The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-04-04
HOLY WEEK TO BE OBSERVED WITH
 CURIOUS CEREMONIES.

t
 Beginning to-morrow with Palm Sunday and culminating a week later with the celebration of Easter. Holy Week, will be observed throughout Christendom. In Catholic Europe and spanish America there is q gen eral suspension of labor during Holy Week, and many quaint and ancient customs and curious ceremonies are revived.
 In the Catholic countries of Eu- rope the observances of Holy Week are solemn and spectacular in char acter. In Austria and Spain the reigning monarchs take a prominent part in the program, and on Good Friday show their humility by wash ing the feet of some of their poorest subjects. Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon has written an account of the Palm Sunday observances of the royal family:
 ..Palm Sunday began with the blessing of the palms These were the branches of palm trees varying in length from about half a yard to three yards. Some of them were pIaited and carried by little girls. Others were left in their natural shape long, thin and graceful. waving with the breeze or the movements of the bearers, mostly men and boys. It is the custom for godmothers every year to present their godsons and god daughters with palms. Those of the little girls are hung all over with sweetmeats, but the palms of the boys are simply adorned with rib bons for they are treated as future men. The palms have been fasten- ed to the balconies of houses to re- main until the following year, when they are burned to make room for others. On Palm Sunday the royal family attended high mass in state. The public was allowed to assist. The Queen and all the ladies accompany ing Ter wore their court dresses and white mantiIIas- The King wore the uniform of general, with crosses and sashes. All the grandees and digni- tarfes of the palace were in full dress, wearing their military uniforms ; In many of the remote corners of the world where the natives have been converted to Christianity, Passion plays are held during Holy Week. The Indians of skwa in British Columbia, the dusky natives of the Pacific Isl and of Hfyaoa, in the Marquesas. and
 several tribes of Christianized In
 dians in South America give annually dramatic if rude reproductions of the
 crucifixion.
 l leading Up to and connected with the
 crucIhxfon are repeated. but the cere- | monies in the Eternal City are.
 eclipsed by those of. the comparative ly small city of Seville, in Spain.
 where the Holy Week and Easter. ceremonies and parades are more pa l gan than Christian in their Oriental magnifcence. While the cigarette l makers. the pfckers and pressers in the olive industry. and other work
 men of Seville earn less than twenty 1 five cents day, each guild of work
 CTS contributes thousands of dollars for the floats in the Easter Sunday procession.
 One of the most curious observances
 of Holy week is the ham fair in l the Boulevard Richard Lenoir and l continue through the week. Ham and
 sausages fresh from the rural dis
 tricts are on sale in numerous booths, land red d-yeI1ow-c1ad policemen from the country keep order at this fair in the heart of the worlds great est center of civilization and culture. lFreethinking Paris sniffs and sneers
 at the bucolic religious festival. but it nevertheless turns thousands if
 francs into the pockets of the ham and sausage vendors who have gath cred from all over France and even from Switzerland. There are many i pretty girls from Brittany and Nor
 mandy presiding over booths, and the gallant Parisians never-no, never
 leave pretty girls to pine away from 1 neglect Rather than that, he will spend his last centimes for sausages
 made of-who shall say?-dog, per- hans but more likely horses