Seven American Nights procession

David Stockhoff · 18 Aug 2010, 12:21 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 2010 08:21:00 -0400
Subject: (urth) Seven American Nights procession
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTik9q_0=yk0C-DYg2wHpWPkq+1oswF57F7wv8KnW at mail.gmail.com>
References: <AANLkTik9q_0=yk0C-DYg2wHpWPkq+1oswF57F7wv8KnW at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4C6BD02C.1090209 at verizon.net>

A theater could be closed "for Easter" on a Saturday. That would make it 
a Good Friday procession. And Saturdays are party nights.

Dave Tallman wrote:
> I had a question about the day of the week of the final day described 
> in "Seven American Nights." The main clue is an outdoor procession 
> Nadan supposedly witnessed on that day:
>
> /A very old man -- I suppose a priest -- carried a cross on a long 
> pole, using it as a staff, and almost as a crutch. A much younger one, 
> fat and sweating, walked backwards before him swinging a smoking 
> censor. Two robed boys carrying large candles proceeded them, and they 
> were followed by more robed children, singing, who fought with nudges 
> and pinches when they felt the fat man was not watching them./
> /
> /
> /...the entire procession, from the flickering candles in clear 
> sunshine, to the dead leader lifted up, to his inattentive, bickering 
> followers behind -- seemed to me to incarnate the philosophy and the 
> dilemma of these people... I realized that its ritualized plea for 
> life renewed was more foreign to them than to me./
>
> Borksi says this is a stations of the cross procession for Good 
> Friday. Others think it was an Easter Sunday procession. I'm not sure, 
> and I'm not familiar enough with Catholic ritual to tell the 
> difference. It matters for the symbolism of the story.
>
> We also have the statement by Ardis, "Tomorrow night the theater will 
> be closed for Easter, and you can take me to a party." She said that 
> the day before the procession. It's barely possible the theater would 
> be closed for Good Friday and she would still say the same thing, but 
> the fallen America doesn't seem that religious.
>
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