Durango semi-weekly herald., 1905-04-24


ly do whatsoever thing goeth forth
out of our own mouth, to burn incense
unto the queen of heaven, and pour
out drink offerings to her, and make
her cakes to worship her. We and
our fathers, and our kings and our
princes in the cities of Judah, and in
the streets OF Jerusalem, for tnen
had we plenty of victuals and were
well and saw nc evil"
The cakes here mentioned as so
conspicuous a feature Of the ldola.
trous ritual are regarded as the old
est sacred cakes in history, for their
pedigree must nave been many cen
turies long in Jeremiahs day. They
especially in the festival of Tammuz,
when the rebirth of nature in spring
time was celebrated universally
among ancient peoples. These cakes
typifed the central and sustaining
principle OF life
Behold says Ezekiel, "at the
gate OF the Lords house, which was
toward the north, there sat women
weeping for Tammuz" Now, this
Tammuz was the hero of the Syrian
mysteries, and had been adopted by
the Jews, as the prophet describes.
Later he reappears as Adonis in the
Identical legend of Greece He is the
beauteous youth with whom the queen
all Ia h,,t Il.
was killed untimely by wild boar
and spirited off TO the land of shades,
where Persephone reigned. Venus,
in her inconsolable grief, made such
a moving appeal to Persephone that
the goddess OF fhe underworld agreed
TO compromise. She consented
hat Tammu2 (Adonisl might return
tC earth for six months OF the year
and complete the other half in his
proper sepulcnral quarters with her
So, each year, at springtime, his
death was mournfully celebrated by
one day OF general sorrow and wall.
ing, and this was followed by wild
rejoicing on the second day, when he
returned from the dead. This festi-
val was kept with lavish Oriental
pomp.
Venus bewailing Adonis means, in
neurological language nature mourn.
ing for departed man, while tne joy
at his temperance covers broadly
The resurrection of man and nature
both. And, in the exquisite legend
woven into that charming festival, We
have symbolized the half year of ma
ture's bloom and the other half of
ner barrenness and sleep.
The pagan pedigree OF so much in
The early Christian ritual, not only
as to festival dates. but very largely
as well TO symbolisms of observance,
can readily explain the early adop-
ton OF the sacred cakes by followers
OF the new faith. When this began,
however, is mere matter of conjec-
ture. 1t was an old custom in a new
But so very ancient and dsep-rooted
was the belief in Immortality, and so
very natural toe use OF bread and
cake as types of the resurrection, that
the bun, marked with the sacred sign
of the cross. in memory of the crucifix-
TO symbolic the victory over death
1t is the judgment OF the best anti.
quarians that the hot-cross bun OF
the Christian carried with 1t this dou-
BILE significance, and was accordingly
the venerable springtime cake OF i'm
mortality lifted out of mysticism and
reclad in the holier dress OF revela-
ton" This makes II natural for the
use of the Good Friday bun to run
over into Easter week.
The use OF pancakes at Snrovetide
is more difficult to trace. Shrovetide
is moveable feast 1t may fall upon
any Tuesday between February 2 and
March, and SO It could readily ipcor.
porate the sacred cake of the pagan
springtime festivals,
We certainly do know that the or.
iginal solemnity meant TO invest this |
feast by the church, as
the Introduction TO a period Of pen |
oh'e, so Cdst It's sacred character, |
and Snrove Tuesday became a time |
Of general merriment, as in the Mar
ii Gras of France and the carnival of
Enthusiastically more on the style OF
Rome's Lupercalian festival. Pan
AXE Tuesday in rural England has for
many centuries been given over to a
Wholesale assault on pancakes and
ale.
Just why the pancake has been sin.
lied out for special honors at Shrove.
ide mas been very plausibly explain.
ID by the fact that an old Saxon name
or February meant the month of
axes" and that the pagan Saxons, in
hat month, made an offering OF sa-
red cakes presumably pancakes) to
he sun. II will be recalled that Con
tantine, the first Christian emperor,
n naming the first day of the week
sunday sougnt TO propitiate the pa
ans OF his age. among whom sun
Worship was the chief characteristic
S Dean Milman has shown.
Many pagan races were addicted TO