Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-31
Joy RULES EASTER
PLANS AT VATICAN
Observance to Be Most Col.
orfuI Since Separation
From State.
BY the Associated Press.


ROME. March 30.-After today's brief
notes of rejoicing in the otherwise SOM
Der services of Holy Saturday Rome was
ready tonight for the commemoration
of Easter.
AS it will be the first Easter in SO
years in which the Holy See and the
Italian state are reconciled, tomorrow'S
Solemnization will take on a new and
more joyful character. All day today
the stationery shops have been beSieged
for Easter cards, and the postal and
telegraph Offices have done a rushing
business in the expedition of belated
greetings to relatives and friends.
Tomorrow, moreover, will be one of
the three recognized tipping days" in
the Italian year. The other two fall
on New Year and Assumption day, Au-
gust Is, known here as "Ferracosto. -
Everybody'S janitor, poStman, personal
servant and barber will expect an ap-
preciable donation to make the feast
complete.
Pilgrimage to Catacombs.
One of the most touching features
of Sundays celebration will be afforded
by the pilgrimage to the catacombs Ito
announce the resurrection tidingS to the
Christian martyrs" These professions,
which date from the third century AID,
are always colorful and moving. That
which occurs at the catacombs of st.
Callixtus, on the Appian Way, con-
Quoted by the Trappist monks, Is par
ticularly worth witnessing.
Before the fall of the temporal power
of the papacy in 1870, salvos were fired
from the cannon of CaStel st. Angelo,
the mighty fortress constructed by the
Emperor Hardian which dominates the
route to the Vatican, and over which
rises the heroic statue of st. Michael,
the Archangel, with the flaming sword.
Tomorrow, however, only the daily regu-
lation moon gum" by which all good
Romans set their watches and clocks,
will ring out. Prior to 1910, the Vatican
and st. Peters were lit up in the eve
ming by thousands of blazing tapers,
but not even with the reconciliation OF
church and state will that old custom
be renewed this year.
In any event. in view of the present
cleared and pacified political atmos-
phere, Rome'S Easter promises to be
more colorful and joyful in tone than
any since the time of Pope Alexander
VI, the reigning pontiff when Columbus
made his discovery of America. That
Pope Spaniard, introduced number
of his countrymen's customs into the
Roman fetes, heightening their pictur-
esque qualities.
The Pope will usher in Easter cele-
brating mass in the restored Sistine
Chapel tomorrow. The band of his
Palatine Guard will give concert in a
courtyard of the Vatican.
The italian royal family will pass the
day quietly at their hunting lodge near
Pisa, while Premier Mussolini presum-
ably will be at his Villa Carpena with
his family.
The influx of pilgrims because of the
Pope's sacerdotal jubilee year is greater
than at any Eastertide since the previ-
Gus jubilee year in 1925.
The pontiff spent Holy Saturday in
busy fashion, visiting the installation
of the new Vatican library in the Bel
vedere courtyard. and thence going to
the Vatican Museum, where he OBJ
served infinitely the repairs there go
ing on.
On Tuesday he will descend into St.
Peters to celebrate mass for 5000 young
French pilgrims, receiving them later
in the day in a collective audience.