Christian Saviour, and the Bavarian peasantry, perpetuating this
custom, perform the play every tenth year.


Resurrection and Easter Festival.

In conformity to the ancient teachings, the incarnate saviours,
considered as figuratively dead for the space of three days at the
Vernal Equinox, or 21st of March, were raised to newness of life after
the expiration of that time. Hence, the 25th of March, without regard
to the day of the week, was celebrated as the anniversary of the Vernal
resurrection. On the morning of this day it was the custom of the
astrologers to say to the mourners assembled in the temples, "Be of
good cheer, sacred band of initiates; your God has risen from the dead,
his pains and his sufferings shall be your salvation." Another form of
this admonition, quoted from an ancient poem in reference to the
Phoenician Tammuz, reads as follows:

"Trust ye saints, your God restored,
Trust ye in your risen Lord,
For the pains which he endured,
Your salvation hath procured."

Then would begin the festivities of Easter, which corrupted from
Eostre, and derived from the Teutonic mythology, was one of the many
names given to the goddess of Spring. In the observance of this
festival the temples were adorned with floral offerings; the Hilaries
sang their joyful lays; the fires upon the pyres, or the fire-altars,
were extinguished and rekindled with new fire, or sacred fire of the
stars, which the Astrologers taught was brought down from heaven by the