VARIO

EASTER EVE.

JARIOUS superstitions crept in by degrees among the rites of this day; such as putting out all the fires in churches and kindling them anew from flint, blessing the Easter wax, &c.

They are thus described by Naogeorgus

"On Easter eve the fire all is quencht in every place,

And fresh againe from out the flint is fetcht with solemne grace :
The priest doth halow this against great daungers many one,

A brande whereof doth every man with greedie minde take home,
That, when the fearefull storme appeares, or tempest black arise,
By lighting this he safe may be from stroke of hurtfull skies.

A taper great, the PASCHALL namde, with musicke then they blesse,
And franckencense herein they pricke, for greater holynesse :
This burneth night and day as signe of Christ that conquerde hell,
As if so be this foolish toye suffiseth this to tell.

Then doth the bishop or the priest the water halow straight,
That for their baptisme is reservde: for now no more of waight
Is that they vsde the yeare before; nor can they any more
Young children christen with the same, as they have done before.
With wondrous pomp and furniture amid the church they go,
With candles, crosses, banners, chrisme, and oyle appoynted tho' :
Nine times about the font they marche, and on the Saintes do call;
Then still at length they stande, and straight the priest begins withall.
And thrise the water doth he touche, and crosses thereon make;
Here bigge and barbrous wordes he speakes, to make the Deuill quake ;
And holsome waters coniureth, and foolishly doth dresse;
Supposing holyar that to make which God before did blesse.

And after this his candle than he thrusteth in the floode,

And thrice he breathes thereon with breath that stinkes of former foode. And making here an ende, his chrisme he poureth thereupon,

The people staring hereat stande, amazed every one;

Beleaving that great powre is given to this water here,

By gaping of these learned men, and such like trifling gere.

Therefore in vessels brought they draw, and home they carie some

Against the grieues that to themselves, or to their beastes may come. Then clappers ceasse, and belles are set againe at libertee,

And herewithall the hungrie times of fasting ended bee."

On Easter Even it was customary in our own country to light the churches with what are called Paschal tapers.

In Coates's History of Reading (1802), under Churchwardens Accounts, we find the subsequent entry, sub anno 1559—

"Paid for makynge of the PASCALL and the Funte Taper, 5s. 8d.

A note on this observes: "The Pascal taper was usually very large. In 1557, the Pascal taper for the Abbey Church of Westminster was 300 pounds weight."

In the ancient annual Church-Disbursements of St Mary at Hill, in the City of London, I find the following article: "For a quarter of coles for the hallowed fire on Easter Eve, 6ď.” Also: "To the Clerk and Sexton (for two men) for watching the Sepulchre from Good Friday to Easter Eve, and for their meate and drinke, 14d."

I find also in the same Churchwardens' Accounts (5th Henry VI.) the following entries

"For the Sepulchre, for divers naylis and wyres and glu, 9ď. ob.
Also payd to Thomas Joynor for makyng of the same Sepulchre, 45.
Also payd for bokeram for penons, and for the makynge, 22d.
Also payd for betyng and steynynge of the penons, 6s.

For a pece of timber to the newe Pascall, 25.

Also payd for a dysh of peuter for the Paskall, 8d.
Also payd for pynnes of iron for the same Pascall, 4d.”

It was customary in the popish times to erect, on Good Friday, a small building to represent the sepulchre of our Saviour. In this was placed the Host, and a person set to watch it both that night and the next; and the following morning very early, the Host being taken out, Christ was said to have arisen.

In Coates's History of Reading, under Churchwardens' Accounts, we read, sub anno 1558—

"Paide to Roger Brock for watching of the Sepulchre, 8d.
Paide more to the saide Roger for syses and colles, 3d."

With this note: "This was a ceremony used in churches in remembrance of the soldiers watching the Sepulchre of our Saviour. We find in the preceding Accounts the old Sepulchre and 'the Toumbe of brycke' had been sold."

The accounts alluded to are at p. 128, and run thus

"A.D. 1551.

Receyvid of Henry More for the Sepulchre, xiijs. iiijd.
Receyvid of John Webbe for the Toumbe of brycke, xijd.”

Under A.D. 1499, p. 214, we read: "Imprimis, payed for wakyng of the Sepulcr' viiid. It. payed for a li. of encens. xiid. ;" and under "Receypt," ," "It. rec. at Estur for the Pascall xxxviis."

Ibid. p. 216, under 1507 are the following

"It. paied to Sybel Derling for nayles for the Sepulcre, and for rosyn to the Resurrection play, iid. ob.

It. paied to John Cokks for wryting off the Fest of J'hu, and for vi hedds and berds to the church.

It. paied a carter for carying of pypys and hogshedds into the Forbury, ijd. It. paied to the laborers in the Forbury for setting up off the polls for the scaphold, ixd.

It. paied for bred, ale, and bere, yɩ longyd to y• pleye in the Forbury, ijs. jd.

It. payed for the ii Boks of the Fest of J'hu and the Vysytacyon of our

Lady, ijs. viijd.

1508. It. payed to Water Barton for xx l. wex for a pascall pic. le li. vď. S'ma viijs. iiijd.

It. payed for one li. of grene flowr to the foreseid pascall, vjd."

Ibid. p. 214, sub anno 1499 : “It. rec. of the gaderyng of the stageplay xviis.

Ibid. p. 215, under the same year, we have―

"It. payed for the pascall bason, and the hanging of the same, xviiis. It. payed for making leng' Mr Smyth's molde, wa Judas for the pascall, vid."

P. 214: "It. payed for the pascall and the fonte taper to M. Smyth iiiis.

P. 377, St Giles's parish, A.D. 1519: "Paid for making a Judas for the pascall iiiid.”

"To houl over the paschal" is mentioned among the customs of the Roman Catholics censured by John Bale in his Declaration of Bonner's Articles (1554, fol. 19).

Among the ancient annual Disbursements of the Church of St Mary at Hill, I find the following entry against Easter

"Three great garlands for the crosses, of roses and lavender
Three dozen other garlands for the quire

}

35."

The same also occurs in the Churchwardens' Accounts, for 1512. Also, among the Church-Disbursements, items in the Waxchandler's Accompt are "for making the pascal at Ester, 2s. 8d," "For garnishing 8 torches on Corpus Christi day, 2s. 8d." And in 1486: "At Ester, for the howslyn people for the pascal, IIS. 5d."

A more particular account of the ceremony of the Holy Sepulchre, as used in this and other countries, will be found in the Vetusta Monumenta of the Society of Antiquaries, vol. iii. pl. xxxi. xxxii.

EASTER DAY.

EASTER, says Wheatley, is so called from the Saxon oster, to rise,

being the day of Christ's resurrection; or, as others think, from one of the Saxon goddesses called Easter, whom they always worshipped at this season.

It was formerly a popular custom to rise early on this day and walk into the fields to see the sun dance, which, as ancient tradition asserts, it always does on this day. It had not escaped the notice of

In the Country-man's Counseller (1633), is the following note: "Likewise it is observed, that, if the sunne shine on Easter Day, it shines on Whitsunday likewise."

The following is an answer to a query in the Athenian Oracle, vol. ii. p. 348: "Why does the sun at his rising play more on Easter day than Whitsunday?"-"The matter of fact is an old, weak, superstitious error, and the sun neither plays nor works on Easter day more than any other. It's true, it may sometimes happen to shine brighter that morning than any other; but, if it does, 'tis purely accidental. In some parts of England, they call it the lamb-playing, which they look for as soon as the sun rises in some clear spring or water, and is nothing but the pretty reflection it makes from the water, which they may find at any time, if the sun rises clear, and they themselves early, and unprejudiced with fancy."

Sir Thomas Browne, the learned author of the Vulgar Errors, who has left us the following quaint thoughts on the subject: "We shall not, I hope," says he, "disparage the Resurrection of our Redeemer, if we say that the sun doth not dance on Easter Day :* and though we would willingly assent unto any sympathetical exultation, yet we cannot conceive therein any more than a tropical expression. Whether any such motion there was in that day wherein Christ arised, Scripture hath not revealed, which hath been punctual in other records concerning solary miracles; and the Areopagite that was amazed at the eclipse took no notice of this: and, if metaphorical expressions go so far, we may be bold to affirm, not only that one sun danced, but two arose that day; that light appeared at his nativity, and darkness at his death, and yet a light at both; for even that darkness was a light unto the Gentiles, illuminated by that obscurity. That 'twas the first time the sun set above the horizon. That, although there were darkness above the earth, yet there was light beneath it, nor dare we say that Hell was dark if he were in it."

In the British Apollo (1708), we read—

There once existed an ingenious method of making an artificial sundance on Easter Sunday. A vessel full of water was set out in the open air, in which the reflected sun seemed to dance, from the tremulous motion of the water. This will remind the classical scholar of a beautiful simile in the Loves of Medea and Jason, in the Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius, where it is aptly applied to the wavering reflections of a love-sick maiden.

In Lysons's Environs of London, among his curious extracts from the Churchwardens' and Chamberlain's Books at Kingston-uponThames, are the following entries concerning some of the ancient doings on Easter Day

"5 Hen. VIII. For thred for the Resurrection.

£ s. d.

O O I

I 3

For three yerds of Dornek for a pleyer's cote, and the makyng o

Suckling alludes to it in his ballad

"But, Dick, she dances such a way!
No sun upon an Easter day

Is half so fine a sight."

£ s. d.

¡2 Hen. VIII. Paid for a skin of parchment and gunpowder,
for the play on Easter Day.

For brede and ale for them that made the stage, and other
things belonging to the play.

O o 8

O I 2

By the subsequent entry these pageantries should seem to have been continued during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1565: "Recd of the players of the stage at Easter, 17. 25. 1d."

Naogeorgus thus describes the ceremonies of the day

"At midnight then with carefull minde, they up to mattens ries,
The Clarke doth come, and, after him, the Priest with staring eies."
"At midnight strait, not tarying till the daylight doe appeere,
Some gettes in flesh and glutton lyke, they feede upon their cheere.
They rost their flesh, and custardes great, and egges and radish store,
And trifles, clouted creame, and cheese, and whatsoeuer more
At first they list to eate, they bring into the Temple straight,
That so the Priest may halow them with wordes of wond'rous waight.
The Friers besides, and pelting Priestes, from house to house do roame,
Receyving gaine of every man that this will have at home.
Some raddish rootes this day doe take before all other meate,
Against the quartan ague, and such other sicknesse great."
"Straight after this, into the fieldes they walke to take the viewe,
And to their woonted life they fall, and bid the reast adewe."

In The Doctrine of the Masse Book (1554), in the Form of "the halowing of the Pascal Lambe, Egges, and Herbes, on EASTER Daye,” the following passage occurs: "O God! who art the Maker of all flesh, who gavest commaundements unto Noe and his sons concerning cleane and uncleane beastes, who hast also permitted mankind to eate clean four-footed beastes, even as Egges and green herbes." The Form concludes with the following rubric: "Afterward, let al be sprinkled with holye water and censed by the priest."

Dugdale, in his Origines Juridiciales, speaking of Gray's Inn Commons, says: "In 23 Eliz. (7 Maii), there was an agreement at the cupboard, by Mr Attorney of the Dutchy and all the Readers then present, that the dinner on Good Friday, which had been accustomed to be made at the cost and charges of the chief cook, should thenceforth be made at the costs of the house, with like provision as it had been before that time. And likewise, whereas they had used to have Eggs and green sauce on EASTER DAY, after service and communion, for those gentlemen who came to breakfast, that in like manner they should be provided at the charge of the house."

A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for July 1783, conjectures that the flowers, with which many churches are ornamented on Easter Day, are most probably intended as emblems of the Resurrection, having just risen again from the earth, in which, during the severity of winter, they seem to have been buried.*

* The Festival (1511) says: "This day is called, in many places, Godde's Sondaye ye knowe well that it is the maner-at this daye to do the fyre out of the hall, and the blacke wynter brondes, and all thynges that is foule