es and
customs.

It may be objected that the primitive Church did not inquire as to
the birthday of Jesus until it was too late to ascertain it. But this
objection cannot possibly apply to the resurrection, the date of which
is involved in equal uncertainty, although one would expect it to
be precisely known and regularly commemorated. For many ages the
celebration was irregular. Different Sundays were kept, and sometimes
other days, in various weeks of March and April. Finally, after fierce
disputes and excommunications, the present system was imposed upon the
whole Catholic world.

Easter is, in fact, decided astronomically, by a process in which
sun-worship and moon-worship are both conciliated. The starting point is
the vernal equinox, which was the time of a common Pagan festival. The
very name of Easter is of heathen origin. All its customs are bequeathed
to us from far-off Pagan ancestors. Easter eggs, symbolising the life of
the universe, have been traced back to the Romans, Greeks, Persians, and
Egyptians.

When the Christians celebrate the resurrection of Christ they are
imitating the ancient "heathen," who at the same time of the year
commemorated the resurrection of the Sun, and his manifest triumph over
the powers of darkness. And when the moderns prepare to celebrate the
ascension of Christ, they are really welcoming the ascension of the
Sun. The great luminary--father of light and lord of life--is then
(apparently) rising higher and higher in heaven, shedding his warmer
beams on the earth, and gladdening the hearts of men.

Churches and altars are decked with vegetation, which is another relic
of nature-worship. Life is once more bursting forth under the kindling
rays of the sun. Hope springs afresh in the heart of man. His fancy
sees the pastures covered with flocks and herds, the corn waving in the
breeze, and the grapes plumping in the golden sunshine, big with the
blood of earth and the fire of heaven.

According to the Apostles' Creed, Jesus descended into hell between his
death and resurrection. That is also a relic of sun-worship. During the
dark, cold winter the sun descended into the underworld, which is
the real meaning of Hades. Misunderstanding this circumstance, or
deliberately perverting it, the early Church fabricated the monstrous
fable that Jesus "preached unto the spirits in prison," as we read in
the first epistle of Peter. One of the apocryphal gospels gives a lively
account of