Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-05-17
WHAT IS A PAGEANT?
ORIGIN OF WORD.
Pronounced With Long And
Short "A" A Feature OF
Red Cross Week.

During the week OF the Red Cross
drive. beginning Sunday, Mag %.
one of the features viii he the Fatri-
otto pageant to be given Wednesday
night on the College campus. and to
consist OF seven Episodes" Of historic
interest in the life Of Annapolis.
A discussion of the origin OF the
word pageant has Leen general
The word pageant" which some
pronounce with a short and some with
long a. originally meant a plank or
a scanold on which dramatic perform
ances of some kind were given. In
the early days of Christianity the
Bible story was often conveyed TO
population which could not read, by
being acted out by priests or laymen
under the direction of the Church At
first such representations took place
whiting the church, but the introduc-
tion of non-sacred or even humorous
material led to their being removed,
at first from before the altar to the
church door, then to their exclusion
from the church building, and finally
to their prohibition on the church
grounds.
After the Church frowned on these
very popular forms of entertainment,
they were taken up by the various
guilds into which the trades were or
ganized, and a cooperation and COM
petition arose Sometimes one guild,
say the goldsmiths, would give one
part of a performance; and another,
say the carpenters. would give
another, the two thus cooperating to
produce a single play. Sometimes
they would compete, both dealing with
the same subject, but the commoner
practice was for each organization to
specialize in some particular field.
The stage for these plays was some
times fixed and sometimes arranged
on a moving platform that was drawn
to different sites by horses, one part
of the performance taking place at
one spot and another at another. In
this way waits between the acts were
made less noticeable, and a wider pub
licity was given to the performance.
Out of the various plays given in
this way one kind was gradually
evolved that was. more spectacular
and more symbolic than the others,
and this is what we know as the
pageant. 1t usually represented in
spring historical events or introduced
neurological or imaginary characters.
1t didn't tell a story of events so much
as it represented the course of his
tory. 1t wasn't realistic so much as it
was spectacular, and gorgeous cos
tunes and splendid appointments be-
came its distinguishing features.
With the development of the indoor
stage, and for other reasons, this form
of entertainment died out during the
seventeenth century but, mainly as
result of the work of such men as
Ben Greet, attention was again di-
rected to it about twenty years ago,
and it has been revived, and even de-
veloped, in Europe, and especially
in America. Many big historical
pageants have. been given in connec-
tion with celebrations, such as the
Hudson Fulton celebration in New
York-the three hundredth anniversary
of the birth of Milton in 1908, and
similar occasions. In these affairs the
scene was usually a natural one that
allowed for much movement, and so
some people think pageant is pro-
cession, but that is only relatively
true. A pageant is a dramatic enter
tainment that appeals to the eye, the
ear, and the imagination, and though
it is far less restricted than the ordi-
nary stage play. it is much more than
a mere procession, for it has proved
increasingly popular ever since its
revival about the beginning of the
present century.