hanges 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 12th to 15th) 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 well known
there (sometimes they are called "pace-eggs"), nor on the Continent,
where "Pascal eggs" are an institution. "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 say. The custom of sending people on fool's
errands on the First of April is probably due to the change of the
calendar in France in 1564; but there is a Hindoo feast on March 31st,
when similar jokes are perpetrated. It is called "Huli," which, in
accordance with phonetic laws, readily becomes "Fooli." This is
probably only a coincidence.

A curious Easter custom in country districts in England used to be
(perhaps still is) that called "lifting" or "heaving." On Easter
Monday two men will join hands so as to form a seat; their companions
then "by right of custom" compel the women they may meet to sit, one
after the other, on the improvised throne and be lifted or heaved as
high as may be. On Easter Tuesday the women perform the same rite upon
the men. Strangers thus assailed have been much disconcerted and have
recorded their astonishme