East, one of the four cardinal points, being the point in the heavens where the sun is seen to rise at the equinox, or the corresponding point on the earth; that point of the horizon lying on the right hand when one's face is turned towards the north pole. By the East, in an indefinite sense, is often meant Syria, Arabia, Persia, India, and the eastern part of the world generally.
Eastbourne, a municipal borough and flourishing watering-place of England, county of Sussex, on the English Channel, near Beachy Head; also a parliamentary division of Sussex. The town is handsomely built, having fine parades and well-planted walks and drives. Pop. 52,544.
East Cape, the most easterly point of Asia, projecting into Behring's Strait nearly opposite Cape Prince of Wales in Alaska.
Easter, the festival commemorating the resurrection of Christ, observed in the Roman Catholic, the Greek, Anglican, Lutheran, and other branches of the Christian Church. By the first Christians it was considered to continue the feast of the passover, at which the paschal lamb, a type of Christ, was sacrificed. Hence its name in Greek (pascha), French (pâques), and other Romance languages is taken from the Hebrew pesach, passover. The English name, according to the Venerable Bede, comes from the Anglo-Saxon Eostre (from Teutonic Austrō), a goddess of light or spring, whose festival was celebrated in April. There was long a dispute in the Christian Church as to the proper time for holding Easter, the Christians of the East celebrating it on the same day as that on which the Jewish passover fell, that is, the 14th of Nisan (hence they were called quarto decimani), while the majority of the Church celebrated it on the Sunday next after this day. The controversy was decided by the Council of Nice (Nicæa) in 325, which settled that it was to be reckoned as at present, namely, that Easter is the first Sunday after the full moon which happens upon or next after the 21st of March; and if the full moon happens on a Sunday, Easter-day is the Sunday after, but, properly speaking, for the 'full moon' in the above the 'fourteenth day of the moon' should be substituted.—Cf. Sir J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough.
Easter Dues, or Offerings, in the Church of England, certain dues paid to the parochial clergy by the parishioners at Easter as a compensation for the tithe for personal labour.
Easter Eggs. The egg was anciently a symbol of the mother goddess and of birth: the sun emerged from the cosmic egg. The Saxon goddess Easter was a life-giver. On Easter Day, the day of Christ's resurrection, eggs (Pasche eggs) were dyed in symbolic colours, and boiled hard to be rolled or used in egg-breaking contests. The Jews have eggs at the Passover Feast.
Easter Island, or Rapanui (discovered by the Dutch Admiral Roggeven, on Easter, 6th April, 1722), an island, 12 miles long, in the South Pacific Ocean, long. 109° 17' W., lat. 27° 6' S., and utilized for grazing sheep and cattle. It now belongs to Chile, from which it is 2000 miles distant. Pop. 250 in 1916. The Routledge Expedition reported, in 1919, that the inhabitants are of mixed Polynesian and Melanesian origin. Their ancient bird-cult shows very close resemblances to that of the Solomon Islands. Numerous gigantic stone images of a soft 'volcanic ash' were being worshipped when the island was first visited by Europeans in the eighteenth century. Some still lie partly constructed in a crater quarry. These images date back a few centuries, and resemble those made until recently in wood on this island and elsewhere in Oceania, and bear symbols used on these and in tattooing. Local legends of the earliest settlements from distant islands and of local tribal wars still survive. The present inhabitants are undoubtedly descendants of the image-makers and worshippers. Cf. K. Routledge, The Mystery of Easter Island.
Eastern Bengal and Assam, a province of India, under a Lieutenant-Governor, formed in 1905 by disjoining from Bengal the three divisions of Chittagong, Dacca, and Rajshahi (with the exception of Darjeeling) and uniting Assam with them, as also the state of Cooch Behar. It was formed in order to provide for the better government both of the area belonging to it and of that of Bengal, which was regarded as having become rather unwieldy, its population being still 54 millions. On 1st April, 1912, however, Assam was separated from Eastern Bengal and reconstituted. Its area is about 53,000 sq. miles, and the pop. nearly 6,750,000.
Eastern Churches, a collective term for the Greek, Armenian, Coptic, Abyssinian, Syrian, and other kindred Churches, as distinguished from the Latin, or Western Church.
Eastern Question, The, an international political problem which occupied the attention of European statesmen during the last two centuries, and even since 1453, when the Turks established their empire and gained sway over the Balkans. It deals with the relations of the Balkan nationalities, Turkey, and the Great Powers to each other. Russia, Germany, Austria, Greece, France, Italy, and Great Britain were all interested in the Near East and in the Eastern Question ever since the Treaty of Kutshuk-Kainardji in 1774. The Levantine commerce and the Mediterranean ports were, and still are,