Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-05-01
HOLY WEEK In MEXICO.
A MEDIEVAL PASSION PLAY ON
THE AMERICAN CONTINENT.
A Realistic Drama Representing the
Last Scenes in the Life
of ChriSt-Etc.
Especial Correspondence of the RECORD UNION. ]

Especial Correspondence of the RECORD UNION. |
TLALPuJAHUA, April "a, 1886.
Holy Week" in Mexico What pen
can describe it? To see its quaint, and
sometimes comical observances, in all their
primitive grotesqueness, one must not re-
main in the more cosmopolitan City of
Mexico, but seek remote villages in the in
terror. AS rule, the larger the admixture
of Indian blood and the poorer the people
the more intensely religious are they, after q
queer fashion peculiarly their own, which
partakes more of the character of their
Aztec ancestors idolatry than the rites and
ceremonies of Catholicism as practiced
elsewhere. Many of these mummeries
antedate the conquest, with but little modi-
tication since the days of the great war
god Huitrilopoctli. AS soon as the Spanish
crusaders had secured the ancient CITY of
Tenochtitian, they rushed to the temples.
appropriated the consecrated treasures and
ornaments of barbaric gold, overthrow the
affairs and images of paganism, set up a
figure of the Virgin in the place of heather
idols and commanded the astonished peo-
pie TO fall down and worship their God,
who was mightier than the gods of Ana
huac. The defenseless natives were COM
PEELED to
BOW BEFORE THE NEW IMAGES
And forsake the old but the missionaries
sent over by the Spanish King did not stay
to acquire the language of the Indians, nor
to explain to them the doctrines CT Chris
NJ Al L
and administer the sacrament, furnishing
apostates with the tortures prescribed BY
the Inquisition. Such was their zeal that
a single priest would baptize his thousands
between the rising and the setting sun
The Flemish monk, Peter de Client, writ
ing from Mexico in 1929, boosted that he
and another missionary" had con-
verted more than 100000 Mexicans, their
ordinary days work being from ten to
twenty thousand souls!" A few wears
after the conquest the monks reported the
number of converts as four millions. But
it was manifest that the multitudes who
had accepted the new rites on compulsion.
in order TO concliate their cruel conquer
ors, had merely substituted one set of idols
for another, with mental reservations in
favor of their ancient gods. Through all
the centuries their superstitions and tradi-
tons have descended from father to son,
and even to this day garlands of flowers
are sometimes found surreptitiously hung
upon the stone divinitieS that now inhabit
the museums.
De Young tells US that the mysteries of
the religion were so far beyond the COM
prehension of the Aztecs that the
priests found it absolutely necessary to
allow them to retain a portion of their
original superstitions, and to connive at the
amalgamation of holy rites with pagan
ceremonies, confounding the absurd and
gloomy fancies pertaining to heather
mythology with the exalted doctrines of
Christianity. Humboldt says: 1.-THE in
PRODUCTION of the Romish religion had no
other effect upon the Mexicans than to
substitute new ceremonies and symbols for
the rites of sanguinary worship. Dogma
has not succeeded dogma, but only cere-
mony to ceremony. | have seen them,
masked and adorned with tinkling bells,
perform savage dances around the altar.
while monk of st. Francis elevated the
host"
DURING THE HOLY SEASON
We went to Tlalpuiahua pronounced
Tlap-poo- ha VAIN, it being the most prim-
tive village within easy reach, where the
customs OF the past prevail in almost I'M
diminished grotesqueness, despite the mod
flying influence Of the reform govern
ment. There the usual melodrama or sort
of Passion Play, in which the sufferings.
death and burial of our Savior are ali
infinitely represented, is yearly enacted by
living figures. The ancient church of
Tlalpujahua was built more than two CEN
turtles and half ago. but its adobe walls,
though SCARED by time and green with
mold and lichens, look capable of defyipg
the elements till the resurrection m orning.
Adjoining 1t is charming place, which
once belonged to the monks of the order
called Padres Camilos. During Holy Week
we were guests of the hospitable family
who now occupy it, spending most of the
time when within its walls in the cool and
fragrant garden, swinging in hammocks
under the orange trees, after the manner of
our kind entertainers. Here we took our
morning cotfee-where many holy friar
has fingered with one eye open to the roses
and the other presumably closed for Gin
nard meditation then sailed forth
about 10 A. NJ. to the Passion Play.
The old church was brilliantly illumin-
ated by thousand waxen tapers. making
pale the rays of sunlight which struggled
in through the small. heavily-barred win
dows high up under the roof. Loads of
fruit and flowers (conspicuously oranges
and yellow marigolds) were piled upon all
the affairs as votive offerings, floors were
strewn with peoples and roses, and the
place was thronged to suffocation with
ragged leperos and blanketed Aztecs.
First. after the mass,
CHRIST HAD TO BE CAUGHT,
According TO programme; and while the
crowd rushed off after the % Roman SOL
diers" to assist in et prcndimiento (the cap
ture), Betsy and l improved the oppor-
nifty to select favorable place from which
to view the subsequent ceremonies. Be
meath spreading palm tree within the
church Enclosure was portable pulpit
covered with purple velvet and shining
stuffs, and we could do no better than
perch ourselves on top of ruinous old
adobe sepulcher near by, though at the
risk OF tumbling in and mingling our bones
with those moldering inside.
At length the procession appeared, re-
turning down the green lanes of the village
to the sounds of fife and viola motley
multitude of Jews, Pharisees and Romans.
all gorgeously costumed according to Mex
lean ideas of the same, in green and silver,
or scarlet and gold, with feathered helmets
and exaggerated ornaments. They were
mounted upon horses which had been
taught to dance at the sound of the music,
and each carried a lamp. or lantern, sur
mounted by gaily-colored plumes made of
spun glass. They had been from house to
house, all over the village, pretending to
search for the Savior, till at length, having
captured a life-sized wooden figure (which
had been brought from the church and
secreted for the purpose), they pretended to
return in triumph with Him they sought.
In the midst of the soldiers was
THE WOODEN CHRIST DRESSED IN ROBES OF
PURPLE SILK,
And borne upon platform by four men.
guarded on all sides by bristling spears,
while an indescribable train of ragged In
dams, men, women and children, brought
up the procession. The image was placed
in an artificial bower among the trees, sup
posed 10 be the Garden of Getbsemane Then
the village priest arrived and mounted to
his place in the purple-draped pulpit, while
an attendant obligingly held a huge GRIM
son cotton umbrella over his shaver head.
We are told that
Zsccheus he