Easter Day should be a peaceful, happy day of rejoicing, thanksgiving and praise to the Giver of all good. Easter is symbolic of a new life, and a brighter one. It is springtime, the sun shines brightly, and Nature smiles. She is rejoicing because her dead are coming to life again. The trees, the grass, the flowers all rise up in the glory of a new and beautiful life. Chrysalis and egg are not strong enough to keep back the new life of butterfly and bird which rises skyward to rejoice, each in its own way.

One of the oldest and most characteristic Easter rites and the most widely diffused is the use of paschal (Easter or Passover) eggs. They are usually dyed in various colors and people mutually make presents of them. There can be little doubt that their use at this season was originally symbolical of the revivication of nature, the springing forth of life which in turn is symbolical of the ascension.

In some parts of the country colored eggs are hidden in nests or in corners, and the children have a great deal of pleasure on Easter morning hunting for the eggs which, according to German folk-lore, were brought during the night by the White Rabbit.

Here is an idea for an Easter Luncheon which would be appropriate at this season.

A LUNCHEON IN WHITE AND YELLOW

Use a large plateau or mirror for the centerpiece, in the center of which lay an irregular piece of real (or artificial) moss about one-half the diameter of the plateau (to represent an island.) Stick a few sprays of asparagus and maidenhair fern in it and a number of white and yellow spring flowers—the crocus, jonquil, daffodil, daisy and snowdrop. Cut the stems of the flowers in various lengths to give a better effect. Place a few (artificial) little fluffy chickens on the island and several downy ducklings in the surrounding lake (mirror.) Or use a vase of jonquils and daffodils for a center piece.

Place cards may be made by cutting bristol board into egg shape or oval pieces. On a portion of this card spread some mucilage and sprinkle yellow sand over it. Then stand a tiny yellow chick (these are made of wool and can be purchased very cheap) on the sand (using glue) and close behind it glue the small end of an egg shell. Similar cards can be purchased all ready decorated.

Serve a grape fruit cocktail first. Cut the grape fruit in half, take out the fruit in as large pieces as possible, place in a bowl with the juice. Mix with this a small amount of white grapes, halved and the seeds removed, and a portion of pineapple canned or fresh cut in small pieces and some of the juice or syrup from the pineapple. Add a little sugar and angelica wine if desired. Remove the pulp from the grape fruit, fill each half with the mixture and serve on doylie covered plates.

For a relish use celery, white radishes, small yellow tomato pickles or pickled white grapes.

The meat course consists of creamed chicken, creamed sweetbreads and creamed veal. Carefully cut about one-third of the shell off the top of as many eggs as needed. Remove egg and fill shell with the hot creamed meat, (use three shells for each plate, each having a different filling) and replace top of shell.

Form shoestring potatoes into a nest on a serving plate and place the stuffed eggs in the nest. (Tap the filled egg slightly on the end, indenting but not breaking it and the egg will easily stand on end.)

Or make a nest of mashed potatoes pressing it through a fruit press or potato ricer and place in the center of it meat croquettes, oval shaped and very delicately browned.

Bread sticks or tiny rolls tied with white and yellow ribbon. Mould the butter into the shape of an egg.

Escalloped corn in ramikins.

Salad of California Asparagus tips on bleached lettuce leaf: Place a ring of hard boiled eggs around the stem end of asparagus (slice hard boiled eggs cross-wise, remove the yolk and thrust the ends of asparagus through the white part) serve with French dressing.

If ice cream is to be served on plates, have vanilla and orange flavors packed in a tubular mold, the orange in the center and the vanilla around the outside so that when cut it has the appearance of a slice of hard boiled egg.

If the cream is served in glasses have the two colors moulded in the form of an egg.

Serve lady fingers and egg kisses, or angel food and sunshine cake.

At each place have salted almonds in a yellow egg shell cup. Color the eggs a rich yellow, cut off about one-third of the top and remove egg—use the larger portion of the shell, mash the end a trifle and glue to a small oval paste board.

Bon-bons consist of small jelly eggs, white and yellow in a tiny basket at each place.

The favors are Easter bonnets which the guests are asked to wear. (Procure small doll hats of various styles profusely trimmed with flowers of white and yellow and place a common white hat pin in each one.)

AN EASTER BONNET PARTY

A very pleasant entertainment to be given about Eastertide is one at which the all-engrossing head covering of the season is to be manufactured.

The materials required are simple—two sheets of tissue paper for each guest, numerous pairs of scissors and silver table knives, and pins without limit.

The workroom—preferably one provided with a large table—is decorated with plates of fashionable hats borrowed from a milliner, advertisements of all sorts displaying bonnets, and half a dozen pattern hats previously made by the hostess.

Placards announcing "Fashion's Fancies" or "Hints on Headgear" give substantial advice like the following: "Bald-headed gentlemen are no longer affecting the pompadour style of hat;" "A simple crown is King Edward VII.'s favorite headgear at present;" "None but the very fast set will wear more than fifteen colors in any one bonnet this season."

Each guest is furnished with a roll of two sheets of paper which harmonize in hue, and is told to make a hat or bonnet in fifteen minutes. Really surprising results will begin to appear. Some very lovely creations will be evolved by the tasteful fingers of the wonderful woman who can stretch a dollar; exceedingly funny dunce and soldier caps with nodding tassels of paper fringe will be the products of the big men who can always laugh and give others an occasion for mirth. Hats with brims and without, crownless and with peaked crowns, with streamers and with ties, so small that they challenge the ever-present bow in the hair, and so large as to give cause for another arrest in a New Orleans theater—all the hat family will be there—and so will fun.

Did you ever make one? Lay together two squares of tissue of different colors (white and blue are pretty), gather it—with pins—in a circle, so as to form a crown, leaving the four corners sticking straight out for the present. Roll back two corners loosely, so as to give a pompadour effect for the front, and plait the others so they stand stiff for high trimming behind. This gives you a foundation. For trimming use aigrettes—long fringe pinned so tightly as to stand stiff and curled on its edges with a table knife—and ostrich plumes—short fringe well curled. Pin on the back a pair of bewitching strings, pat, punch and pull into shape, and you have a fetching bonnet.

That is only one—an easy one. Numberless forms come when one begins to invoke them.

When the time has expired, form couples for a cake walk before the judges and award the prizes. A bunch of Easter lilies, or a clump of hepaticas or pasque flowers growing in a tiny china bowl is appropriate for head prize; a hat-pin or a book of nonsense verse for the foot prize.

The following games are also suggested.

MATCHING EGGS

Give each person a certain number of hard boiled eggs. The one who succeeds in cracking the shells of his opponent's by hitting the ends together is the winner.

EGG RACE

Place six hard boiled Easter eggs on each side of the room about one foot apart. A large basket is placed at the far end of the room. The players are divided in two sides, each side being chosen one at a time by the leaders. A large wooden or tin spoon is then given to one player on each side, who, at a given signal, dishes up the eggs one at a time with the spoon, placing them in the basket provided. The leader replaces the eggs on the floor and the next player on each side takes the spoon and lifts the eggs from the floor and carries them to the basket and so on until all have had a turn.

A record is kept of the winners and the side having the greater number wins the game. This game may be changed slightly by someone timing the players with a watch, keeping track of the seconds and the one getting all the eggs into the basket in the shortest time receives a prize.

When it is convenient to play this game out of doors or in a very large room place six or more rows of six eggs each on each side of the room or lawn, with a player (provided with a spoon) behind each row. At a given signal all start to pick up the eggs with their spoons, and the one finishing first wins for his side.

HEN AND CHICKENS

A leader is chosen for the "hen" and the remainder of the children are "chickens," except one who is supposed to be a chicken hawk.

They stand in a row behind one another and grasp the skirts or coat-tails of the child ahead and then they march along with the "hen" at the head of the line.

The "hawk" stands from six to sixteen feet away (the distance depends on the size of the players and the space to play in, the larger each are the greater the distance may be) watching the parade for a short time, then begins to flop his wings (moves arms in imitation of flying) and calls out, "How many chicks have you?" The "hen" replies, "four and twenty, shoo! shoo!" The "hawk" shouts, "That's too many. I'll take a few," and then runs after the children trying to touch or "tag" them. The "hen," of course, tries to protect them by getting them under her wing—when the "chicks" stoop they are supposed to be under their mother's wing and cannot be caught. The children must not let go of each other's skirts or coat-tails (except when caught, then the captured one steps out of the line and the line is closed up.) The hen and chickens may run around as much as they like, only they must keep together by holding on to each other's clothes. The game continues until the hawk has caught the hen and chickens—then a different player is chosen for the hawk and the hen.

AN EGG HUNT

Hide colored Easter eggs or small candy eggs in various places, in corners, behind curtains, bric a brac, etc., etc. Provide each child with a small basket or paper bag and at a signal they start to hunt for the hidden eggs. Allow a certain length of time for the hunting and reward the one who finds the most eggs with a large candy egg.

BOWLING

Get ten small toy ten-pins or use wooden clothes pins. Stand them upon end about six or eight inches apart in a line across the room. Use five colored eggs for the balls. A player kneels on one knee at a distance of four feet from the ten-pins and rolls the eggs, one after another toward the ten-pins, knocking down as many as he can. Then another player rolls the eggs and so on until all have taken a turn. Count is kept and the person knocking down the most ten-pins is the winner and receives a "Panorama egg" or some other appropriate prize.

---