The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1904-03-27

UsGIAIW which come under the control OF the
e3(@N7Ml Greek, or Eastern, Church-Easter
H. SINl is not only great religious event,
I'M - but, through the changes of time,
has to be great national
festival This years celebration promises to be pc
culiarly sad because OF the war.
Lent-as it is understood by the people Of the
West-lasts for six weeks from Ash Wednesday,
or forty days In the calendar of the Russian
Church it lasts for seven weeks, and owing to the
differences between the Gregorian method of COM
putting time and that still in use i'll the Russian
Church, the Lenten season will end this year on
April week later than the Easter Day as it is
celebrated in the United States and elsewhere where
the Gregorian calendar is in use. In Russia they
call Lent "The Great Fast" and during the Great
Fast no animal food may be eaten. No fish food,
even, may be except during the first four
weeks of the season, and among the lower classes
the fast is strictly observed,
There is mi careme in Rassa, but Palm Sum
day-or what is called Palm Sunday in the Western
Churchs the nearest approach to any holiday
seen during the Lenten season In Russia this
Sunday is called Willow Day, and on Willow Eve
the evening preceding the Willow Day--the first
duty of everyone who appears upon the streets is
to buy sprig of willow If the spring comes early,
one may buy this sprg with the catkins. This,
though, depends upon the Easter season, for when
the Easter comes late in the year. then the spring
comes early, and willows in Russia--like the willows
the world overcome when the first breath of the
spring makes them show their fur to those who
would buy-as everyone buys in Moscow on Will
low Eve.
On the streets on this evening may be seen ped
dlers with their trays filled with Easter eggs, toy
balloons and everything that might appeal to the
children In Russia, in the Teutonc countries,
Easter is planned for the childrens entertainments
as we'll for the religious ceremony of the elders
A priest of the Russian Church, who has lived for
the greater part of his life in Russia but who has
come to America to minister to his people, told the
other day Of one Of the ceremonies of Passion
Week He said:
Every two three years the Church prepares
the myro or holy chrism. This is sacred oil used
for amounting children in baptism, the conservation
of churches, and at the ceremony of the coronation
Of the Emperor and Empress.
Down to a few years ago this holy oil was pre-
pared only at Kief and at Moscow 1t may be pre-
pared elsewhere now-I do not know The cere-
mony takes place in the Sacrsty of the Patriarchs,
and the Metropolitan in person lights the fire. pours
into the caldron the first gallon of oil and begins
to read the gospel.
This ceremony begins on the Monday morning
preceding Easter, and | remember going into the
church in Moscow during the year of the corona
ton Of the Gar while this ceremony was in prog
ress The Sacristy of the Patrarchs is great hall
filled with the most marvellous decorations At the
north end, under a great canopy of gidcd wood,
there was stove of porcelain On this stove were
placed two tremendous caldrons OF silver lined with
gold, each weighing two hundred pounds. num-
Der of priests were grouped about these caldrons,
and six deacons in black robes trimmed with sill
yer, were stirring the oil with long silver ladies.
For three days and nights this ceremony is kept
up, the oil is constantly stirred by the deacons and
monks while the priests read the gospels aloud.
There was a large vase in the center Of the hail. 1t
was made of silver, richly ornamented with gold,
and was presented to the Sacristy by the Empress
Catherine H. Into this vase, after the myro is
boiled for the required time the holy oil is poured
to be blessed. On the Thursday before Easter
there was great procession of all the Church dig
nitaries, and the oil was carried to the Church OF
the Assumption from the Sacristy OF the Patri-
archs. Then the Metropolitan assisted by number
of archbishops, said Mass, the Metropolitan pouring
from the alabaster few drops of the sacred oil into
the myro, blessed it, and the holy chrsm taken
back 10 the Saeristy to be divided and sent away.
The alabaster, SO called in memory Of the ala
baster box of ointment, broken by Mary on the
Saviour. is small copper bottle covered with
mother-of-pearl. and originally filed with oil
brought from Constantinope when Christianity was
introduced into Russia. Each the the myro is pre-
pared few drops of this oil is poured in and the
aabaster again filed so that after centuries there
still remains minute portion of the original oil
"The myro which l watched in the making and
blessing consisted of about thousand pounds Of
o;;..a al forty oaions of white lisbon wine and