German customs, brought to Texas intentionally or intuitively, are numerous. One of the oldest, perhaps brought by settlers from Westphalia and Lower Saxony, is the custom of lighting bonfires on hilltops as part of a Spring festival.

This distantly pre-Christian custom is as delightfully pagan as decorated eggs and trees (later becoming "Easter" eggs and "Christmas" trees). Not only does German influence seem responsible for Christmas trees, but these settlers brought the fires.

Today, in Fredericksburg (and formerly, infrequently, in places such as Boerne) Easter church bells ring Saturday evening, many town lights are darkened, and more than 20 fires blaze from surrounding hills. Of course, the occasion has become a popular modern festival, but the fires illuminate an old local story.

As told in Fredericksburg, the fires date from a first Easter observance in 1847, when Comanche Indians lit signal fires around the German settlement as the colonial leader, John O. Meusebach, negotiated a treaty. In this story, the signal fires scared the children, who were assured by their parents that the flares were nothing more than fires over which the Easter rabbit was cooking eggs for decoration. Meusebach's treaty, however, took place a month before Easter in 1847, so the story cannot be quite as it is told.

Perhaps the Easter rabbit needed an advance start in the new land. Perhaps the Comanches did use this not very common way of communication. Perhaps. But more than likely, settlers from southern Germany would not have known the custom of the fires and may have been scared by Westphalians out having fun.

In whatever version, the story is a good one. And however altered, those old fires of the European Spring still burn in Texas.