condly, the reverent
desire to receive fasting, or as Bishop Jeremy Taylor has said, "to
do this honor to the Blessed Sacrament, that It be the first food
we eat and the first beverage we drink on that day." (See HOLY
COMMUNION, also FREQUENT COMMUNION.)

East, Turning to the.--By this expression is meant turning to the
Altar in saying the Creed and Glorias and in celebrating the Holy
Communion, this last being called the _Eastward position_. This
practice arose from a custom in the early Church. When converts to
Christianity were baptized, which was usually in the early morning,
they first turning to the west where the night was fast receding,
renounced the world and the powers of darkness, then turning to
the east where the sun was rising as the source of all light, they
confessed their belief in Christ who, in Holy Scripture is Himself
called the EAST, "the Dayspring from on high." For this reason
they prayed facing the east, and when they came to build their
churches they built them running east and west; the Chancel, in
which the Altar is placed, being in the east and towards it they
made their prayers and confessed their belief. Thus it came about
that the Altar in our churches is always regarded architecturally
and ecclesiastically as the east whether it is so in reality or
not.

Easter Day.--A festival in honor of our Lord's Resurrection has
been observed from the very {91} foundation of Christianity. This is
evident from the early disputes had concerning it, not as to whether
such a day should be kept, but as to the _particular time when_ the
Festival should be observed. The eastern Christians wished to
celebrate the Feast on the third day after the Jewish Passover, on
whatever day of the week this fell. The western Christians contended
that the Feast of the Resurrection ought always to be observed on a
Sunday. This controversy was finally settled by the Council of
Nicea, A.D. 325, which decreed that everywhere the great Feast of
Easter should be observed upon one and the same day and that a
Sunday. In accordance with this decision Easter Day is always the
first Sunday after the full moon, which happens upon or next after,
the 21st of March; and if the full moon happens upon a Sunday,
Easter Day is the Sunday after. By this rule Easter will always
fall between the 22d of March, the earliest date, and the 25th of
April, the latest day on which it can possibly fall.

The original name of the Festival was _Pa