Many Easter traditions can be traced back to long before the spread of Christianity. The ancient Saxons celebrated the return of spring with a festival honoring their goddess of offspring and springtime, Eastre. The Easter Bunny may well have its origin in the honoring of rabbits in spring as an animal sacred to the goddess Eastre.
          The egg has long been a symbol of new life, so it’s no surprise that they are used to symbolize nature seeming to “wake up” and bring forward new life in spring. Ancient Greeks and Egyptians placed eggs on their tombs. A Roman proverb states, “All life comes from an egg.” A lot of people eat chocolate eggs at Easter, but originally eating eggs was not allowed by church leaders during the week leading up to Easter (known as Holy Week). The eggs laid that week were saved and decorated to make them Holy Week eggs, and they were then given to children as gifts. Victorians adapted the tradition with satin-covered cardboard eggs filled with Easter gifts. This has now developed into the tradition that many people enjoy today. The first chocolate eggs appeared in France and Germany in the 19th Century, but they were bitter and hard. As chocolate-making techniques improved, hollow eggs like the ones we have today were developed. They very quickly became popular and remain a favorite tradition with chocolate-lovers today.
         There were a lot of disputes between churches in the East and the West over exactly when Easter should be celebrated. To solve this problem, in 325 AD the emperor Constantine decreed that Easter should fall on Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox. Accordingly, Easter became a movable festival, taking place between March 21 and April 25. For many, Easter is a holiday and an excuse to eat a lot of chocolate. For Christians, Easter is a time of reflection and celebration of the cross and all that it signifies.

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George Gershwin, born in 1998, was one of America’s greatest composers. He published his first song when the was eighteen years old. During the next twenty years he wrote more than five hundred songs.

Many of Gershwin’s songs were first written for musical plays performed in theatres in New York City. These palys were a popular form of entertainment in the 1920s and 1930s. Many of his songs have remained popular as ever. Over the 

years they have been sung and played in every possible way — from jazz to country.

In the 1920s there was a debate in the United States about jazz music. Could jazz, some people asked, be considered serious music? In 1924 jazz musician and orchestra leader Paul Whiteman decided to organize a special concert to show that jazz was serious music. Gershwin agreed to compose something for the concert before he realized he had just a few weeks to do it. And in that short time, he composed a piece for piano and orchestra which he called Rhapsody in Blue. Gershwin himself played the piano at the concert. The audience were thrilled when they heard his music. It made him world-famous and

showed that jazz music could be both serious and popular.

In 1928, Gershwin went to Paris. He applied to study composition (作曲)with the well-known musician Nadia Boulanger, but she rejected him. She was afraid that classical study would ruin his jazz-influenced style. While there, Gershwin wrote
(A)American in Paris. When it was first performed, critics (评论家)were divided over the music. Some called it happy and full of life, to others it was silly and boring. But it quickly became popular in Europe and the United States. It sill remains one of his most famous works.

George Gershwin died in 1937, just days after doctors learned he had brain cancer. He was only thirty-nine years old. Newspapers all over the world

reported his death on their front pages. People mourned the loss of the man and all the music he might have still written.