Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 April 1896 — ORIGIN OF EASTER. [ARTICLE]

ORIGIN OF EASTER.

Disputes Which Arose in the Early History of the Church^ The (Observance of Easter is connected with the history of Christianity itself. And while there hgs never been any difference of opinion among Christians as to the general observation of the festival, in the early church the Asiatics kept the feast on the day of the Jewish Passover, while the western Christiana observed it ofi she first Sunday after the Passover. Hence arose a great dispute ia the Second century, and Victor, tha Bishop of Rome, excommunicated those churches which did not keep it on the Sunday. The controversy was brought before the Coun-

cil of Nice, in the year A. D. 325, and it was decreed that Easter Day should b« kept on the Sunday following the Jewish Feast of the Passover, which Passover Is kept on the fourteenth day of the Jewirii month Nisan. At tfoe same time, to prevent all uncertainty, it was made • rule of the church that the full moon next to the vernal or spring equinox, should be taken for the full moon in the month Nisan, and the 21st of March be accounted the vernal equinox. Consequently, Baxter Day is always the Sunday following the full moon whidh falls on, or is next after, the 21st day of March. The day is still known as Pnscha in the eastern -church, as well as in the various churches in Europe, the English title of Easter being probably derived from the did Saxon word “Oster,” spring. Some, scholars have suggested that it had its origin in the wprd Eastre, the'name given to the Anglo-Saxon goddess of the dawn. For the church took the pagan philosophy and made it the buckler of faith against the heathen. fSSlVoofc 'fhe pagan. Sunday and made it the Christian Sunday. And she took tho pagan Eastre and made it the Christian Easter.—Buffalo Enqufrer.