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 _Pascha_, derived from the Hebrew word for Passover. The more familiar name of _Easter_ is traceable as far back as the time of the Venerable Bede, A.D. 700. The derivation of the word is uncertain. Some think that it is derived from a Saxon term meaning "rising"; others think the word _Eost_ or _East_ refers to the tempestuous character of the weather at that season of the year and find its root in the Anglo-Saxon YST, meaning a storm. Again others derive the word from the old Teutonic _urstan_, to rise. It is worthy of note that "the idea of sunrise is self-evident in the English {92} name of the Festival on which the Sun of Righteousness arose from the darkness of the grave."