Rockingham post-dispatch. [volume] (Rockingham, N.C.) 1917-1965, 1919-04-17
PRE-EASTER WEEK
Curious Customs Have Marked
the Seven Days Before GIor.
.i ious Easter.
HE formal celebration of the
week Immediately preceding

Easter is first mentioned by
church historians in the third
century after Christ. At that time the
observance of Holy Week took the
form of abstinence from wine and
flesh during the entire week and a
total fast on Friday and Saturday.
Since then the customs of the week
have developed along great variety
of lines. Any elements from Egyp-
tian, Greek, Persian, Jewish and an
cient Saxon sources have been adopt
ed and incorporated into the elaborate
ceremOnials Of the Roman Catholic
church. The customs of the Greek
church and of the English church, as
well as the many Protestant sects,
show variations and changes Of all
sorts; while among the people of diff
ferent countries curious folk customs
have arisen which seem to have little
or no religious significance and which
are difficult to trace to their origins.
Palm Sunday is marked by the dis
tribution of palms or, in countries
where these are not obtainable,
branches Of box, yew or willow. At
terward these are gathered up, burned
and the ashes preserved for use on the
Ash Wednesday following. It was
formerly the custom in some parts of
England to draw through the streets
wooden figure of an ass and rider
representing the Christ. Before this
the people threw their willow branch
es, which were carefully recovered as
they were thought to be projection
against storms and lightning. In 9TH
er parishes cakes were thrown from
the steeple of the church for the vii
lage boys.
Once Called "Spy Wednesday"
Wednesday of Holy Week was once
known as Spy Wednesday aud cele-
brated by dramatic representation
of the betrayal of Christ by Judas,
with due emphasis upon the traitor
GUS kiss.
Holy Thursday, or Maundy Thurs
day, gets its name from the maunds
or baskets which were used in distrib-
uting aims. Aside from the high
church ceremonials connected with the
blessing of the holy oils for the fol-
lowing year, this day is marked at
Rome by the washing of the feet of
a number of poor old men by the
pope. This rite was once performed
BY bishops, sovereigns and princes as
well. James II was the last English
sovereign to perform it. An elaborate
account of the ceremony as carried out
by Queen Elizabeth tells how the feet
of the thirty-nine beggars, the queen
then being thirty-nine years old, were
first washed by the yeoman of the
y laundry. then by the sub-almoner and
finally by the queen herself. After
this triple cleansing they were given
store of provisions and money. The
custom Of giving aims to the needy
ON Holy Thursday seems to have been
universal.
Significant Church Services.
On Thursday evening, as upon
X Wednesday and Friday of Holy Week,
the chanting of the Tenebrae takes
place in the Catholic churches. This
IS accompanied by the extinction, one
u BY one, as the psalms of the chant
are completed, Of fourteen yellow cam
dies on the fifteen-branched candle
stick which is burning BY the altar.
The fifteenth candle, which is white,
ii concealed behind the altar for d
time and again brought out before the
congregation. The whole ceremony
signifies the esath Of the prophets be-.
fore Chris, his death and resurrec-
tiOn.
Good Friday lis u day Of deepest
ponrning il the Christian churches.
9In earlier and more naive times 1t was
occasion Of d vivid and detailed
dramatic representation Of the cruci-
3 flxlnn apd burial of Christ The eat
Ing Of hot cross buns on Good Friday