268 EASTERTIDE, SHAMROCKS, SPERMACETI 



it were desired to celebrate the Feast of the Resurrection 

 each year on the day corresponding astronomically with 

 that indicated in the Gospels, the Astronomer Royal 

 would have no difficulty in exactly fixing the day, making 

 due allowance for the changes of the calendar and for the 

 irregularities of the Jewish year. I do not know what 

 day in what month such a calculation would finally 

 establish as that of the ecclesiastical festival, but the 

 Bank Holiday and the Anglo-Saxon Easter might be 

 dealt with separately, and assigned, once for all, to the 

 end of April, the real " opening " or spring month. 



The yellow " tansy cakes " which used to be, and the 

 coloured eggs which still are, given away at Easter, 

 throughout Europe, are not of Christian origin, but 

 belong to the Roman celebration (at the same season, 

 viz., April I2th to iSth) of the goddess of Plenty— Ceres, 

 Eggs are the symbols of fecundity and the renewal of 

 life in the spring. They were decorated and given in 

 baskets by rich Romans to their friends and dependents 

 at this season. " Hot-cross buns " are peculiar to England, 

 and ' no doubt have a Christian significance. They have 

 not survived in Scotland, although Easter eggs are wel) 

 known there (sometimes they are called " pace-eggs "), 

 nor on the Continent, where " Pascal eggs " are an insti- 

 tution. " Buns " owe their name to the old Norse word 

 " bunga," a convexity or round lump, preserved also in 

 our words " bunion " and " bung." In Norman French it 

 became " bonne,'' and in the fourteenth century was applied 

 to the round loaf of bread given to a horse ; the loaf was 

 called Bayard's bonne (pronounced "bun"). In some 

 parts of England a " bunny " still means a swelling due 

 to a blow. 



The April fish, the " poisson d'Avril," is the polite 

 French term for what we call an " April fool." But why 

 a fish is introduced in this connection I am unable to 



