Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1910-03-24


Sunday through Easter there are
many services each coincident with
the life of Christ. Thus, Palm Sunday
commentaries the triumphal entry o
Christ into Jerusalem; Monday tells
of the healing in the temple; Tuesday
suggests the giving Of the parallels,
and Thursday brings its sad associa
tons of the Lords supper. When the
sayings of Christ upon the cross are
read and the bells toll on Good Fri
day. the whole passion and death seem
very real Ii is a relief when Easter
morning comes and the tuneful from.
bone choir awakens the people that
they may arise and hasten to the
little church, and from that to the
cemetery nearby. Here the people
stand in hollow square, and as the
dawn slowly reddens the sky and the
rising sun touches the tree tops, the
birds begin their morning anthems
and seem to join in the chants Of
praise which go up from the devout
congregation.
There have been few such spec
tacles since the pope gave up bless
ing the world on Easter morn from
the loggia of st. Pc ers. To-day Rome
lacks this ceremony, but the devout
can go to the Church of the Passion
ates, where are the holy staircase and
chapel filled with relics of the Passion,
among them the title of the cruel
fiXion, which no one but the pope is
allowed to see. In France the arch
bishop has for years given his bene-
diction on Easter morn from Mont
martre, and in London there are rich
parishes where there is still a sort
of perfunctory aims giving among the
people, relics of time when the Pas
chal feast was celebrated in arts of
grace and charity.
The American Indians take kindly
to any observance which can find ex-
preston in forms and ceremonies, and
for this reason Easter and Passion
week appeal forcibly to those who
have embraced Christianity. A re-
markable Passion play has been en-
acted for years at Amecameca, near
Mexico City, which is sort of ODER
ammergau in the new world. Shortly
after the Conquest Pope Adrian VI.
sent ~ missionaries to convert the
Aztecs. One of them. Fra Martin,
was a kind man, who lived in a cave
on a mountain near Tenochititlan, or
Mexico City. After his death his body
was placed in a chapel built over the
cave, and the mountain became a
sacred spot. Thousands of pilgrims
come here in Lent and on Ash
Wednesday the body of the priest is
placed in the village church. For 300
years this ceremony has been enacted,
and has been followed by Passion
play on Good Friday, which is wit
messed by people from all over the
country. The performance, which is
under the auspices of the priest, be-
gins early in the morning and ends
at midnight when the peasant who
is selected to impersonate Jesus is
taken from the cross and the peones
who have been in attendance escort
the body of Fra Martin back to the
chapel over the grave. Thousands OF
Mexican peones attend these cere-
monies, and il is this class of people
who take the various parts.
These Passion play celebrations
can, Of course, be traced to the in
6uence of Christianity, but II is
singular fact that just as the cross
was found in Mexico, long before the
advent of Cortez, when the country
possessed the cultivation of ancient
Thebes and Egypt, so the Indians in
North America have always held
dances and religious rites to COM
memorate the coming of spring No
one knows whether this was natural
instinct that led them to rejoice over
the awakening of earth or the survival
of some religion that prevailed among
them before the coming of Christian
ity We can only guess at the past
of our North American Indians and
deduct conclusions from their cere-
monies and occasional folklore. The
fact remains that heathendom as we'll
as Christianity rejoices when Easter
comes, and all nature lifts up its voice
at the glad acclaim that spring is
here, bringing with IL promises of
eternal life.