Curious Survivals by the Italian Lakes

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 21, 25 May 1907, Page 30

Curious Survivals by the Italian Lakes

In the lovely lake district of Como in 'Northern Italy survive some curious customs which at the Easter season lend themselves kindly to'pictorial representation. Among them are the ancient ritrs observed, at the Lago di Mandello, which form the subject of our illustration. On Good Friday a unique observance takes place—the water-pro-cession—a genuine procession in the water, and not on it like the old “progresses” in State barges on the Thames. Headed by their 'parish priest, and attired in local gaib—one, however, with the conventional angel wings—the peasants follow, while ho reverently holds aloft a buoy shaped Reliquary containing a relic of the true Cross, and carries it over the waters of their lake. It is a pretty symbol, and the hymns sung by the processionists show that they take

up its significance. Our illustration shows the procession just as the villagers, following his reverence, all barefooted and bare-legged to the knee, the priest with cassock and gaiters tucked up high for the nonce, have entered the waler after descending the stone stairs of the pier. No stillness mars the charm of the water-procession, for the stony inequalities of the lake bed tax to the utmost the attention and selfbalancing powers of the waders. Young and Old press forward, unconscious of .what .to the stranger might seem the humorous side of the situation. Lanterns on long poles, inserted in stout leather sockets, and gaily tasselled streamers flying from long Tods swaying to and fro over the heads of the waders, add a delightful touch to the scene. What the origin of this water procession was who shall tell? But the simple piety of the peasant exorcises

it of all but sacred associations. This is a “Lavanda or Lustration*’ peculiar to Lago di Mandello alone. On Easter Day is to be seen a still stranger sight than the Good Friday ceremony. But for the crosses and other Christian emblems, and the distinctly Christian discourse of the “Friar of Orders Grey,” who addresses the people, one might imagine oneself in the midst of old Rome. In the open air an altar is improvised, garlanded with wreaths of bay, and on the wood is laid a lamb, slain. When the pyre is tired a friar from the Convent of Santa Maria al Monte addreses the kneeling multitudes. Votaries of the “simple life” might, go much further afield than the Lago di Mandello bfore they found such genuinely natural types of out of door life, all tinged with that artistic attribute whose home is Italy.—A correspondent of the “Daily Graphic.”