The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-04-10
THE PACIFIC
GOmmertialAbbertiser
SATURDAY. APRIL 10.
HOLIDAYS.
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value,-as Of more than ordinary import. There
Is not a people that may claim to have taken its
first step towards humanity or being one step
removed from brute existence, and in its super
stitions or creeds certain days Of the year are
marked with a red stone. The mythology of the
ancient Greeks and Romans, the sagas, legends,
the history Of the IDcas. Indians, Persisns,
Chinese i'm a word, all peoples have their days
Of observance down to the present days of Chris
tianity. But there is a distinct difference appar-
ent in the festival days of ancient superstitions or
creeds from those Of the Christian church, and a
very distinct one. The emotional feelings Of all
days Of observance Of the former were most inva-
riably fear, with the exception perhaps of the
feasts Of Ceres and others Of similar import, where
gratitude and joy however were expressed, not
without feelings of propitlation. That a frown-
ing Zeus, a laundering Jupiter, a stern Jehovah,
down to the shark Of our own island superstition,
should only inspire feelings Of fear, is obvious.
Ii was left for the church Of Christ to give TO days
of observance totally different feelings of emotion,
change night into day, gloom into cheerfulness,
trembling into confidence, fear into the baby's
loving smile, stretching forth its feeble arms with
loving heart to its mother, its fountain Of love,
its source of every feeling Of happiness and joy.
1t was reserved for Christ to change Zeus, Jupiter,
Jehovah, or under whatever name a Supreme
Being was dreaded and worshiped into the Father,
whose love surpasses even a mothers love, and in
this change also change the days of observance
from fear into festivals Of Joy and love. The dark
middle ages. rife with superstition, added days of
festivals and saints by scores, but brightly above
them all appear those days of higher Significance
and memorial, around whose memory from the
early days of the Apostles down TO our own times,
every Christian heart cliDgs with affection.
To the traveller who from the midst of the peo-
Piles Of the old world enters upon our islands. it
appears strange that some of those holiest days
Of our Faith are by the Hawaiian churches alto
getber ignored or passed by without any apparent
significance. Most strikingly is this the case,
when you see that great day, Good Friday, pass
unnoticed by church or people in the full tide of
orphans will strew flowers upon the graves of
their loved ones in memory of their death, but
not a flower has the Hawaiian church to lay in
loving memory upon the tomb of the Holy One.
1t seems equally strange that festive days of the
highest Significance are SO little noticed by the
Hawaiian churches and pass by as insignifcantly
as the ordinary course of Sundays without at
tempting to leave deeper Impressions, that through
the course of the year are remembered with cheer
full affection and borne up in the future as pleasant
landmarks. No day in the Christian church has
such significance and is so replete with profoundest
JOY as Easter morn, when the seal that closed the
grave of centuries and their generations was
broken, aud the portals of death were wTenched
from their rusty hinges by the conquerer's hand
when the first bright ray from celestial realms
6NAO1lCa INV IhO N1LhhOCo vi NdO NOAnO oho viz
gates of eternal life were thrown wide open to
mortality to gaze upon the mansions in a loving
Fathers house. Well, / think, it BELTS humanity
to rejoice on this day Of redemption and give ex-
preston to its joy. The hozannas that greetest
the Lord on his entrance into Jerusalem would
have been but tame and perhaps unrecorded, had
not waving branches surrounded him and bright
flowers been strewn upon his path, and L know
of no pleasanter and more BETTING celebration of
the joyful yesterday, than having the church
.--,.oI - NHa hrswHk naIaru &c Gn1ss NM ruoolfh
One of the pl~easantest and through the coming
years long to be remembered Easter services found
place in the pretty Ulupalakua chapel. No Ngory
geous array Of costly or gaudy decorations marred
the scene, but the simple arrangement of ever
greens and flowers reminded the heart that spring
had come with its glory of blossoms. and also that
other Spring of Immortality and Eternity, whose
glories eye has not seen nor ear heard.
On entering the chapel, your eye met above the
highest; on earth peace" formed in large letters
of the young twigs of cypress with a border of
the same beautiful evergreen surrounding them.
The appropriateness of having the joyful inscrip-
ton placed in the position where the eye on
entering the edi6ce must meet it, while the sounds
Of the organ in soothing accords combined to
proclaim the hozannas of the festive day, was
apparent in the quicker throbbing of the heart
impressed with the joyful solemnity Of the sacred
day. On both sides of the body of the church
were similar inscriptions in large and tasteful
letters of cypress branches Christ our passover
Is sacrificed for u.s." and on the opposite side,
Therefore let us keep the feast" Handsome
borders surrounded these large inscriptions and
lent an apparent charm in their simplicity to the
festive appearance of the chapel which no costly
decoration could have produced. On the steps of
the oIatorio was q wreath OF beautiful flowers of
subdued hues, amongst which white lilies, SYM
bols Of resurrection, showed their fragrant beauty
amongst the dark brarches of the solemn cypress,
guardian tree of the grave. Beautiful wreaths
were entwined in the railing that divides the
altar from the body of the church and upon the
altar itself, covered with unspotted linen, two
gilded vases bore magnificent bouquets, the choice
of the garden, natures Offering TO its risen Lord.
1.-THE handsomest decoration however was a cross
that stood upon the altar, surrounded by the
beauties Of spring and the haDdiworka and tasteful
creation Of Miss Kate Makee. The cross itself,
some 20 or "a inches in height, made of wood,
was covered in an ingenious manner with the
corollas of the sweet alyssum, while white rose
buds with their fine pencilliDgs of feeble red
recalled the semblance of the cheeks OF a just
awakening infant greeting the dawn OF q new
born day. The clustering alyssum blossoms in
whose petals some tiny DEVELOPS of the early
morning still fingered, gave a resemblance to
tears that must have trembled in the loving eyes
of the grief-stricken watchers at the foot of the
cruel cross. The poetical conception and inge-
nuity displayed made this beautiful decoration of
the Lords table apparently q labor of love.
Well We remember how the churches in the
old world used to be decorated on those great
h~olydays; how the old and feeble used to watch
over and by gentle and sage advice direct the
pleasing labors of young maidens and stalwart-
youngsters, and how happy the hearts beat and
the faces of the little ones shone with Joy and
pleasure when some flower cullcd by their little
hands found a fitting place in some wreath or
bouquet that should adorn tie house OF Him of
whom parents had told them that He loved so
well the little ones and had blessed them. How
many sweet memories Of those festive days float
like fading echoes of happy scenes of the past
through the halls of memory when scores of years
have wiped away the remembrance of pleasures
and merry revels, to recall from year to year the
still joys Of many a sacred holyday of our tender
years, when our path led nearer to the better land!
There are few people in whom the love of flow