Page:Vol 6 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/642

622 official observance, and consequently in the relaxing estimation of the public; nevertheless, the national disposition for festivities has tended to sustain them, although in a degenerate form, with less attention to their true intent. Lent declined in observance, and Christmas and certain other periods became the occasions of such disorders that the government had to issue restrictions. The most impressive ceremonies are to be seen during holy week, and on the days of corpus christi and virgin of Guadalupe, the Mexican patroness.

Palm Sunday is a day of mirth, with display of palms. On the three following days the churches are crowded, mainly by persons eager to confess and obtain absolution for past derelictions. But all these festivals are more or less degraded by an indecent and boisterous conduct before the very altars, that is due partly to national levity, partly to inherited aboriginal rites. As holy Friday approaches, the abuse of strong liquors abates. A lull falls upon the people. Churches are draped in black; on Thursday the deep-toned organs yield to the subdued harp and violin, and steeple bells are silent. Without, carriages are banished from the streets. On the following day processions issue from the temples, bearing Christ crucified, with a train of saints and paraphernalia. On Saturday noon, after service, the organ bursts forth again, and amid a peal of bells the black curtain before the altar parts to disclose a dazzling scene of brightness. Carriages now throng the thoroughfares; the explosion of rockets, the creaking din of rattles, and all kinds of noise break the enforced quiet; the iniquitous Judas is destroyed in effigy; and fireworks form a brilliant feature of the evening programmes.