. Birds and nature . turn, however, the Roman Pascha be-cime permanently changed to the Teu-tonic Easter, named from the festivalof the goddess Ostara, which combinedthe ancient customs of invoking bless-ings on fire, marriage and the fields. This blessing of the fire was a Vedicceremony to welcome the dawn and dis-perse the night demons. It still survivesin the Muckle Wheel of Scotland, theNeed Fire of England and the HolySaturday of Germany. Tlie relics ofthe blessing of the marriage relation maybe still found in* the Silician sale ofgirls on Easter Monday, the shoe-pullingin the north of En
. Birds and nature . turn, however, the Roman Pascha be-cime permanently changed to the Teu-tonic Easter, named from the festivalof the goddess Ostara, which combinedthe ancient customs of invoking bless-ings on fire, marriage and the fields. This blessing of the fire was a Vedicceremony to welcome the dawn and dis-perse the night demons. It still survivesin the Muckle Wheel of Scotland, theNeed Fire of England and the HolySaturday of Germany. Tlie relics ofthe blessing of the marriage relation maybe still found in* the Silician sale ofgirls on Easter Monday, the shoe-pullingin the north of England and the Hamp-shire hockings. The blessing of the fields was by farthe most ancient and the most closelyrelated to the original observance of theoccasion. It was, however, largely doneaway with during the Reformation andPuritan movement. In Germany, never-theless, the cattle are still stroked andthe fields swept with lioly palms. Thecosmic egg of Babylon and Assyria isstill perpetuated in the English Easter 182. PLANT LOANED BY COM. OF LINCOLN PAR/, 567 MinioM oeuRTYpe oo^ cmi. & n. v. EASTER LILY. (Lilium harrisii). 2/6 Life-size. COPYfllQHT 1903, BY A. W. MUMFORD, Chicago. egg. German peasants often place eggsand loaves of bread into the fields to se-cure a fruitful harvest and for a similarpurpose, Easter eggs are rolled over thefields in certain parts of England. The Pongol festival in India, to wel-come the rice crop; the feast of the Zuluswhich occurs in December, when a bul-lock is sacrificed and the formal openingof the harvest in certain parts of Eng-land, before the crop is cut, are all sur-vivals of the aboriginal sacrifices to theGreat Spirit to secure good harvestsand immunity from pestilence. The Roman custom of celebratingtheir festival with flowers and songs,has been maintained by the CatholicChurch to the present day. The pro-fusion of garlands of the past have givenway to flowers typifying purity, as bet-ter fitting the spirit of the occasion, asit is now
Size: 1371px × 1822px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, books, booksubjectnaturalhistory
