29 EASTER. 
now the festival is generally celebrated. An 
increase in the symbolic gifts at this season may 
be noticed, and many old customs are revived. 
The most prevalent and characteristic custom 
of the Easter festivai has always been the giving 
of eggs. Sometimes they were eaten, oftener 
kept as amulets, or used in playing games. 
The pagan people at their new year feasts 
presented each other with eggs as a type of the 
new life of nature — which they colored to show 
their joy at the return of spring. 
Barbarous nations in Africa and South 
America offer eggs to their idols at the spring 
festivals. The Greeks had the custom of pre- 
senting colored eggs. The Romans celebrated 
the new year with egg games in honor of Castor 
and Pollux. 
The Druids used eggs in the worship of the 
goddess Hoestre. 
What wonder that with all the traditions 
and superstitions connected with the egg, that 
this custom was continued even had it not been 
an appropriate emblem of the resurrection ? 
