Theologians have decided that it happened on a Friday, April 7, 1899 years ago. At 3 o’clock the women and gamins who had climbed the hill, and the casual Roman soldiers who had gambled for the clothes, heard the words, “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.” So brave, so peaceful was the death that even the Romans were troubled. Clouds gathered and there was an earthquake. . . .
It was a humane custom to break the legs of the crucified to speed Death. But Christ died on the cross. Nevertheless, nervously, impulsively, a Roman soldier pierced the body with his spear. Joseph the Arimathaean asked for the body and buried it in a tomb he had intended for himself, where no man had ever lain.
Three women went to the tomb on the first Easter Sunday. They were Mary Magdalene, Mary, sister of the Virgin and mother of the cousins of Christ. James and Joses, and Salome.* When they arrived the tomb was open. Mary, mother of James, saw an angel and Mary Magdalene saw two angels and saw and heard her Lord. The last miracle had not failed. The Pharisees soon heard the news they had feared: Christos kai apethane kai anesteh-Christ both died and rose. .
Timorous Christians had best not probe too deeply into Christian ritual. The flames of Christian candles may blend weirdly with druid fires. Behind a pure-throated Christian anthem may pipe the skirling music of an impish Pan. Mithras, the Persian sun god and onetime idol of the Roman army, was born on Dec. 25. The Easter egg was symbolic before the Christian Easter, symbolic of fertility.
Easter to the American Indians is the feast of the renascence of Nature. March is the time-when-the-green-lizards-come-out. Indians used to dance an eagle dance, splendid and feathered, imitating an eagle’s swirling, pointing to the six points of the Indian compass (north, south, east, west, above, below), praying to Nature to yield tobacco and corn.
Different only in images and ritual are the Easters of today−in Rome, where the Pope washes the feet of twelve bishops; in Russia, where Christ is supposed to walk through the land disguised as a beggar; in the Philippines, where there are gorgeous parades and cockfights; in Chester and Suffolk (England), where they play ball and dance to music; on Fifth Avenue, Main Street and in Stubbs Corners, where new clothes, pleased smiles and excited conversation are the Easter ritual of people who do not go to church.
* Probably the wife of Zebedee, mother of the apostles John and James (not the author of the Epistle). Not to be confused with Salome, daughter of Herodias, who danced for Tetrarch Herod and asked for the head of John the Baptist. But Dancer Salome could have witnessed the resurrection, since her famed dance took place only 13 months before it.
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