HAVANA, _April 10, 1849_.
This is the last of the five holidays, during which the custom-house
is closed, and commerce suspended. The Passion Week ends to-day, and I
have concluded to give you some of the details, without comment, from
which you can draw your own conclusions. I find that there is a great
difference of opinion among the Spaniards themselves as to the utility
of keeping up, in this enlightened day, the observance of customs which
were practised in barbarous ages, and are divested in most cases of the
imposing and magnificent ceremonies at Rome, during the Holy Week.
Commercial men dislike the prostration and interruption of trade,
which continues nearly a week, and which produces great hurry and
bustle in loading and discharging vessels, prior to the closing of the
custom-house; but on the part of the negro population the festivals are
much enjoyed. Dressed in all the finery possible, the sable damsels
may be seen with white and black mantillas, and fans in their hands,
forming a portion of the church attendants, sitting or kneeling upon
the marble pavement, side by side with the wealthy classes, kneeling
and reposing upon rugs brought by liveried servants. In the house of
worship no distinction is made between bond or free, black or white;
all enjoy the same religious privileges.
On Jueves Santo, or Holy Thursday, after ten o’clock in the morning,
Havana, the noisy, bustling, active city, is in deep repose, and for
forty-eight hours all is silent; not a vehicle is allowed to pass; the
bells are muffled; the sentries and military guards have their arms
reversed; the flags of all the vessels are half-mast; the altars of
the churches and convents are decorated with the figures of angels and
cherubim, in gold and silver tinsel robes, bearing in their hands the
instruments of torture, symbolical of the crucifixion of Christ. In the
Santa Catalina, which, as well as some eight or ten other churches, was
illuminated with hundreds of wax candles, and visited by thousands, is
the figure of Christ bearing his cross, and borne down by its crushing
weight nearly to the marble pave; a little further on are two other
figures, representing the flagellated and the mutilated body; the third
Christ being in a sitting posture, bound and bleeding from his wound.
The hosts of ladies who scarcely ever appear in the streets unless in
volantes, are obliged to make use of their tiny feet, and from the
churches wend their way to the Plaza d’Armas, a beautiful promenade in
front of the governor’s house, where by the light of the moon they can
exchange glances and salutations with friends, and listen to fine music
from the military band.
On Viernes Santo, or Good Friday, an immense procession, composed of
the clergy and assistants in full dress, with torches, assisted by the
military with arms reversed, proceeds from the church of San Juan de
Dios to the cathedral, where the dead body of Christ is deposited in
a sepulchre, in which it remains until the morning of the third day,
when, after the performance of mass to the multitude at ten o’clock,
silence is once more broken by the pealing of the bells, the roar of
cannon from the forts, and the discharges of the infantry who occupy
the Plaza or square, in front of the cathedral, all of which announces
the resurrection. The negro drivers, who have bedecked their mules with
ribbons, drive wildly through the streets; the military shoulder arms,
and the flags of the vessels are again hoisted to the tops of the masts.
The following morning the ceremony of Christ going forth to meet the
Virgin took place. The almost naked figure of our Saviour, as large
as life, upon a platform supported by twelve men, almost concealed
from view by curtains suspended to the ground, sallies forth from the
cathedral followed by the priests in robes, bearing the host under
a canopy with burning incense, while the military and populace are
prostrated upon their knees; after having made the tour of the Plaza,
amid the showers of bouquets from the ladies in the balconies, the
procession marches in the direction of one of the churches, which
contains full-sized figures of the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene, in
rich robes of gold and silver tinsel, who are brought out on platforms
upon which they are attached, and supported upon the shoulders of four
men each; the latter, espying Christ coming in the distance from an
opposite direction, run hurriedly towards him, turn as suddenly and go
in pursuit of his mother to communicate the glad tidings, while she in
turn rushes rapidly forward to embrace him, when, after a salutation,
they proceed together, and are placed within the altar, and mass is
said, and the scene is finished.
I observed but a small attendance of whites of the upper classes, at
this last described ceremony, but hosts of negroes whose curiosity it
gratifies. The sensible part of the community wish it dispensed with,
as, instead of being imposing and solemn, portions of it excite the
laughter of the crowd.
A grand masquerade ball is announced for Sunday night, at the theatre,
which will be attended by probably five or six thousand persons; this
will close the ceremonies and performances of the Holy Week in Havana.
The cathedral is an antique, and plain, but noble building, with
some good monuments. The most interesting, historically, is that
which covers the remains of Christopher Columbus, whose ashes were
transported from the cathedral of San Domingo by the Spaniards, when
that island was ceded to the French in 1795. The reception of the body
at Havana is said to have been august and stately. After it was landed
with the greatest pomp, it was conveyed to the cathedral, when, after
mass and solemn ceremonies, the mortal remains of the great navigator
were placed in the wall behind a bust, in basso relievo, in marble,
with the following inscription:
“O, remains and image of the great Columbus,
For a thousand ages continue preserved in this urn,
And in the remembrance of the nation.”
1850.