and kindled anew from the flint, which being hallowed by the priest every one would take home a brand to be lighted, when occasion required, as a preservative against tempests. A large taper, called the Paschal Taper, was consecrated and incensed, and allowed to burn night and day as a sign that Christ had conquered hell, after which it was plunged into the holy water, always consecrated at this season, with a view to its lasting till the return of Easter.* But in some churches it would seem that light was communicated in a different manner. .t An artificial serpent was borne upon a rod, a candle with the new flame being affixed upon its head, from which the Paschal taper and all the other church candles were lighted. This serpent was regarded as a type of that which was set up by Moses in the desert to heal those bitten by that reptile.‡

Other customs of a yet more absurd description prevailed at one time in this country. Such was the building of an imitation of the holy sepulchre on the anniversary of the crucifixion and placing the host in it, with a person set to watch for that night and the next. Early in the morning of the third day this consecrated wafer

Ludov. Cælii Rhodigini Lection. Antiq. Libri Triginta, fol. 1599; lib. xv. c. 14.—“It is worthy of notice, and agreeable to our religion, that every year in the month of March the fire was renewed in the temple of Vesta; as Ovid sings in his Fasti,- Add that new fire is said to be made in the secret temple and the renewed flame acquires strength.'

*

Barnaby Googe's Naogeorgus. And in Coate's History of Reading, Quarto, 1803, p. 131, under "Churchwarden's Accounts" is the following entry, anno 1559-" Paid for makynge of the Pascall and the Funte Taper, 5s: 8d." These Pascal tapers were of enormous size, and one of them used in Westminster Abbey in 1557 is stated by the same authority to have weighed 300 pounds.

+ Vide Durandi Rat. Div. Off. Lib. vi. Cap. 89.-sec. 12-p, 251. Numbers, chap. xxi. v. 7, et seq.

was taken out, when Christ was said to have arisen. In Coate's work, just mentioned, we find one Roger Brock playing the part of watchman, for which he was paid eightpence, as appears by the record, and a note is appended to the account stating that, "this was a ceremony used in churches in remembrance of the soldiers watching the sepulchre of our Saviour."* This custom was kept up so late as the two first years of Queen Elizabeth in some churches,† for it was not all that had the privilege.‡

Easter-Day; Asturday; Paschal Sabbath; Eucharist; Godde's Sunday.-The term Easter is derived, as some say, from the Saxon oster, to rise," this being the day of Christ's rising from the dead. But as the month appears to have had its name of Easter long before the introduction of Christianity we must look to some other source for the origin of the term; and where does it seem so visible as in the word Eostre, (the Saxon Goddess,) a corruption in all likelihood of Astarte,§ the name under which the Assyrians, Babylonians, Phoenicians, and the most ancient nations of the East worshipped the moon, in like manner as they adored the sun under the name of Baal.

Another derivation of the word remains to be noticed, for which I remember no authority but that which I am about to give from one of the Cotton manuscripts ;

* An account of this ceremony, as practised at Rouen in France and at Durham with us, is given in the Vetusta Monumenta of the Antiquarian Society; vol. iii. Letterpress to plate xxxi. p. 3. + Idem, pp. 3 and 4.

66

In the Monumenta Paderbornensia, p. 134, an old charter runs thus, Hæ autem parochiæ omnia jura parochialia habebunt nisi quod crucem diebus dominicis et in solemnitatibus non ferent-in Parasceve sepulturam crucifixi non facient."

§ This Astarte is the Ashtaroth of Scripture.

"Gode men and wommen,* os ye knowe alle well, this day is called in some place asturday, in some place paschday, in some place goddus sounday. Hit is callde asturday, as kandulmasse day of kandulles, and palme sounday of palmes, ffor wolnoz in uche place hit is the maner this day for to done fyre oute of the houce at the asturf that hath bene alle the wyntur brente wit fuyre and blaknd wit smoke, hyt schal this day bene arayed wit grene rusches and swete floures strowde alle aboute schewyng a heyghe ensaumpul to alle men and wommen that ryzte os thei machen clene the houce withine bering owte the fyre and strawing there flowres ; ryzte so ze schulde clanson the houce of zoure sowle."‡

In plain English the monk would call it hearth-day, because hearths were then cleaned and strewed with flowers; but few I imagine will be inclined to put much faith in such an etymology, and I have only recorded it upon the obvious principle that every thing ought in fairness to be quoted that seems to make against one's own opinions. At the same time I do not at all question that Easter-day was called Asturday; the monk, though blundering in his etymology, could hardly be mistaken as to a simple fact, which must have been known to all his audience as well as to himself; but I hold this very circumstance as helping to confirm my theory. Astur is evidently but another form of Easter or Astarte, and has nothing to do here with a fire-place, though that is

* This is the usual form which prefaces all these homilies; they are supposed to be addressed by the officiating priest to the people. + Astur or astre, signifies a hearth. See Spelman, sub voce. MS. Cotton. Claudius, A. 2, fol. 58—in a tract that has for its title " Tractatus, qui vocatur Festial. per frem Johēm (i.e. fratrem Johannem) Mirkus compositus, canonicum regularē Monasterii de Lulshutt. Anglice conscribitur, et ad festarum unamquemque reperitur ibi homelia ex legendis plcrumque consortiata.”

one meaning of the word, and a meaning which might lead us to infer that the goddess had her name from fire, or light. This conjecture is much strengthened when we reflect that the ancient Germans worshipped a deity under the name of Herthus, or Hertus, who though called by Tacitus, in his Germany, the Mother of the Earth, seems in all likelihood to have been the same goddess afterwards corrupted by the Anglo-Saxons into Astur and Eostre; and it should also be borne in mind that the word hearth has been generally derived from the Icelandic hyr, i.e. fire. I think myself therefore borne out in this deduction of the two from the same origin.

It would be too presumptuous to affect for a moment to give anything like a decided opinion upon a subject so buried in the darkness of remote antiquity, yet I can not help suspecting that the Greek dorp may have come from the same now-unknown source, as in like manner did our own word, star, the traces of both being quite evident in the Persian. The conclusion therefore in my mind is that the Saxon Easter, or Eoster, the Greek dorp the English star, and the Hebrew Ashtaroth, have all come from the same long-forgotten original-perhaps Phoenician-signifying fire, and that the goddess Eostre was the Saxon Diana, in whom they worshipped that milder principle of the vivifying power which was adored in summer as proceeding from her brother, Bel. Right or wrong, this conjecture will sufficiently account for the Goddess Eostre being worshipped at the vernal equinox.

The name of Paschal would seem to be strangely given to the day of the resurrection, but it has been thus explained by the old writer of the Festa Anglo-Romana. "Tis called Pascha, a Passover, not in memory of the Angel's transit in Egypt-the Jewish Passover being a holy action appointed by God in the killing and eating of a lamb, partly that the Church of the Jews might re

member the benefits God conferred upon them in pass. ing over the houses, and not smiting them,*—but our feast is celebrated in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ, tho' we still retain the name of Pascha not only because the lamb that was killed by the Jews of old in their Passover was a true type of the Lamb of God, Christ Jesus, which was sacrificed for man's salvation, but because at that very time he passed to his Father from this world—Pasach signifies transitio, a passage, from pasach, transire, i.e. to pass-or because then was made a passage from an old to a new life."t-The explanation does not throw much light upon the subject.

Eucharist is from a compound Greek word, which may, as Minshew‡ explains it, refer to the thanks to be especially given on this occasion; or, as is not unlikely, to the benefit conferred on the participators of the body and blood of our Saviour, This day is always the first Sunday subsequent to the first full moon, which happens on, or next after, the 21st of March; but if the full moon happens on a Sunday, then Easter Day is the Sunday following. It used to be characterized by a belief amongst the people that the sun danced in joy of the occasion, and many were accustomed to rise early for the sake of witnessing this phenomenon; perhaps those, who saw the beams quivering upon the surface of a stream shaken by the wind, might persuade themselves they had been successful. This superstition is not, I believe, quite extinct even now in some of the more unenlightened parts of the country.

In the times of Roman Catholic predominance, the church celebrated the day with many pageants that * EXODUS, c. xii. v. 11.

+ FESTA ANGLO ROM. p. 44.

DUCTOR IN LINGUAS; sub voce.