in the following sentence:- Oster is from the East, because as there the Sun ariseth, who, as it were, dies in his setting, so here the Sun of Righteousness, which is Christ, who, as it were, sets in his Death, rises again.' Others will deduce from Urstand, the Resurrection. But these are vain attempts to get rid of an etymology, of which, after all, there is nothing to be ashamed. In Manx, it is Yn-chaisht, The Holy.' In the East, the common title is Aaμπpá, the Bright Day. Thus a Cretan ballad, describing the celebration of the principal feasts of the Church :

τοῦ Χριστουγέννου γιὰ κήρι,
καὶ τοῦ βαΐου γιὰ βαΐα
καὶ τῆς Λαμπρῆς τὴν κυριακὴν
γιὰ τὸ ̔Χριστὸς ἀνέστη.
At Christmas tapers kindle,

At Palmtide Palm-gifts bring;
And then upon Bright Sunday

"The Lord is risen," we sing.

6

The use is the same in the Russian Church, where Easter Day is the Svietloe Voscresenie.

The Octave of Easter is, with us, Low Sunday, probably from the contrast between the rapturous joy of Easter, and the more ordinary routine to which we now return. At the same time,

in every part of the Western Church, it is a Sunday of the first class. In the Latin Church, it is the Dominica in Albis, that is, in Albis depositis, because then the recently baptized laid aside their white robes. But the Germans, translating exactly from the Latin, call it der weisse Sontag, for precisely the reason that it is not white. It is as often called the Sunday Quasimodo, from the introit. In the canton of Soleure, in Switzerland, it is Bean Sunday, on account of a certain distribution of beans which then takes place, and by which the translation of some of the Martyrs of the Theban Legion is commemorated. In the East, it is New Sunday, with reference to the Renovation of all things by our Lord's Resurrection.

Mundi renovatio
Nova parit gaudia :
Resurgente Domino
Conresurgunt omnia.

It is thus named also by the Armenians. The Greeks frequently call it Antipascha, and also S. Thomas's Sunday, in commemoration of his conversion on that day.

While in Easter-tide, we must not forget to mention the Annotine Easter. This was a commemoration of the preceding Easter, made on that day in the following year. There is a

sequence for this festival-the only one with which we are acquainted-in Mr. Neale's collection, beginning,

Surgit Christus cum trophæo,

Jam ex Agno factus Leo.

As, however, Annotine Easter fell often in Lent, and sometimes in Passion-tide, it was in most Churches transferred either to the Sunday Quasimodo, or to the Fourth Sunday after Easter, or in some cases, to Saturday in the Octave. The origin of its institution seems to have been the natural wish of those bap tized at Easter, to celebrate the first anniversary of their spiritual illumination.

The Second Sunday after Easter. This, in the Eastern Church, is the Sunday of the Ointment-bearers (Tv μupopopov), from the Gospel. In the Armenian Calendar, it is Green Sunday, because the spring is now, at latest, bursting forth.

The Third Sunday after Easter. This, for a similar reason to that mentioned above, is, in the East, the Sunday of the Paralytic. Why the Armenian Church calls it Beautiful Sunday, we know not.

The Fourth Sunday after Easter is, with the Greeks, MidPentecost, from dividing the time between Easter and WhitSunday. Also, from the Gospel, it is the Sunday of the Samaritan.

The fifth is Rogation Sunday, with the three Rogation Days following. In Germany this is the Betsontag, with the same meaning in other languages the Latin term seems almost invariably followed. The Oriental Church, retaining the old rule of admitting no fast between Easter and Pentecost, has no such season, and therefore no such name. The Gotho-Hispanic Church, wishing to observe the Rogations, and yet unwilling to break the canon, transferred them either to the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in the week of Pentecost, or else to the Ides or to the Kalends of December. In the East, Rogation Sunday is the Sunday of the Blind Man, from the Gospel. Ascension Day has scarcely any vernacular name. In some parts of the south of France it was termed Bread Thursday, from a distribution of bread which then was made to the poor; probably with reference to that verse of the Psalm, Thou art gone up on high: Thou hast led captivity captive, and received gifts for men.' In England it has been known as Bounds Thursday; from beating the bounds of the parish, transferred, by a corruption of Rogation processions, to this day. In Manx, it is Jasdyl, which they derive from Jas, GOD, and theill, the world, because GOD on that day went up to Heaven from the world. In Russia, they use an especial term for this day, instead of the more ordinary word for Ascension: calling it Voznesenie, and not Voschojdenie. The Eastern Church knows

of no especial title for the festival, except that, in Cappadocia, from an uncertain reason, it was the Episozomene.

The Sunday after Ascension is so called all over the West. But in the East it is termed the Sunday of the Three Hundred and Eighteen, from the commemoration which then takes place of the Fathers of Nicæa.

Whit Sunday. It is strange that the origin of our vernacular name for the third festival of the Christian year should be so difficult to discover. We will not discuss the disputed question, whether it is named from the white worn by the recently baptized from Easter till Pentecost, or is a corruption of huit: this being the eighth Sunday after Easter. The Romance languages have, for the most part, vernacularized the Latin name. But in Spain the day is usually called the Fiesta del Espirito Santo; and in Portugal, by the use of the word Pascha we already noticed, Pascoa do Espirito Santo. In Italy it is Pasqua Rosata, because the roses are now in full flower. In Germany. it is Pfingsten, probably (for the derivation is doubtful) a corruption of Pentecost. The name will suggest to some of our readers Göthe's beautiful imitation of Reynard the Fox:

Pfingsten, das liebliche Fest, war gekommen: es grünten und blüthen Feld und Wald: auf Hügeln und Höhn, in Büschen und Hecken, Uebten ein fröhliches Lied die neuermunterten Vögel, &c.

In Dansk, by an easy abbreviation, it is Pintse-Dag. From the season, German every-day speech names a number of common objects: thus, green geese are Pentecost geese; the peony is the Pentecost rose; broom is Pentecost-blossom. In Russ it is Troitzie Den, Trinity Day; probably as filling up the commemoration of the blessed Trinity. In the East it is, of course, Pentecost.

The Friday in the Octave is, among the Nestorians, named Golden Friday. For that day of the week being a high commemoration throughout the year, this, in its most sacred season, is supposed to bear the palm from the others; and hence its title.

It was not to be expected that Trinity Sunday, as a day of such late institution, should have left much trace in modern languages. In old French it was popularly called the King of Sundays; also Blessed Sunday. In the Eastern Church it is All Saints' Sunday, that commemoration being fixed for this day. The office itself was long unsettled in the Western Church. The original collect for the First Sunday after Pentecost was that which begins, O God, the strength of all them that put their trust in Thee,' and it is still retained in the Roman Missal as an adjunct to the festival of the Trinity.

The German Church was very tenacious of the old rite. Some celebrated the new festival on the second Sunday after Pentecost, so as to leave the octave clear; large numbers transferred it to the Sunday next before Advent: and this was, we believe, retained in some parts of Rhineland to the last century, if indeed there be not even now a double commemoration. So it was at Orleans till the sixteenth century.

Corpus Christi also, as a late festival, comes under the same head as the last. That, in England, as abroad, it was called from the Body of God, the vulgar oath still remains to tell. The French Church has abreviated it still further, into the Fête Dieu.

The Sundays following Trinity are, in the Roman Calendar, as every one knows, called from Pentecost. But in the Sarum, and in most German Missals, they are named, as we name them, from Trinity.

We may observe that in the north of England, and especially in Yorkshire, the Sunday within the Octave of the Patron, or Wake Saint, is called after his name. Thus, at Ripon, Wilfrid Sunday is a very great holiday.

It merely remains to notice the other holidays which have received an English vernacular name.

Of these Lady Day shall be the first. That this term was fixed to the Annunciation and not to the Assumption, shows that, in the earlier times of England, the present respective importance of the festivals was reversed. In Dansk it is the same, Vor Fruedag; but in other European tongues it is simply the Annunciation. In Welsh it is Gwyl Vair y Cyhydedd, the Festival of Mary of the Equinox; in Manx, prettily enough, Laa'l-Moirrey-my-Sansh, the Day of Mary's being whispered to. Lammas Day, the Feast of S. Peter ad Vincula. It would be most natural to derive this from Loaf-mas, that is, the benediction of the new bread. But when we find the first of August termed in Welsh Dydd degwm icyn, Lamb-tithing day, it is clear that the easier derivative, Lamb-mas Day, is also the true one. The Manx name has in all likelihood the same origin; it is Laa'l Lhuanys. Lhuan is any creature, more especially a lamb or calf, which comes out of due season. It was probably the absence of an octave, as compared with the great festival of S. Peter, that led to the proverbial idiom, At latter Lammas; that is, never: or, as the Danes say, on the 30th of February. In Germany the day is Kettenfeier, the Feast of the Chains,a literal translation of the Latin.

The same feeling which suggested the English benediction. showed itself in all the wine countries on the sixth of August. This was the benediction of the new grapes ;-and the rite was

often performed, as at S. Martin of Tours, by squeezing a grape into the chalice after consecration. So we have Le jour des raisins, in Germany, Traubentag; in the Moselle districts, Liebfrauenmilchtag, the Day of the Milk of our Dear Lady (from the celebrated wine so called); in the dialect of Alsace and Strasbourg, Wainbatredag. The Benediction of the Grapes took place on the same day in the East.

An instance is within our knowledge of the endowment of a Post-Reformation Sermon, " to be preached on Lady Day in harvest," i.e. on the Assumption.

Saint Monday is, properly speaking, the Monday after S. Crispin a great holiday. In Dansk it is Frimandag, Holiday Monday: why the Germans call it Blue Monday we know not.

Hallowmas, or All Hallows, or All Holland, has scarcely any peculiar name elsewhere than among ourselves. In Germany it is simply Allerheiligen; and in the Romance languages, a pure translation of Festum Omnium Sanctorum.

All Souls. This, in Welsh, is Gwyl y meiru, the Festival of the Dead, and sometimes, more poetically, Gwyl cenad y meiru, the Festival of the Embassy of the Dead. In Spanish it is El dia de las animas; in Portuguese, more curiously, it is the Dia dos finados, from finado, a dead body. In Italy it is the Giorno de' morti. In Germany, precisely as with us.

St. Thomas's Eve is, in Manx, Oie'l-fingan, the Eve of Cliffs; because men then went out on the cliffs to shoot venison for the approaching Christmas Festival.

This list might, undoubtedly, with greater research, and wider opportunity, be well-nigh indefinitely extended. We believe, for example, that the nearly unknown Basque has very curious ecclesiastical terms: we are told that the Wallachian, notwithstanding its almost literal derivation from the Latin, is rich in the same. In short, wherever the Church was early planted, there her influence over domestic language will appear very strongly; where she was not established till a late period, there such vernacularisms are scarcely, or not at all, perceptible. This, we believe, is true to a great extent in Bohemia, more so in Poland, and still more so in Lithuania. But the examples which have been produced will not have been given in vain, if they lead any one to consider how completely the Church should mingle herself with the household words of her children, and should, even in this sense, become all things to all men.