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46 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Easter

day and that on that day " the clone of the paschal fast " should be observed. The pascha was a time of fasting. " The mystery of the recur

1. Prior rection of the Lord " must refer to to 300 the Eucharist. Tertullian (Ad uzo- A.D, ram, ii. 4) and others refer to vigils extending into the night of Saturday or until the cockcrowing of the Sunday morning (Apostolic Constitutions, ANF, vii. 447). The chief source of information is the Didaskalia (xxi., Apostolic Constitutions, v. 18-19) which speaks of the fasting beginning on the Monday of the paschal week and continuing with growing rigor into Saturday night, and adds that on Saturday night the whole con gregation met and engaged in prayer, especially for the Jews, and in reading from the Scripture. Sunday was then observed by the meeting to gather of rich and poor in the love-feast and the Eucharist.

After 300 notices of the festivities of Easter are frequent and many sermons on the pascha are preserved in Ambrose, Augustine, and other writers. The day was looked upon as the most joyous festival of the year. The week beginning with Easter Sunday was observed with special religious festivities and each day had its sermon.

2. In the Easter Sunday was called dominica Post- in (ylb2S (nee ALBS CATECHUMENATE, Nicene § 4) or octavo infantium and the

Period Sunday closing Easter week was and

M ddle called octavo pasehce or pascha clams sum. Ambrose in his sermon on the "Mystery of the Pascha " (MPL, xvii. 695) gives full expression to the joyous feelings which were involved in Easter. He called the day the real beginning of the year, the opening of the months, the new revival of the seeds and the res toration of the joy interrupted by the cold of winter. On that day God, as it were, relighta the sun and given light to the moon. The Easter cele bration began on Saturday, sometimes as early as three o'clock in the afternoon, as is stated to have been the case in Jerusalem by the "Itinerary" of Silvia (cf. Hauck-Herzog, RE, xiv. 743). This Saturday celebration was known as the Easter or Paschal Vigils. Augustine called this vigil the " mother of all the sacred vigils" (Sermo ecxix., MPL, xxxviii. 1088), and says that even the heathen kept awake on that night. According to Lactantiua (De divinis institutionx'hua, VIL, xix., ANF, vii. 215) and Jerome (on Matt, xAV. 6, MPL, xxvi. 184), the Lord was expected to return at that time. The celebration is referred to by other authors, in missals, in the codes of Theo dosius and Justinian and in the acts of coun cils. The services in the churches consisted of readings from the Law, the Prophets and the narratives of the Lord's passion, in the administra tion of baptism and confirmation, and ended with the Eucharist. For Spain and Gaul these services are recorded in the Mozarabic Liturgy (MPL, Ixxxv.), and in the Gothic missal the Gallic missal, the Gallic sacramentaryand the Lectionary of Luxeuil (all in MPL lxxii.). The use of lighted candles became universal and is attested as the custom in Rome at least as early as the middle of

the third century. The Canons of Hippolytus (TU, vi. 4, p. 136) say " that on the night of the resurrection no one should sleep and every one should have a light, for on that night the Redeemer made every one free from the darkness of sin and the grave." Augustine bears witness to the custom of lighting and carrying candles. Eusebius says that the whole city of Constantinople was illuminated with wax candles and columns of wax (" Life of Constantine," iv. 22). Gregory Nazianzen (d. 390) and Gregory of Nyasa (d. 395, " Oration on the pascha," xlii.) speak of persons of all ranks carrying tapers and lamps. The custom of the paschal fire was also an early institution and can be traced back to 600 at least as in vogue in France. Alcuin (De diz;inis ofj'rciis, xvi.17,MPL, ci. 1205) and Boniface (d. 752, MPL, lxxxix. 951) definitely refer to it. The new fire was struck from a atone and the tapers and candles lighted from it. Perhaps the custom was drawn from the ceremony of the Romans at the altar of Vests at the opening of the New Year, Mar. 1. The symbolical significance of such an act, as a means of instruction to the people and as an expression of piety for the new light brought into the world by the resurrection is so natural that it is not necessary to fall back upon the old Roman ceremony. In Gaul the custom was also observed, how widely is not known, of placing five pieces of incense in the great paschal candle to symbolize the five wounds of Christ. The codes of Theodosius and Just*nian recognized the joyous character of the day by encouraging the emancipation of slaves and the liberation of minor criminals, and ordering the omission of spectacular entertainments during Easter week. It was also made a time for the presentation of gifts and the distribution of alma. The acts of councils (Orleans, 538, Macon, 581, and others) down through the Middle Ages to the Fourth Lateran (1215) and later councils forbade the Jews to tread the streets or to show themselves out of doors from Maundy Thursday till after Easter, lest the joy of the Christians should be interrupted.

At the present time the religious festivities of Easter time in the Greek and Latin Churches involve the substantial elements in the ancient custom of the day. Elaborate solemn rites are observed on Saturday and until the cockcrowing of Easter morning when the tapers (extinguished on Good Friday) are lighted with the words " The Light of Christ." In the church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem until a few years ago the pious fraud of the " holy fire" was perpetrated by the Greek patriarch who presented from the sacred tomb

s. In three times a lighted taper or torch which he declared had been lighted ern by a miracle without human interven Times. tion. The spectators, wrought to great excitement, struggled to light their tapers at the miraculous fire, and then carried it throughout the Greek world. Often disgraceful scenes occurred and the intervention of the Turkish soldiery was required to prevent or check violence. In the twelfth century Saladin is said by an early tradition to have witnessed this miracle and acknowl-