Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 March 1891 — EASTER SUPERSTITIONS. [ARTICLE]

EASTER SUPERSTITIONS.

Carious Customs ot Various People on That Day. The curious practices and beliefs that cluster about Easter would almost be laughable to an American if he were not able to trace many of them to anterior tp Christianity, and if!he did not know that they once had a profound siguiiicance for his ancestors. The world is a big child, which often affects to look with contempt upon the broken toys of : its babyhood. This, is particularly so in America, the most precocious of countries. The old-time feasts for us are stripped bare like the interiors of our churches or the walls of our imagination. One must go to some hamlet In Ger many, or some village in the North of England to find a survival of Easter customs, or, as some might call them, superstitions. This word may be discarded, however, as it is too harsh to be applied to our ancestors.

THE SUN DANCE. The first of childish fictions about Easter, and the one that has longest survived in America, is that the sun dances or takes three steps on Easter morn. One has a suspicion that this fable was invented by nurses who wished to encourage in youthful Christians a habit of early rising. Little ones go to bed Easter evening fully determined to get up to witness the phenomenon; but as they oversleep themselves they generally remain credulous and unsatisfied. Perhaps it would be wrong to rudely disturb their beliefs. One of the minor English poets has given a metrical explanation which is satisfactory of the Easter jocularity of the sun. He thus addresses the luminary:

Phoebus, the old wives say That on Easter Day To th’ music of th’ spheres you do caper; Ts the faet, sir, he true. Pray let’s the cause know When you have any room in your paper. A NEW BONNET ESSENTIAL. Speaking of superstitions one had almost forgotten that there is one as old as the hills in which all women believe even to this day- It is that a person will have no luck for a year tvho does not wear a new article of dress Easter Sunday. It will be observed that it is not necessary to order an entire outfit. A bounet, for instance, will suffice, and if it is new and pretty that is sufficient. It is not necessary that it should”cost a week’s salary. TANSY TEA AND RED HERRING. To entirely propitiate fate the true observer of Easter should dine on tansy tea and red herrings. At least this is in accordance with the rules laid down in ancient and reliablo English chronicles. The beggars were presumably first made presentable, and then their feet were washed in tjirn by the laundress, the sub almoner and the grand almoner.’ Then the Queen repeated the ceremony while her lords and ladies of the court waited oh her, carrying towels, etc. She wiped, crossed and kissed the feet of the fortunate unfortunates, and then distributed presents among them. beggars’ feet washed by the queen. A royal custom on this day was the

washing by the king or queen of the feet of beggars, after the example related in the Scripture. There were as many beggars as the sovereign was years old. For instance, if her Majesty was 40 years old there were exa’ctly forty-nine beggars. This was no doubt thought in ancient times a salutary way of reminding & woman of her age. SIGNIFICANCE OF EASTER CUSTOMS. The passing of the feast of Easter from Semitic to Aryan lands is really the history of humanity, and the story of Easter practices is the story of civilization. These practices link us with the remote past, and in their decadence from earnestness to sport they show how the world has grown from childhood to the age of reason. The Reformation in England did away with a number of pagan practices that were supposed to be “popish. ” The fact was that the peasants had kept them from pagan times, and the Roman Church may have tolerated but did not encourage them. They would have died a natural death if left alone, for many that did survive the Reformation gradually became ridiculous, and died to tho music of a laugh. GIVE BREAD TO TUE POOR. In England and other parts of Europe tho observance of the feast began about the Thursday before the feast and lasted about a week. Maundy Thursday was so called because loaves of bread in maunds or baskets were distributed among the poor. DECORATING THE WEI,!,. Easter is the time for the divining of a good year by the height of the water, and for the decoration of wells.