"Rejoice, Oh sacred Initiated, your God is risen. His death, his pains, his sufferings, have worked our salvation."
Cedrenus (a celebrated Byzantine writer), speaking of the 25th of March, says:
"The first day of the first month, is the first of the month Nisan; it corresponds to the 25th of March of the Romans, and the Phamenot of the Egyptians. On that day Gabriel saluted Mary, in order to make her conceive the Saviour. I observe that it is the same month, Phamenot, that Osiris gave fecundity to Isis, according to the Egyptian theology. On the very same day, our God Saviour (Christ Jesus), after the termination of his career, arose from the dead; that is, what our forefathers called the Pass-over, or the passage of the Lord. It is also on the same day, that our ancient theologians have fixed his return, or his second advent."[226:2]
We have seen, then, that a festival celebrating the resurrection of their several gods was annually held among the Pagans, before the time of Christ Jesus, and that it was almost universal. That it dates to a period of great antiquity is very certain. The adventures of these incarnate gods, exposed in their infancy, put to death, and rising again from the grave to life and immortality, were acted on the Deisuls and in the sacred theatres of the ancient Pagans,[226:3] just as the "Passion Play" is acted to-day.
Eusebius relates a tale to the effect that, at one time, the Christians were about to celebrate "the solemn vigils of Easter," when, to their dismay, they found that oil was wanted. Narcissus, Bishop of Jerusalem, who was among the number, "commanded that such as had charge of the lights, speedily to bring unto him water, drawn up out of the next well." This water Narcissus, "by the wonderful power of God," changed into oil, and the celebration was continued.[227:1]
This tells the whole story. Here we see the oil—which the Pagans had in their ceremonies, and with which the priests anointed the lips of the Initiates—and the lights, which were suddenly lighted when the god was feigned to have risen from the dead.
With her usual policy, the Christian Church endeavored to give a Christian significance to the rites borrowed from Paganism, and in this case, as in many others, the conversion was particularly easy.
In the earliest times, the Christians did not celebrate the resurrection of their Lord from the grave. They made the Jewish Passover their chief festival, celebrating it on the same day as the Jews, the 14th of Nisan, no matter in what part of the week that day might fall. Believing, according to the tradition, that Jesus on the eve of his death had eaten the Passover with his disciples, they regarded such a solemnity as a commemoration of the Supper and not as a memorial of the Resurrection. But in proportion as Christianity more and more separated itself from Judaism and imbibed paganism, this way of looking at the matter became less easy. A new tradition gained currency among the Roman Christians to the effect that Jesus before his death had not eaten the Passover, but had died on the very day of the Passover, thus substituting himself for the Paschal Lamb. The great Christian festival was then made the Resurrection of Jesus, and was celebrated on the first pagan holiday—Sun-day—after the Passover.
This Easter celebration was observed in China, and called a "Festival of Gratitude to Tien." From there it extended over the then known world to the extreme West.
The ancient Pagan inhabitants of Europe celebrated annually this same feast, which is yet continued over all the Christian world. This festival began with a week's indulgence in all kinds of sports, called the carne-vale, or the taking a farewell to animal food, because it was followed by a fast of forty days. This was in honor of the Saxon goddess Ostrt or Eostre of the Germans, whence our Easter.[227:2]