The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-25
HOLY YEAR BEGUN
 WITH THREE RAPS OF GOLDEN GAVEL
Pope Initiates Series Of Ceremonies Expected
 To Attract Millions
fBy Associated Press.)

ROME, Dec. 24.-Pope Plus XII, sur rounded by the splendor of medieval nageantry customary for such occasions, to-day proclaimed from the Vatican the twenty third Holy Year in the history of the Papacy and performed the pie turesaue ceremony of knocking down inc Holy Door of the basilica of St. Peters with the symbolic solid gold hammer.
 The Pontiff thus initiated a series of ceremonies which are expected to at- tract to Rome during the ensuing year millions of pilgrims from all over the world.
 Panorama Of Grandeur
 Yhe regal manificence of today's cere- mony, the richness of the pontiflcal robes. the multicolored uniforms of the various branches of the Vatican forces and the draperies and canopies that lent gorgeous color to the general back ground left a panorama of solemn grandeur imprinted on the minds of the favored hundreds who say the cere- mony at close range and the thousands of others who filled the spacious basil 1ica and overflowed into the expansive square Tn front.
 By far the most impressive part of this age-old yet ever-new ceremony was that in which the Pope, holding ln his right hand the little gold hammer which somewhat resembles in shape on ordl- nary chairman's gavel, struck thrice the massive Holy Door, "sampietrinl - the corps of workmen permanently em- plaoyed to keep the great edifice in re- pair-yielded to these blows, gradually falling open. It will remain open dur ing Holy Year, after which the door will be replaced and will remain closed another .25 years until opened again by the same ceremony.
 Bells Proclaim News
 Immediately after the Holy Door had fallen open and was rolled away on casters that previously had been at tackled, the news was proclaimed by the pealing of the bells of the great Mother church, in which the bells of all the other 400 churcnes of the eternal city joined.
 All around the portico, even under the statue of Constantine, were trib- unes and boxes decorated in red and gold for the dipolmatic corps, the Roman aristocracy, the Order of Malta, the family of the Pope, and one sec ton reserved for members of visiting royal families.
 When everything was ready for the ceremony to begin the Pontitf was car ried from his apartments in a closed sedan chair which first halted in the Sistins chapel, where His Holiness knelt to worship. Taking the censer 7 offered him by Cardinal Merry del Val, first ranking member of the Order of Priests in the Sacred college, the Pon- tiff incensed three times the blessed garament, while the Sistine choir sang ~Veni Creator"
 Duns Gold Mitre
 As the pontifical procession left the Sistine chapel each of its members bore aloft a lighted candle, and all chantet liturgical verses. Upon reaching the en trance ot the great nave of St. Peters the procession halted a few moments while the Pope left the sedan chair and before proceeding through the nave was'lifted into the famous Sedia Gesta toria. Here also the Holy Father donnet the white and gold mitre.
 The arrival of the Pope in the DOT tico was heralded by the six silver trumpets sounding the celebrated pon ticical. march composed by Longhi While everybody knelt he descended