sioned by their returning to their favorite food after so long an absence from them during Lent.1 In the ancient Calendar of the Romish Church, to which I have so often referred, I find the following: "Ova annunciatæ, ut aiunt, reponuntur," i. e. eggs laid on the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary are laid by. This must have been for some such purpose as the following: "ad hanc superstitionem diariam referendi quoque sunt, qui ova, quæ gallinæ pariunt die Parasceues, toto asservant anno, quia credunt ea vim habere ad extinguenda incendia si in ignem injiciantur." (Delrio Disquis. Magic. p. 205.) Lebrun, too, in his Superstitions Anciennes et Modernes, says that some people keep eggs aid on Good Friday all the year. Dr. Chandler, in his Travels in Asia Minor, gives the following account of the manner of celebrating Easter among the modern Greeks: "The Greeks now celebrated Easter. A small bier, prettily decked with orange and citron buds, jasmine, flowers, and boughs, was placed in the church, with a Christ crucified, rudely painted on board, for the body. We saw it in the evening, and, before day-break, were suddenly awakened by the blaze and crackling of a large bonfire, with singing and shouting in honour of the Resurrection. They made us presents of coloured eggs and cakes of Easter bread.” Easter Day, says the Abbé d'Auteoroche, in his Journey to Siberia, is set apart for visiting in Russia. A Russian came into my room, offered me his hand, and gave me, at the same time, an egg. Another followed, who also embraced, and gave me an egg. I gave him in return the egg which I had just before received. The men go to each other's houses in the morning, and introduce themselves by saying, "Jesus Christ is risen." The answer is-" Yes, he is risen." The people then embrace, give each other eggs, and drink a great deal of brandy. The subsequent extract from Hakluyt's Voyages is of an older date, and shows how little the custom has varied: "They (the Russians) have an order at Easter, which they alwaies observe, and that is this: every yeere, against Easter, to die or colour red, with Brazzel (Brazil wood), 'According to Gebelin, Monde Primitif, 1787, iv. 251, coloured eggs were also employed at the commencement of the New Year. a great number of egges, of which every man and woman giveth one unto the priest of the parish upon Easter Day, in the morning. And, moreover, the common people use to carrie in their hands one of these red egges, not only upon Easter Day, but also three or foure days after, and gentlemen and gentlewomen have egges gilded, which they carry in like maner. They use it, as they say, for a great love, and in token of the Resurrection, whereof they rejoice. For when two friends meete during the Easter Holydayes, they come and take one another by the hand; the one of them saith, The Lord, or Christ, is risen ;' the other answereth, 'It is so of a trueth;' and then they kiss and exchange their egges, both men and women, continuing in kissing four dayes together." Our ancient voyage-writer means no more here, it should seem, than that the ceremony was kept up for four days. On the modern practice of this custom in Russia, see Dr. Clarke's Travels, i. 59.1 . In Germany, sometimes, instead of eggs at Easter, an emblematical print is occasionally presented. One of these is preserved in the Print-room of the British Museum. Three hens are represented as upholding a basket, in which are placed three eggs, ornamented with representations illustrative of the Resurrection. Over the centre egg the Agnus Dei, with a chalice representing Faith; the other eggs bearing the emblems of Charity and Hope. Beneath all, the following lines in German "Alle gute ding seynd drey. Drum schenk dir drey Oster Ey "On Easter Day they greet one another with a kiss, both men and women, and give a red egg, saying these words, Christos vos Christe. In the Easter Week all his Majesty's servants and nobility kiss the patriarch's hand, and receive either gilded or red eggs, the highest sort three, the middle two, and the most inferior one."-Present State of Russia, 1671, p. 18. All good things are three. Therefore I present you three Easter eggs, Faith to the Church; Hope in God [The Pace-Egger's song, as still heard in the North, commences as follows: : "Here's two or three jolly boys, all of one mind, We have come a pace-egging, and hope you'll prove kind; A sort of drama appears to form part of the amusements of this day. I possess a tract of this kind, entitled the Peace Egg, with woodcuts, which concludes as follows, "Enter Devil Doubt. "Here come I, little Devil Doubt, Money I want, and money I crave, EASTER HOLIDAYS. Easter has ever been considered by the Church as a season of great festivity. Belithus, a ritualist of ancient times, tells us that it was customary in some churches for the Bishops and Archbishops themselves to play with the inferior clergy at handball, and this, as Durand asserts, even on Easter Day itself. Why they should play at hand-ball at this time rather than any other game, Bourne tells us he has not been able to discover; certain it is, however, that the present custom of playing at that game on Easter Holidays for a tansy-cake has been derived from thence. Erasmus, speaking of the proverb, Mea est pila, that is, "I've got the ball," tells us that it signifies "I've obtained the victory; I am master of my wishes." The Romanists certainly erected a standard on Easter Day, in token of our Lord's victory; but it would perhaps be indulging fancy too far to suppose that the bishops and governors of churches, who used to play at hand-ball at this season, did it in a mystical way, and with reference to the triumphal joy of the season. Cer tain it is, however, that many of their customs and superstitions are founded on still more trivial circumstances, even according to their own explanations of them, than this imaginary analogy.' Fitzstephen, as cited by Stow, tells us of an Easter holiday amusement used in his time at London: They fight battels on the water. A shield is hanged upon a pole (this is a species of the quintain) fixed in the midst of the stream. A boat is prepared without oars, to be carried by violence of the water, and in the forepart thereof standeth a young man ready to give charge upon the shield with his lance. If so be he break his lance against the shield and do not fall, he is thought to have performed a worthy deed. If so be that without breaking his launce, he runneth strongly against the shield, down he falleth into the water, for the boat is violently forced with the tide; but on each side of the shield ride two boats furnished with young men, which recover him that falleth as soon as they may. Upon the bridge, wharfs, and houses, by the river side, stand great numbers to see and laugh thereat." Henry, in his History of Britain, iii. 594, thus describes another kind of quintain: "A strong post was fixed in the ground, with a piece of wood which turned upon a spindle, on the top of it. At one end of this piece of wood a bag of sand was suspended, and at the other end a board was nailed. Against this board they tilted with spears, which made the piece of wood turn quickly on the spindle, and the bag of sand strike the riders on the back with great force, if they did not make their escape by the swiftness of their horses." They have an ancient custom at Coleshill, in Warwickshire, that if the young men of the town can catch a hare, and bring it to the parson of the parish before ten o'clock on Easter Monday, the parson is bound to give them a calf's head and a hundred of eggs for their breakfast, and a groat in money. 1 By the law concerning holidays, made in the time of King Alfred the Great, it was appointed that the week after Easter should be kept holy.— Collier's Ecclesiast. Hist. i. 163. See also Lambarde's Archaionomia, 1644, p. 33. (Beckwith's edit. of Blount's Jocular Tenures, p. 286.) A writer in the Gent. Mag. for July, 1783, p. 578, mentions a beverage called " Braggot (which is a mixture of ale, sugar, and spices) in use at the festival of Easter."1 Tansy, says Selden, in his Table Talk, was taken from the bitter herbs in use among the Jews at this season. Our meats and sports, says he, "have much of them relation to church works. The coffin of our Christmas pies, in shape long, is in imitation of the cratch,2 i. e. rack or manger, wherein Christ was laid. Our tansies at Easter have reference to the bitter herbs, though at the same time 'twas always the fashion for a man to have a gammon of bacon, to show himself to be no Jew." In that curious book, entitled Adam in Eden, or Nature's Paradise, 1657, by William Coles, our author, speaking of the medicinal virtues of tansy, says: "Therefore it is that Tansays were so frequent not long since about Easter, being so called from this herb tansey: though I think the stomach of those that eat them late are so squeamish that 1 It was an ancient custom for the mayor, aldermen, and sheriff of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, accompanied with great numbers of the burgesses, to go every year, at the Feasts of Easter and Whitsuntide, to a place without the walls called the Forth, a little Mall, where everybody walks, as they do in St. James's Park, with the mace, sword, and cap of maintenance carried before them. The young people of the town still assemble there on these holidays, at Easter particularly, play at hand-ball, and dance, but are no longer countenanced in their innocent festivity by the presence of their governors, who, no doubt, in ancient times, as the bishops did with the inferior clergy, used to unbend the brow of authority, and partake with their happy and contented people the seemingly puerile pleasures of the festal season. 2 Among the MSS. in Benet College, Cambridge, is a translation of part of the New Testament, in the English spoken in the 14th century. The 7th verse of the 2d chapter of St. Luke is thus rendered: "And layde hym in a cratche, for to hym was no place in the dyversory." I will venture to subjoin another specimen, which strongly marks the mutabiity of language. Mark vi. 22: " When the doughtyr of Herodias was in comyn, and had tombylde and pleside to Harowde, and also to the sittande at meate, the kyng says to the wench-" If the original Greek had not been preserved, one might have supposed from this English that, instead of excelling in the graceful accomplishment of dancing, the young lady had performed in some exhibition like the present entertainments at Sadler's Wells. See Lewis's Hist. of the Engl. Translation of the Bible, p. 16. Brand has here confused the archaical and modern uses of the word. See Halliwell's Dictionary, p. 894. |