The Chattanooga News

"What shall the song of Easter be?
Moses' and Miriam's song by the sea!
The Lord hath triumphed gloriously."

Easter, the anniversary of our Lord's resurrection from the dead, is one of the three great festivals of the Christian year-the other two being Christmas and Whitsuntide. From the earliest period down to the present day it has always been celebrated by believers with the greatest joy, and accounted the queen of festivals.

In primitive times it was usual for Christians to salute each other on the morning of this day by exclaiming, "Christ is risen;" to which the person saluted replied, "Christ is risen, indeed;" or else, "And hath appeared unto Simon," a custom still retained in the Greek church.

Easter is a moveable feast. It moves backwards or forwards, according to whether the full moon next after the vernal equinox falls nearer or further from the equinox. The rule given at the beginning of the prayer book to find Easter is this: "Easter day is always the first Sunday after the full moon, which happens upon or next after the twenty-first day of March; and if the full moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter day is the Sunday after."

The old Easter customs which still linger among us vary considerably in form in different parts of the world. The custom of distributing the "pace" or "pasche ege," which was once almost universal among Christians, is still observed by children. Even in Scotland, where the great festivals have for centuries been suppressed, the young people still get their hard-boiled dyed eggs, which they roll about, or throw and finally eat.

On Easter Monday, the great day for Washington babies, along Pennsylvania avenue they stream-well dressed, nurse attended darlings, mingling with the raggedest little coons that ever snatched an egg from a market basket. The wide street looks as if baby blossom time had come, for there are hundreds of the children who on this special afternoon storm the grounds of the White House for their annual egg rolling.