Home : Holidays :Easter - Arbor Day
Easter Week and EasterMoveable: March 22 April 25The most important holy day in the Christian calendar, Easter, commemorates the Resurrection of Christ, but its celebration incorporates pre-Christian rites of seasonal regeneration. The Council of Nicea in 325 determined that Easter should be observed on the Sunday after the first full moon on or following the vernal equinox, a range of thirty-five days. This set the date of Lent and determines the dates of Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday; of Palm Sunday and the Holy Week immediately preceding Easter; and Ascension Day, Whitsunday, Corpus Christi Day afterwards. In many countries Easter is a time of fairs, fiestas, bonfires, promenades, and pilgrimages. The Easter parade and the wearing of bright, new clothes to church exemplify some of these customs. The flowers and eggs associated with Easter are fertility symbols, reflecting ancient spring renewal rites and beliefs that have been absorbed into paschal tradition. The fact that the eggs are brought by a rabbit, another fertility symbol, underscores the pagan elements that remain part of Easter. The rabbit was the escort of the Germanic goddess Ostara who gave her name to a holiday which fell at the time of vernal equinox. Vernal EquinoxOn or about March 21 The equinox comes at that time when the sun shines directly on the equator and the length of the day is the same as the length of the night all over the world. The event occurs twice each year, on or about March 21 and on or about September 23. The vernal or spring equinox signals the beginning of nature's renewal in the Northern Hemisphere and thus has long been a significant event for agricultural peoples. White HouseThe original site of the Easter Monday Egg Roll was the grounds of the United States Capitol. By the mid 1870s, the egg rolling activities on the West Terraces had gained notoriety as the children turned the Capitol grounds into their Easter Monday playground. The first egg rolls, largely family affairs, seem to have been held during the administration of President Andrew Johnson. Youngsters of the President's family dyed eggs on Sunday for the Monday rolling, which the First Lady would watch from the South Portico. A family member has attested to hearing the stories of such activity from Andrew Johnson Patterson, the President's grandson, who lived at the White House while his mother served as White House hostess on behalf of her invalid mother, First Lady Eliza Johnson. Although small groups of egg rollers were reported on the White House grounds under the presidency of General Ulysses S. Grant, the majority of egg rolling activity and all day picnics took place at the Capitol. The workers and tourists watched in fascination as the children rolled both their hard boiled eggs and themselves down the lush green hills. The egg roll activity of 1876 took its toll on the grounds, a fact that did not go unnoticed by members of Congress. With an already inadequate budget to complete the landscaping and maintenance of the grounds, Congress passed a law forbidding the Capitol grounds to be used as a children's playground. The law was to be enforced in 1877. But that Easter Monday rain poured down, canceling any outdoor activities sending the egg rollers indoors to play. On Easter Saturday of 1878, a small announcement in the local press informed the egg rollers the new law would be enforced. President Rutherford B. Hayes, taking his daily walk, was approached by a number of young egg rollers who inquired about the possibilities of egg rolling on the South Lawn of the White House. Unfamiliar with the activity [his firstEaster Monday as President had been rained out the proceeding year] President Hayes, upon his return to the White House, inquired amongst his staff who briefed the attentive Chief Executive. The smiling President issued an official order that should any children arrive to egg roll onEaster Monday, they were to be allowed to do so. That Monday, as children were being turned away from the Capitol grounds, word quickly spread to go to the White House! President Hayes and his wife, Lucy, officially opened the White House grounds to the children of the area for egg rolling that Easter Monday. Successive Presidents continued the tradition, and the event has been held on the South Lawn ever since. The event has been canceled on occasion only because of poor weather conditions and during World War I and World War II. During the war years egg rollers were spotted on the grounds surrounding the Washington Monument, at the National Zoo, and even returning to the grounds surrounding the Capitol! By the late 1800s such games as "Egg Picking," "Egg Ball," "Toss and Catch," and "Egg Croquet" were popular Easter Monday activities. The children attending the event take part in many newer activities, but rolling a hard-boiled egg across the lawn is still a highlight of the day.Presidents and First Ladies have personally greeted the egg rollers as have members of the Cabinet, athletes, musicians, celebrities from film, television, and theater and the official White House Easter Bunny. At the end of the day as egg rollers say goodbye, each receives a special presidential wooden egg complete with the signatures of the President and the First Lady and departs with fond memories of this happy tradition at the White House. April Fools (All Fools' Day)April 1On this day of license, practical jokes may be played with impunity: sending people on foolish errands, crying wolf, putting salt in the sugar bowl. The custom which is called "hunting the gowk (cuckoo, hence fool)" in Scotland and "poisson d'avril" in France may well reflect spring sexual license (for instance, there is the traditional play on the words "cuckoo" and "cuckold") and the efforts to deceive evil spirits which might interfere with fertility at the time when planting and sprouting are occurring. It is also associated with civil and church rebellion such as the Lord of Misrule and Boy Bishop ceremonies. The origin of the custom is uncertain, but it seems to have come about in France as a result of the change to the Gregorian calendar in 1582 when New Year's was moved from March 25 to January 1. Thus, the first April fools may have been people who failed to make the proper adjustment. In Mexico, where the borrowing of trivial items and the failure to return them is a feature, a similar day is celebrated on December 28, and some countries like Germany and Norway have two such days on the first and last dates in April. Arbor DayUsually Fourth Friday in AprilArbor Day was established by J. Sterling Morton of Nebraska City, Nebraska in 1872. J. Sterling Morton and his wife moved from Detroit, Michigan to the Nebraska Territory in 1854, where he was the editor of Nebraska's first newspaper. His influence as a journalist led to his involvement in politics, and he became a promoter of the settlement of Nebraska. The lack of trees, however, was an obstacle. The Great Plains had been described as the "Great American Desert." The tallgrass prairie that covered much of Nebraska at that time could provide rich farmland, but without wood for building houses or for fuel to heat homes, few found it convenient to settle there. Even the allotment of free land by the Homestead Act failed to entice sufficient numbers of families to relocate to Nebraska. Morton proposed Arbor Day as a tree planting holiday in 1872 at a meeting of the Nebraska State Board of Agriculture. On the first Arbor Day, prizes were offered to counties and to individuals for properly planting the largest number of trees. It was claimed that more than 1 million trees were planted in Nebraska on that day. During the course of the 1870s, several other states passed legislation to observe Arbor Day. Schools began to adopt the tradition beginning in 1882. By 1894, Arbor Day was celebrated in each state of the United States. Morton's home in Nebraska City, Arbor Lodge, is a state historical park, which includes an arboretum and extensive landscaped grounds. Adjacent to the public park, Morton's farm, now called Arbor Day Farm, is run by the National Arbor Day Foundation
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