EASTER.
It is deemed essential by many people to wear some new article of dress, if only a pair of gloves or a new ribbon; for not to do so is considered unlucky, and the birds will be angry with you. It is probable that the origin of this custom is associated with Easter baptism, when a new life was assumed by the baptised, clothed in righteousness as a garment. In former times people had such respect for this day that many kept their children unbaptised till Easter Sunday, and many old men and old women went to Church to receive the Communion who were hardly to be seen in the Lord’s House on any other Sunday during the year.
There was once an old fancy in Wales that the sun used to dance for joy when it rose on Easter morning, and great care was taken in some places to get up the children and young people to see such sight of the sun dancing in honour of the rising of our Lord. The sun was sometimes aided in this performance by a bowl of clear water, into which the youth must look and see the orb dance, as it would be dangerous to look directly on the sun while thus engaged. The religious dance of the ancient Druids is believed to exist in modern times in a round dance wherein the figures imitate the motions of the sun and moon. See “British Goblins,” by Sykes, page 274.