DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62134#0027
EASTER EVE.
19
was on Good Friday : the starry crowns of fire suspended
over the figure of Christ reposing amid the flowers and
tapers. Priests first knelt, praying, before the garden. As
far as I could judge, at the distance where I stood, this,
for some time, was all the ceremony. Then a canopy was
seen to approach the altar; there was much chant-
ing and gesticulating. The organ and the quire burst
forth into a joyous anthem. Trumpets from the near
altar took up the rejoicing with their -wild harmony, and
a voice sang forth, amid a sudden hush, “ Christ is
arisen !”
And, above the crowd, you saw a figure of Christ,
clothed in white and purple garments, and bearing in his
hand a small banner. Then a procession of choristers and
priests, with the Host borne aloft beneath the canopy, with
swinging censors, and to the sound of trumpets, kettle-
drums, and little bells, which the choristers rung, passed
down the centre of the church, and out beneath the beau-
tiful portico, and through the white arches of the colonnade,
into the little garden behind the church.
Although the canopy and the procession passed out into
this little garden, I preferred remaining in the church; and
approaching nearer the altar, saw that the figure among
the flowers was now concealed by a cloth, and that above
it rose the other figure with its banner. A troop of youths
and young girls from the Blind Asylum also drew near, as
if to see ; they were all connected together, two and two,
by a long cord, which passed between them, so as to form
a sort of human team. You always see them walking along
in this manner. It was strangely affecting to observe their
sightless eye-balls and their white uncouth faces turn
towards the figure of Christ, their hands clasped, and
then- lips moving.
Another thing was noticeable before the procession
19
was on Good Friday : the starry crowns of fire suspended
over the figure of Christ reposing amid the flowers and
tapers. Priests first knelt, praying, before the garden. As
far as I could judge, at the distance where I stood, this,
for some time, was all the ceremony. Then a canopy was
seen to approach the altar; there was much chant-
ing and gesticulating. The organ and the quire burst
forth into a joyous anthem. Trumpets from the near
altar took up the rejoicing with their -wild harmony, and
a voice sang forth, amid a sudden hush, “ Christ is
arisen !”
And, above the crowd, you saw a figure of Christ,
clothed in white and purple garments, and bearing in his
hand a small banner. Then a procession of choristers and
priests, with the Host borne aloft beneath the canopy, with
swinging censors, and to the sound of trumpets, kettle-
drums, and little bells, which the choristers rung, passed
down the centre of the church, and out beneath the beau-
tiful portico, and through the white arches of the colonnade,
into the little garden behind the church.
Although the canopy and the procession passed out into
this little garden, I preferred remaining in the church; and
approaching nearer the altar, saw that the figure among
the flowers was now concealed by a cloth, and that above
it rose the other figure with its banner. A troop of youths
and young girls from the Blind Asylum also drew near, as
if to see ; they were all connected together, two and two,
by a long cord, which passed between them, so as to form
a sort of human team. You always see them walking along
in this manner. It was strangely affecting to observe their
sightless eye-balls and their white uncouth faces turn
towards the figure of Christ, their hands clasped, and
then- lips moving.
Another thing was noticeable before the procession