Poem "Awakening" and A Tulip Border Craft

Awakening

by Rose Terry Cook

With the first bright, slant beam,

Out of the chilling stream

Their cups of fragrant light

Golden and milky white

From folded darkness spring.

To hail their King.

Consider these, my soul!

How the blind buds unroll

Touched with one tranquil ray

Of rising day,

Into the full delight

Of lilies white.

Out of thy streaming tears,

Thy chill and darkening fears,

Oh, sleeping soul, awake!

Lo, on thy lonely lake,

Thy sun begins to shine,

Thy Light and Life divine!

Consider these, my heart!

Dreaming and cold thou art:

Swift from thyself up-spring,

Shine for thy King.

Rise in His light.

With garments white,

Forget the night:

The Lord hath arisen. 

 

A Potted Tulip Paper Border.

       Download and print out the pattern below. The dotted lines indicate where the image will be folded to continue the potted tulip silhouette seamlessly after it is unfolded. The number of images "linked" together in one continuous chain is determined by the length of the paper being cut. Use a very thin paper to make your cutting easier. Cut away the areas indicated by the design. (see image above and read text on the pattern below. This paper-cut may be used as a border around an Easter bulletin board in a classroom or as a paper chain for a shelf if you like.

 

Potted Tulip border paper cut.

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How Moravians Observe Easter

How Moravians Observe Easter, 1916

by Charles H. Rominger

       Many unique observances of this season may be found in every quarter of the globe. The forms vary, but one theme inspires them all, -- the Savior returned to earth; Messiah risen from the dead. There is in our home-land a custom that is tried and true. It is the celebration of Easter by the Moravians, in Bethlehem, Pa., a custom that has been introduced in many lands and accepted wherever it has gone, as one of the cherished possessions of this ancient church.

       The Easter in Bethlehem, Pa., begins on Palm Sunday Eve. This service, which is held in the large Moravian Church, consists of readings from the Passion Week Manual, a compilation from the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), interspersed with suitable hymns, a brief address and a prayer. Readings from this manual continue through the whole of Easter Week. As far as possible, the closing scenes of the Savior's earthly ministry are reviewed on the respective days of the week on which they occurred. The simple story of the Passion Week, unembellished and unbroken, is undoubtedly an effective preparation for the celebration of Easter Day. Devout Moravians attend these services in large numbers, while Christians of every name and creed may be found in the crowded church. The children of the Moravian Parochial School attend with their teachers and occupy reserved seats in the front part of the sanctuary. The simplicity of this custom and the ardor of those who read, together with the evident devotion of the auditors, indelibly stamp upon the mind the lessons of the Easter season.

       Palm Sunday is a day of rejoicing among Moravians. It is the day when candidates for confirmation, who have been pursuing a rigid course of study under the direction of the pastors of the Moravian Church, make a public confession of their faith and become members. The stately house of worship of the Bethlehem Moravian congregation is decorated with palms and greens in festive profusion. There is a ring of triumph in music and sermon, and there is always a large class of young people to make a public declaration of faith in the essentials of the Christian religion. Occasionally, too, older persons stand for the first time in the circle of the chosen and respond to the impressive service of confirmation, which makes this a memorable day for them.

       The services of Maundy Thursday are as solemn as the occasion demands. The cumulative force of the "words of Thursday," as they are read during the two afternoon meetings, cannot be realized in any other way than by setting aside the afternoon of the day before Good Friday to gather with hundreds of fellow believers and hearken to these words as they fell from the lips of the Master two thousands years ago. The evening service of communion brings back the vision of the upper room and the exhortation to the disciples. The white-gowned ministers bearing trays of bread and wine, the artistic arrangement of the service and the inspiring accumulation of song lend a significance to this Eucharist that cannot fail to prepare every participant for the events of the dark days that follow.

       On the morning of Good Friday, at 10:30 o'clock, the congregation assembles for a service of reading and song. The dramatic "acts of Friday" are the theme. At 2:30 in the afternoon, the climax of the reading services is held, the closing scenes of the Crucifixion being reviewed. At 3 o'clock, the supposed hour of our Savior's death, the throng of worshipers kneel, while the deep-toned bell in the belfry over the ridge roof of the church tolls a solemn knell. The congregation rises and in reverent silence leaves the sanctuary. The Christ is dead. An evening vesper, which begins at 7 :30 o'clock, is an exercise of song. It is a vigil for the Paschal Lamb, and, following, as it does, upon the solemn sadness of the morning and afternoon watch, makes a profound impression of the greatness of Christ's sacrifice for sin.

       During the afternoon of Saturday, commonly known as Great Sabbath, a love-feast is held. This service, which opens at 3 o'clock, consists of a program of song and prayer. The congregation and choir vie with each other in expressions of praise and adoration to the King who gave them life and brotherly love through death. While this challenge of song is sounding, the dieners of the church -- men and women dark groomed and practiced in the art of serving throngs of people -- distribute buns and coffee. This friendly breaking of bread is accepted as a symbol of unity with each other and the wounded Lord. At 7 :30, the congregation re-assembles for the Easter Eve watch. There is another vigil exercise of song, with a prayer and an interpretative word from the desk. It is a thoughtful preparation for the Resurrection Day.

       Many loyal Moravians do not sleep on Great Sabbath night. They remain in the church to decorate for the celebration of Easter Day. At about 3 o'clock in the morning of the day to which the services of the entire week have been leading, the trombone choir starts out on a tour of Bethlehem and South Bethlehem, playing carols to call the sleeping citizens to awake for the early morning watch in the cemetery under the giant tulip-trees. Here lie buried pioneer missionaries of many lands, ministers of the church, citizens of community days and of modern Bethlehem, -- a group of men and women in whose presence one must bow his head in reverence and thank the good Father for loyal servants in the vineyard of the world. In such a company one may well await the resurrection hour. Thousands of people from near and far come to this sunrise gathering. They crowd into the church nearby the cemetery and hear the announcement by the choir that the Master has arisen from the dead; listen to the impressive words of the first part of the Moravian Easter liturgy; sing a song of rejoicing; and then slowly depart to the great square under the tulip-trees in the center of the old burying-ground, which has been apportioned for this service. Here, assisted by the trombone choir, the singing choir, and the ministers of the congregation, they complete the Easter liturgy in the open air, just as the first gleams of sunrise tint the eastern sky. There is in this gathering a rejoicing as pronounced as was the gloom which settled over the services of Friday and the watchful waiting of the Great Sabbath day.

       The other services of Easter Day are not dissimilar to those of churches of other names, but there is in them an atmosphere of triumph that would be impossible without the days of careful preparation which have passed. On the eighth day after Easter, the remaining acts set down in the Passion Manual are read. Easter is not, therefore, a transient festival in the Moravian Church. Its influence abides. It reechoes in the services many days --nay, months -- after the season has fled. 

 Description of a Moravian Sunrise Easter Service.

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Nature's Easter Music

Nature's Easter Music

by Lucy Larcom

The flowers from the earth have arisen,

They are singing their Easter-song;

Up the valleys and over the hillsides

They come, an unnumbered throng.

Oh, listen ! The wild-flowers are singing

Their beautiful songs without words!

They are pouring the soul of their music

Through the voices of happy birds.

Every flower to a bird has confided

The joy of its blossoming birth --

The wonder of its resurrection

From its grave in the frozen earth.

For you chirp the wren and the sparrow,

Little Eyebright, Anemone pale!

Gay Columbine, orioles are chanting

Their trumpet-note loud on the gale.

The buttercup's thanks for the sunshine

The goldfinch's twitter reveals;

And the violet trills, through the bluebird,

Of the heaven that within her she feels.

The song-sparrow's exquisite warble

Is born in the heart of the rose --

Of the wild-rose, shut in its calyx,

Afraid of belated snows.

And the melody of the wood-thrush

Floats up from the nameless and shy

White blossoms that stay in the cloister

Of pine-forests, dim and high.

The dust of the roadside is vocal;

There is music from every clod;

Bird and breeze are the wild-flowers' angels,

Their messages bearing to God.

"We arise and we praise Him together!"

With a flutter of petal and wings,

The anthem of spirits immortal

Rings back from created things.

And nothing is left wholly speechless;

For the dumbest life that we know

May utter itself through another,

And double its gladness so!

The trees have the winds to sing for them;

The rock and the hill have the streams;

And the mountain and thunderous torrents

That waken old Earth from her dreams.

She awakes to the Easter-music;

Her bosom with praise overflows;

The forest breaks forth into singing,

For the desert has bloomed as the rose.

And whether in trances of silence

We think of our Lord arisen,

Or whether we carol with angels

At the open door of His prison,

He will give us an equal welcome

Whatever the tribute we bring;

For to Him who can read the heart's music

To blossom with love is to sing.

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Song of Easter

Song of Easter

by Celia Thaxter

Sing, children, sing!

And the lily censers swing;

Sing that life and joy are waking and that Death no

more is king.

Sing the happy, happy tumult of the slowly brighten-

ing spring;

Sing, children, sing!

Sing, children, sing!

Winter wild has taken wing.

Fill the air with the sweet tidings till the frosty echoes

ring!

Along the eaves the icicles no longer glittering cling;

And the crocus in the garden lifts its bright face to the

Sun,

And in the meadows softly the brooks begin to run;

And the golden catkins swing

In the warm airs of the spring;

Sing, little children, sing!

Sing, little children, sing!

The lilies white you bring

In the joyous Easter morning for hope are blossoming;

And as the earth her shroud of snow from off her

breast doth fling,

So may we cast our fetters off in God's eternal spring.

So may we find release at last from sorrow and from

pain,

So may we find our childhood's calm, delicious dawn

again.

Sweet are your eyes, O little ones, that look with smil-

ing grace,

Without a shade of doubt or fear into the Future's

face !

Sing, sing in happy chorus, with joyful voices tell

That death is life, and God is good, and all things

shall be well;

That bitter days shall cease

In warmth and light and peace, --

That winter yields to spring, --

Sing, little children, sing!

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Easter Organ Music

Easter Organ Music

by Harvey B. Gaul

       There is one difficulty that Easter brings, and that is the exceeding worry of finding appropriate Easter organ music. Organ music for Christmas is comparatively easy to find --composers have left us a vast heritage relative to the Nativity -- but for the Resurrection there seems to be little available literature.

       The following compendium of Easter organ music is not all-inclusive. Nor is it intended to include every organ piece with the title or suggestion that Christus resurrectus est. It is compiled with the desire -- Baedeker fashion -- to lighten the search and point out the advantageous works. Also to encourage organists in the belief that there are other works more appropriate for Easter than Mendelssohn's Spring Song and Grieg's To Spring, even if Easter is the sapping, budding printemps.
       In preparing this list it was deemed advisable to catalogue the pieces in four sections, starting with preludes. 

      The Prelude to The Resurrection, Bullard, offers a splendid opportunity for opening the service. In the same capacity the Prologue to Christ, the Victor, by Dudley Buck, may be placed. Mozart's Resurrexit, also has excellent preludial effects, and with it may be included Springer's Easter Alleluia. For melody Parkhurst's In the Gloom of Easter Morn is to be recommended.

       In the matter of Interludes or Offertories the following pieces are good: Anthem for the Sunday after Easter, Guilmant; Offertoire pour la fete de paques, Orison; Easter Hymn, Oliver; Air de la Pentecote, from Easter cantata. Bach; Gloria in excelsis, Burger. These works will supply the needs for Interludes; some of them may be used for Preludes. For the purpose of concluding the service Easter Recessional, Flagler; March on Easter Themes, Mark Andrews; Easter March, Merkl, are all strong virile works, with the march rhythm firmly announced. Also in the class of Postludes may be included, Hosannah Chorus Magnus, Dubois; Hosanna, Wachs; Hosanna, Granier; Hosannah, Lemmens. For organ recital pieces -- and Easter Is a very good time for organ recitals on account of the vast congregations to be seated -- the following works will be found suitable; they are not only more ambitious, and of larger caliber, but offer passages for telling solo effects: Easter Morning, Mailing; Old Easter Melody, John West; Easter Morn (a meditation), West; and Resurrection Morn, Johnston; commended not only for melodic work, but for varied and interesting structure and passage opportunity.

       Also for concert work: Alleluia! O Mii et iiliae, Loret; and O filii et iiliae, Lizst, and Paques Henries, Mailly. For display purposes requiring full organ effects these works should be considered: Fantasia on Jesus Christ is Risen To-day, Peter Lutkin; Fantasia on an Easter Plain Song, Wilan; and Fantasia on a Carol, West.

       For the person who was educated in the English School of church music and who firmly believes no better or more fitting works were ever written than the oratorio choruses, the following transcriptions are advisable. They may be used for Preludes, Interludes, Postludes ad libitum, or even da capo: Achieved is the glorious work, Haydn ; the Hallelujah Chorus, Handel; the Hallelujah Chorus from Mount of Olives, Beethoven; Gloria in excelsis, Mozart; and All glory to the Lamb that died, from Last Judgment, Spohr. Really good transcriptions may be found or made, from the following oratorio solos: The trumpet shall sound; I know that my Redeemer liveth, and Thou didst not leave His soul in hell, from Handel's Messiah. The last two have the charm of being unhackneyed and if good solo stops are employed they are most acceptable pieces. 

 Introducing the organ to a new generation.

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Mary's Easter

Mary's Easter

by Marie Mason

 

Easter lilies freshly bloom

O'er the open, conquered tomb;

Cups of incense, pure and fair,

Pour oblations on the air.

Easter-glory sudden flows

Through the portal none may close;

Death and darkness flee away,

Christ the Lord is risen to-day !

Shining forms are sitting by

Where the folded garments lie;

Loving Mary knows no fear

While the waiting angels hear

" They have taken my Lord away,

Know ye where he lies to-day ? "

Sweet they answer to her cry,

As their pinions pass her by.

See the Master stand to greet

Her that weepeth at His feet.

" Mary!" At the tender word

Well she knows her risen Lord!

All her love and passion breaks

In the single word she speaks:--

Hear the sweet "Rabboni!" tell

All her woman-heart so well!

"Quickly go and tell it out

Unto others round about.

Thou hast been forgiven much;

Tell it, Mary unto such.

By thy love within thy heart,

This my word to them impart;

Death shall touch thy soul no more,

Christ thy Lord hath gone before!"

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Medieval Easter Plays

Medieval Easter Plays

By Henry Barrett Hinckley

 

       The modern drama had its origin in the Easter services of the mediaeval church. Readers of the New Testament are well acquainted with the supreme importance which Saint Paul attached to the Resurrection. To him it was the demonstration, not merely of the immortality of the soul, but of the truth of the entire Christian religion. Furthermore, the narrative element in the gospels, is nowhere so conspicuous and so sustained as in the account of events from the entry into Jerusalem. Even the story of the birth of Jesus, is comparatively meager, and appears moreover in but two of the canonical gospels. Nor has it so fully developed the element of contest so necessary to effective drama. In this respect the persecution of Herod and the flight into Egypt is less adequate, than the repeated efforts of the Jews to entrap Jesus, his arrest, his trial or examination first by the Jews and then by Pilate, the effort of Pilate to save him, his crucifixion, death and burial, the setting of a watch, and the victorious resurrection. To these tradition added a descent into hell. Everywhere we find Christ opposed by all the hostile forces of the world.

       At least as early as the fourth century we find, as the most important form of public worship, the mass which is essentially a commemoration of the last acts of Christ. Later it was believed that these events were actually repeated as often as the mass was celebrated. During the ninth century began a process of liturgical elaboration. The desire for more singing was strongly felt. At first there were added melodies without words, simple vowel sounds being uttered. Then texts were written. And the responsive chanting of the two halves of the quire gave the words of scripture. Already there was something in the nature of an oratorio. In a manuscript belonging to the Abbey of Saint Gall, in Switzerland, we find arranged for chanting the dialogue between the three Maries and the angel, at the tomb:

"Whom seek ye at the sepulcher, O worshippers of Christ?"

"Jesus of Nazareth the crucified, O habitants of heaven."

"He is not here, he has arisen, as he predicted.

Go, proclaim that he has risen from the sepulcher."

" I have risen."

       The dialogue was later accompanied by appropriate action. We find in the church something that served for a sepulcher, in which on Good Friday a cross was solemnly buried, and very early on Easter morning one of the priests would privately remove it. Then at the mass, one personating the angel would remove a cloth to show that the sepulcher was empty, and the other priests with spices, personating the Maries, would approach to look in and see. The dialogue and action both grew. The running of John and Peter to the sepulcher was an early addition. And the supper at Emmaus and the conviction of Thomas appear before the drama has yet ceased to be a part of the liturgy.

       Once the parts in the ritual were taken by individuals, rather than chanted by portions of the choir, we find the costuming and acting more and more developed. The angel bears an ear of grain, as a symbol of the resurrection; the Maries wear veils; the angel has wings. Account books survive in England, France and Germany, from which details may be gathered. But as a church service " the office of the sepulcher," as the ceremony was called, always remained imperfectly dramatic. As late as 1593 when Shakespeare's plays were already seen at the Globe Theater, we find a detailed description of " the office of the sepulcher " as performed at the Abbey Church of Durham (where, to be sure, the people were more conservative than in the south of England), which shows that the play is still a ritual, an act of worship. On the continent the "office of the Sepulcher " was performed in certain churches as late as the eighteenth century.

       Meanwhile similar ceremonies had developed in celebration of the birth of Christ. When these had become too large for representation in the church they were acted outside of it, in the churchyard or in the public squares. The representations then ceased to be ritualistic and became frankly spectacular. The whole Biblical history was enacted at public festivities. But even so the plays still remained an important source of religious instruction, and there survive the words of a mediaeval preacher who refers to them for corroboration of his sermon. The resurrection was now but a detail, and its dramatic possibilities were far less worked out than those of various other parts of the Bible story, for the two most striking figures in these miracle plays or mysteries were Noah's Wife, to whom Chaucer refers, and King Herod who is mentioned even by Hamlet.

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