RECIPIENTS INCREASED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22391, 11 April 1936, Page 11

RECIPIENTS INCREASED

KING GIVES MAUNDY PENCE oLd ceremony performed (Received April 10, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, April 9 Although only 42 aged men and women corresponding to His Majesty's age should have received Maundy Money at Westminster Abbey to-day. the King ordered that there should be 71 recipients as if his late father had been there. Similarly the Pence were increased to 71, in addition to 90 shillings each in lieu of clothing and bread.

Maundy Thursday, the Thursday before Easter, is celebrated in London by a ceremony which dates from the Middle Ages. The day is also known as Sheer Thursday, probably in the Middle English sense of "pure," in allusion to the ablutions of the day. The chief ceremony, as kept from the 12th centurv onwards, the washing of the feet of 12 or more poor men or beggars, came to be regarded almost as a necessary rite, to be performed by the Pope, and all Roman Catholic sovereigns, prelates. priests and nobles. In England the King washed the feet of as many poor men as he was years old, and then distributed to them meat, money and clothes. Queen Elizabeth performed the ceremony, the paupers' feet, however, being first washed by the yeomen of the laundry with warm water and sweet herbs. James 11. was the last Knelish Monarch to perform the rite. William 111. delegated the washing to his almoner, and this was usual until the middle of the 18th century. Since 1754 the washing of feet has been abandoned, and the ceremony now consists of the presentation of Maundy Monev. officially called Maundy Pennies. These were first coined in the reign of Charles It. The service, which formerly took place in the _ Chapel Royal, Whitehall, is now held in Westminster Abbey.