TRAGEDY OF A FESTIVAL

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 84, 3 January 1929, Page 16

TRAGEDY OF A FESTIVAL

“Will you please allow me to correct the article in your Christmas number called ‘Tragedy of a Festival’?” writes Mary V. Martin, Mangatainoka. “The festival was held in honour of the Birth of Christ— Midnight Mass. My mother, who was there, often spoke of the awful fire. She said that two criminals who were being hunted by the military took sanctuary in the cathedral, and evidently hoping to escape in the panic which would follow, threw a light on the altar and set the place in a blaze. My mother, who fortunately was late, escaped unhurt. but could not say if the men were caught. She thought they perished with the” - victims.” The item referred to bv our correspondent rend ns under: “At the Christmas of 1863 in Santiago, the capital of Chi'e. a festival was hold in the cathedral in honour of the Virgin M"ry. Th" vast church was l ; -!Ved with thousands of wax candles, nnd the wo 11 ” wore covered with fl’msv drnneries. Tl’» congregation. cb'efly women, were nttirod in long white loose drosses. Dozens of acolytes were nnssing nn and down swinging silver inmns nnd burning incense Ono of the inoenso candles "'’'’’dentally setfire to a lady's costume. The distracted woman rushed mndlv to nnd fro in her agonies, and in an instant h'"’'lro<ls in the onfhe'lral wem involved. T’’e decorations of the church cnimbt fire, and in less than ton minutes the wb'do interior was n racing inforno. Nearly two thousand people perished.”