Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 April 1898 — ALL IN HONOR OF EASTER. [ARTICLE]

ALL IN HONOR OF EASTER.

Mans’ Curious Customs Relative to the Celebration of the Hay. In France, during the middle ages, there were many curious customs relative to Easter eggs. Before Eastertide began the priests paid a round of visits, blessing and receiving eggs. The largest eggs were picked out and sent to the King as tribute. After high mass in the chapel of the Louvre on Easter day huge gayly decorated baskets of gilded eggs were carried in to the royal presence; the attendant chaplain blessed and distributed them to those present. Then came the substitution of the artificial egg fff sugar, pasteboard, ivory, and so forth, the cover or .case for some daintier gift. Beringer and other writers refer to the fabulous sums of money spent upon luxuries inclosed in Easter eggs. It is a little curious that as far as the custom of egg-rolling is practiced in the United States it has a national reputation only in Washington. How or where it started there no one now living in Washington can tell; but that the enchanting slopes of the White House grounds give it inviting encouragement no one will dispute. With every year the crowd of children engaged in the sport has increased, and the egg-rolling has finally grown to the importance of a festival. The public schools are closed on Easter Monday, and thousands of children swarm about the White House. The grounds are prettily diversified with little hills and intermediate valleys, and on the knoll above the steepest of these grassy

slopes the children gather. Baskets and boxes are quickly emptied, and the sport of rolling the colored egg begins. It has no apparent object, unless it is to test the strength of the eggshell and to see how many times it will go bumping over rough places without breaking. Some of the little ones try to roll their eggs against others, to see which will break; others run after their eggs as they roll down, to catch them before they reach the bottom, so that they may not break. But they are not long-lived. Even the hard-boiled egg has a limit of endurance. Before long the first comers have seen the last of their colored treasures broken and scattered over the grass. But the newcomers constantly arriving bring a fresh supply. S 6 the business of the day goes on with everrenewed vigor. The children come and go from 9 o’clock till su*ndown. t