" Plutarch, I think, must have referred to the
month of February as the purifying month. Father Meagan has not referred
to the change of date made by the Church. Doubtless the Christian
Church, in instituting these festivals, intended, by divesting them of
their heathen basis, to christianise the people; but, like Naaman of
old, the worshippers, while they worshipped in the buildings in
conformity with the regulations of their new teachers, yet retained many
of their old Pagan beliefs and ceremonies, and even their teachers were
not thoroughly de-Paganised,--and so the old and new commingled and
crystallized together.
In all the four festivals we have been considering, there survive relics
of fire-worship, and through all there runs a similarity of observance
and belief; but the special practices are not everywhere joined to the
same festival in all localities. In this part of the country, the
special observances connected with Hallowe'en were, in other parts of
the country, observed in connection with the summer festival. Now,
however, we are glad to say, these superstitious ceremonies and beliefs
in their old gross forms are fast passing away, or have become so
modified that we can scarcely recognise their relations to the old
fire-worship.
Pages:
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265