Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-03-21
PAEm SUNDAY.
The Sunday BEFORE Easter, and
how il il Celebrated.


how il il Celebrated.
When cur Lord designed no longer T.
: AVOID the fury eff the Jews, he left Beth
; any and proceeded 10 jerusalem to pre-
s sent himself to the temple. When hS
arrived at Mount Olive, which IL abonl
o mile from Jerusalem, the sacred histc.
c riRn tells ne, he sent two of his disciples
: to an adjoining village, telling them
= that az p certain place where atwow ays
9 metz they would ind a she ass. and a
: colt with her, hat Lad never been rid.
den, which they werar to bring to him.
Upon this colt cur HSrf rode into the
, city, accomplishing the prophecy of
ZachaIiSh, behold thy KiCg cometh,
mock aud lowly, riding upon the foal OF
an asa" The people took branches Of
, palm trees and went forth to meet him.
This brief popularity which CHRIST en-
j1yed on his last entry into Jerusalem,
has been commemorated in 9 most
solemn manner by the Church from its
earliest days-to-dsy, Palm Sunday,
(DonaSasoa Raenaorapl,l being its ami
verssry.
1t is the last Sunday In Lent, and Is
cslled In the, Anglican Church Passion
Sunday (which name is applied by the
Latin, as we explained last Sunday, to
the fth Sunday In Lent-which is GER
tRtniy tue more correct nomenelatuerG In
the sncientc church Palm Sunday ,withthe
whole of the ensuing week wa held in
strict devotion, aud observed with greater
rigor as to fasting and humiliation than
shy other portion of Lsnt.
Throughout the greater portion of
Europe, in defect of the palm branches,
branches of some other evergreen tree,
as box, yew or willow, were blessed by
the priests after Mass and distributed
among the people who forthwith carried
them in Joyous procession in memory OF
the Ssvior's Triumphant Lentry into the
Holy City. After this they were usually
burned, and the ashes laid aside, to be
sprinkied on the. heads Of the. eongrega-
ton on the ensuing Ash Wednesday.
The box was substituted ct Rome,
the yeW in. England,
and some authors account from this Cir
cumstsnce, there being yet found at least
one Of that kind Of tres in every church,
yard throughout the United Kingdom. |
Oaxton, in his directory for keeping the
festivals, printed in 1888, from which,
along with the venerable Claws Cdsen-
dGTiG, we draw most Of the information
contained in this and similar articlesl, |
has a passage which confirms the fact
thstthe yew was adopted as the substitute
for the palm in Eogland; his words are, I
I" But for %encbesOn thst we have none
Olyve that BERTH grained leet, aIgate
therefor we take W instead OF palm
snd olyve.n
Before the change of religion, the Palm
Sunday celebrations in England we're OF
the most elaborate character. The d1w-
ers and branches designed to be used by
thu clergy were laid on the high altar,
and those TO be used by tina people were
to be laid on the south step of the altar.
The manner Of blessing the yew is as fol-
The Priest, srrayed in red, procseds
to cOnsecrate them byS prayer begin
ming: al conjure thee, thou creature of
flowers and branches in the nsms OF the
Father" etc. This is to dispIace the
Evil Spirit or his influence. He then
prsys: " We humbly beseech thee that
Thy trHth may (here a sign OF the cross
ls made) sanctify this creature OF howers /
and branches which we offer to thee,n
etc. The flowers and branches are per,
fnmed with frankincense from censers,
after which there are prayers and sprink-
lings Of holy water, and the branches are
distributed, the procession commences l.
and moves through the city, town or
village, returning to the church, where
mass is performed, the communion Ia
ken and the flowers offered at the altar.
In the ancient religion, with the ex-
treme desire which marked our fore
fathers TO realize as much as possible ev-
erything pertaining to the passion of our
Savior, it was customary to intro
duce in the procession q wooden figure OF
an ass, with an eflgy of Christ riding
upon it. This is continued in one or two
places in Europe yet, especially ut the
-Obersmmogsn, in the Bsv8riRn " Ober-
land or Tyroi, where every ten years
the fife and passion OF our Savior is en-
acted. It is called the PdSSiCnS- SDieL,
and thousands of the inhabitants of the
1yTOl, Austria ard Bavaria attend the 5
celebration. The writer of this witnessed
the last exhibition OF this sort IN 1850. t,
st which time there were at least 20, coo
persons cOngregated in the little town.
Alter the "RsfoTmRtion " in 1886, Hen
~ VIII declared the custom Of carrying
pslns On this dayssone of the ceremonies
to be retained, snd the eustome was Kept
up uHtii the reign of Edward VI, when I,
It was left to th evoluntary observance If
the people. Fuller, who wrote q eentu- =
ry or so later, speaks OF it in the most
lespectful terms, as ''in memorie OF the
T~eceivinge Of Christ into Hierusalem, a
little whyle before his death, and that .
mighLen have the anne de-
to receiver him into our hertes. " '
II has continued even to the present
lay in parts of England, where young 7
now go 'a-pSlming,' or into the
woods to gather branches of yew or will
|ow, whence they return bearing q sprig | u
IN their mouths, in their ~buttOn-holes, {
and in their hands. 1t is but a few years !
ago since a stall woman in Covent Gar
supplied sprigs OF il on this day to q
customers, and the parish churches
are still decorated with the downy buds
II the willow.
The ceremonies Of Easter week at {
there called "Holy week" COM {
to-day. To witness these rights
here are always a large number, seldom
than from three to Fl We thousand for 7
ssembled-mostly English and |
This year we understand $
hat there will be . much larger crowd
)f Americans there than usual. During
his week the shops are kept open, and
concerts, etc, are given, but theatrical
are forbidden. The chief ,
differences are the churches In :
which the affairs, cIucifxes, ETC., are :
in Grape. aa8Ut :
To-day the appropriate services will be !
performed st ali OF the Roman G stholic !
churches, and also in the Episcopal :
churches, OF which we will give our :
leaders a description tomorrow. =
Nuxr AL q 81