of the Western churches, and only very rarely, as was the case in 1865, do the two coincide.
Easter, as commemorating the central fact of the Christian See also:religion, has always been regarded as the See also:chief festival of the Christian See also:year, and according to a regulation of Constantine it was to be the first day of the year. This reckoning of the year as beginning at Easter lingered in See also:France till 1565, when, by an See also:ordinance of See also: One the most notable of these was the use of the paschal See also:candle. This was a candle of very large dimensions, set in a See also:candlestick big enough to hold it, which was usually placed on the See also:north See also:side, just below the first ascent to the high See also:altar. It was kept alight during each service till Whitsuntide. The Paschal, as it was called at See also:Durham See also:cathedral, was one of the chief See also:sights of that church before the Reformation. It was an elaborate construction of polished See also:brass, and, contrary to the usual custom, seems to have been placed in the centre of the altar-step, long branches stretching out towards the four See also:cardinal points, bearing smaller candles. The central See also:stem of the candlestick was about 38 ft. high, and See also:bore the paschal candle proper, and together they reached a combined height of about 7o ft., the candle being lighted from an opening above. Other paschal candles seem to have been of scarcely less See also:size. At See also:Lincoln, c. 1300, the candle was to weigh three stones of See also:wax; at See also:Salisbury in 1517 it was to be 36 ft. long; and at See also:Westminster in 1558 it weighed no less than 3 cwt. of wax. After Whitsuntide what remained was made into smaller candles for the funerals of the poor. In the See also:ancient churches at Rome the paschal candlesticks were See also:fixtures, but elsewhere they were usually movable, and were brought into the church and set up on the See also:Thursday before Easter. At See also:Winchester the paschal candlestick was of See also:silver, and was the See also:gift of Canute. Others of more or less importance are recorded as having been at See also:Canterbury, See also:Bury St See also:Edmunds, See also:Hereford and See also:York. The burning of the paschal candle still forms See also:part of the Easter ceremonial of the See also:Roman See also:Catholic Church (see See also:LIGHTS, CEREMONIAL). The liturgical See also:colour for Easter was everywhere white, as the sign of joy, See also:light and purity, and the churches and altars were adorned with the best ornaments that each possessed. See also:Flowers and shrubs no doubt in early times were also used for this purpose, but what See also:evidence there is goes against the See also:medieval use of such decorations, which are so popular at the See also:present day. It is not the purpose of this See also:article to enter on the wide subject of the popular observances, such as the giving and sending of Pasch or Easter eggs as presents. For such the reader may consult See also:Brand's Popular Antiquities, See also:Hone's Every-Day See also:Book, and See also:Chambers's Book of Days. AuTHoRITIEs.—Bingham, Antiquities of the Christian Church; Bede, Ecclesiastical See also:History of See also:England ; See also:Procter and See also:Frere, A New History of the Book of See also:Common See also:Prayer (See also:London, 1901); See also:Surtees Society, See also:Rites of Durham, ed. J. T. See also:Fowler (1903); De See also:Morgan, See also:Companion to the See also:Almanac (1845) ; De Moleon, Voyages liturgiques (See also:Paris, 1718). (T. M. F.)
Jews " (Socrates, H.E. i. 9). The correct date of the Easter festival was to be calculated at See also:Alexandria, the See also:home of astronomical See also:science, and the bishop of that see was to announce it yearly to the churches under his jurisdiction, and also to the occupant of the Roman see, by whom it was to be communicated to the Western churches. The few who afterwards separated themselves from the unity of the church, and continued to keep the fourteenth day, were named Quartodecimani, and the dispute itself is known as theQuarto-deciman controversy. Although See also:measures had thus been taken to secure uniformity of observance, and to put an end to a controversy which had endangered Christian unity, a new difficulty had to be encountered owing to the See also:absence of any authoritative rule by which the paschal moon was to be ascertained. The subject is a very difficult and complex one (see also CALENDAR). Briefly, it may be explained here that Easter day is the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal See also:equinox. This, of course, varies in different longitudes, while a further difficulty occurred in the See also:attempt to See also:fix the correct time of Easter by means of cycles of years, when the changes of the See also:sun and moon more or less exactly repeat themselves. At first an eight years' See also:cycle was adopted, but it was found to be faulty, then the Jewish cycle of 84 years was used, and remained in force at Rome till the year 457, when a more accurate calculation of a cycle of 532 years, invented by Victorius of Acquitaine, took its place. Ultimately a cycle of 19 years was accepted, and it is the use of this cycle which makes the See also:Golden Number and Sunday See also:Letter, explained in the See also:preface to the Book of Common Prayer, necessary. Owing to this lack of decision as to the accurate finding of Easter, St Augustine tells us (Epist. 23) that in the year 387 the churches of Gaul kept Easter on the 21st of See also: 64, ad See also:Marcian.) that in 455 there was a difference of eight days between the Roman and the Alexandrine Easter. See also:Gregory of See also:Tours relates that in 577 " there was a doubt about Easter. In Gaul we with many other cities kept Easter on the fourteenth calends of May, others, as the Spaniards, on the twelfth calends of April."
The ancient See also:British and See also:Celtic churches followed the cycle of 84 years which they had originally received from Rome, and their stubborn refusal to abandon it caused much bitter controversy in the 8th See also:century between their representatives and St Augustine of Canterbury and the Latin missionaries. These latter unfairly attempted to fix the stigma of the Quartodeciman observance on the British and Celtic churches, and they are even now sometimes ignorantly spoken of as having followed the Asiatic practice as to Easter. This, however, is quite erroneous. The British and Celtic churches always kept Easter according to the Nicene decree on a Sunday. The difference between them and the Roman Church, at this period, was that they still followed the 84 years' cycle in computing Easter, which had been abandoned at Rome for the more accurate cycle of 532 years. This difference of calculation led to Easter being observed on different Sundays, in certain years, in England, by the adherents of the two churches. Thus Bede records that in a certain year (which must have been 645, 647, 648 or 651) See also:Queen Eanfleda, who had received her instruction from a Kentish See also:priest of the Roman obedience, was See also:fasting and keeping See also:Palm Sunday, while her See also:husband, Oswy, See also: So far as Western Christendom is concerned the corrected calendar is now universally accepted, and Easter is kept on the same day, but it was not until 1752 that the Gregorian reformation of the calendar was adopted in Great See also:Britain and See also:Ireland. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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