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.ÿþday, Ash Wednesday (marking the beginning of Lent), Good Friday, Easter,and on through Ascension and Whitsunday, and then the Trinity season lead-ing back to Advent beginning the cycle anew, this church year provided a yearlyreenactment of the central drama of the faith.108 The scriptures appointed tobe read in public worship offered a narrative congruent with the events andteachings highlighted in the church year.Those attending with regularity hadtheir Sundays interpreted within the framework of this sacred calendar.Just as Virginia Anglicans whitewashed their church interiors and fittedwindows with clear rather than stained glass, so they observed a greatly simpli-fied church year, largely stripped of the saints days, feasts, and festivals, thatrich and varied tableau of celebrations observed in the British Isles.109 Whetherthis is attributed to the Puritan presence in initial settlement, the selectivenature of migration, the dispersal and intermixture of inhabitants, the diffi-cult, ever traumatic experiences of gaining a foothold in the Chesapeake, or acombination of some or all, the result was unquestionably a radical simplifica-tion, if not also social and cultural impoverishment.There is fragmentary evi-dence for the eighteenth century of some elaboration but nothing approximat-ing the festivities and commemorations with their processions, plays, sports,dances, feasting, and drinking that dotted the calendars of English villages.Parish records document public observance of Good Friday and ChristmasDay, but as for Epiphany, Ash Wednesday, Ascension, and All Saints Day, therecord is much less clear.In 1719 Virginia ministers reported to the bishop ofLondon that parishioners observed no holy days except Christmas and GoodFriday, being unwilling to loose their daily labour. Good Friday A gen-eral Holiday here Wednesday & thursday I gave up my School on account ofthe Dance, and they must have this Day for Devotion! Philip Fithian noted, The colonel, Ben, Harry, &myself all go to Ucomico Church Parson Smith gavethe usual Prayers for the Day and a long Sermon. Nicholas Cresswell s entryfor 25 December 1774 reads: Christmas Day.But little regarded here. Cap-tain Beale invited the Landon Carter family and other neighbors to his homefor dinner and a twelfth Cake on 6 January, evidence that Epiphany was pri-vately if not religiously observed in at least one gentry household.Mentionof Shrove Tuesday appears in several accounts: Went with my Wife to theSchool.My wife treated the scholars to pancakes and Syder, it being ShroveTuesday, noted Col.James Gordon.Captain Beale also had Carter familyguests on Shrove Tuesday, as he had done at Epiphany: Yesterday being ShroveTuesday Robin and his son went to eat Pancakes at old Beale s. 110Most unusual is a certificate prepared by William Willie, rector of Albe-.Rites of Passage 231 [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ] |
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