6
THE CHEMAWA AMERICAN
One main trouble with the Christian religion in the modern mission
field is that it is too fixed and unyielding; instead of recognizing cus
toms and adapting itself to them, it denounces them and attacks them,
thereby arousing an unnecessary hostilitj-. We mention this merely in
passing; we do not mean to say anything more about it, for the field of
religious controversy is so big and so full of pitfalls that we are not go
ing to venture into it.
Howbeit, it is a fact which anyone can see for himself, that most of
our Christian observances are adaptations of much earlier pagan ones.
We have before this pointed out that even Christmas and Easter were
both pagan holidays which were re-shaped to fulfill the demands of the
Christian religion.
For example at the coming of Easter everyone will make great use
of eggs and rabbits. What for? Have eggs or rabbits anything to do
with the rising of Christ from the dead? No. But the egg among the
pagans was, and still is, a symbol of life, because it contains the germ
of re-creation; and the rabbit is worshiped because of its unusual fecun
dity, symbolic of the productiveness of nature.
Easter was the pagan celebration of the advent of spring, making the
annual re-birth of life after the death of winter. This symbolism
found a close parallel in the rising of Christ, and accordingly Easter
was transformed into a Christian institution.
With it came the egg and the rabbit and other pagan emblems, all of
which had a deep religious significance to ancients but whose meaning
has been lost to us moderns. We use eggs and rabbits as Easter tokens
simply because everybody else does it, and without knowing what their
application to Easter is, or caring to inquire.
Our modern adaptation of Easter therefore has both gained and lost
in signifiance. Even the "40 days" of Lent was an afterthought, In
earlier times the Lenten fast was observed for various lengths, and there
was no great uniformity.
In the Greek church it is still only 35 days. In the fourth century 36
was agreed on as the proper duration, and it was not till the fifth century
that this period was lengthened out to 40 days, to make it correspond
with the fast of Jesus in the wilderness.
As a matter of history, the term "40" was not used by the ancients
in the sense that we use it. Their ideas of numbers were very vague,
and 40 was employed merely as a round or indefinite number, equivalent
to "a good many."
The number five was illustrated by the fingers on one hand, 10 by
those of both hands, 20 by all the fingers and toes and that was about
the limit; any number above that was likely to be called roughly 40.
We see, this number 40 recurring often in all oriental matters, pro-