THE DAY OF THE DEAD.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 356, 13 February 1880, Page 9

THE DAY OF THE DEAD.

Special Rome Correspondence of the Pilot,

On the afternoon of November 1, it might be truly saitl that all living Rotnc went to the great graveyard to honour its dead. At the cemetery of Canipo Verano, the last rcsliug-placc of all varieties of believers (except tte Jews and the Protestants, who have cemeteries of their own), and of all political parties— the Zouave and the Garibaldian, the friar and the freemason, the Christian and the infidel alike— the people of Rome had gathered. As the dull day faded into darkness, and heavy laden clouds obscured the ordinarily bright sky, a vast crowd passed in and out of the gates, where colossal marble statues of .Meditation, Silence, Hope, and Faith keep perpetual and stony watch and ward over the city of death. There were very few indeed whose hands were not laden with a tribute of affection for their dead. Crowns of flowers, and of laurel, wreaths of iiiinurrtelle*. devices in black and white beads, with the name of the beloved lost one written, or some such tribute a«, " to a loving father," "to my dear spouse,'" " to a beloved sister," the offerings of tender grateful hearts, were remarkably abundant. Along the approach to the cemetery, stalls and booths, for the sale of mourning wreaths suitable to any degree of relationship, or any tic of friendship, were erected, and their proprietors were loud aud eager in urging the quality of their wares. This seems to us to be out of harmony with the solemnity of the place and occasion— the eve of All Souls' Day. Within the cemetery the vast multitude parted into groups ; and these, spreading through the numerous winding ways and wide streets in this City of the Dead, sought the graves of those they loved in life and remember in death. Young clerics from an ecclesiastical college knelt together at the tombs of their preceptors and prayed aloud for the souls of the departed odes in those solemn words the Church has appointed. Prayerless Revolutionists placed their laurel crowns on the grave of one of thtir brethren of whom they would make a hero. Sons and daughters, and their widowed mother — a bereaved family — knell on the ground where their one friend was laid, and after plucking the grass and weeds which had grown there, prayed tearfully and earnestly for the repose of his soul. I observed touching pictures of heartfelt sorrow : many scenes of deep grief. Some individuals were clothed in deep mourning : others showed their sadness in their countenances.

But as the Ace Maria approached, ami the gloom of the clay began to give place to the blackness oE night, a strange spectacle became visible, lv the remote part of the cemetery, where the graves

rl ll > P J ■ are * lstll> S™hea cbkfly by an iion.ora decaying wooden J ' be Dame > a Pe, ™d date of death of the sleeper beneath, n LSITL S IT » aITa IT were L " D ? on caoh erosp > or P^ced ™«* centre ?L mr£ £' ?£ V 1C iV Yei 2 lhcn h '^ ted - On * be Pincetto, where ind7?nS^?i hy *w f0 ll^l 1^? 0 laSt 'esting-place, higher in position ?W -fn« y « *? a J ,°- f he ccmmon cr people! for even in death nZVrt ?"? "I dlStlDCt On of clasEcs-the same spectacle was E^oli, cc f 1 W - S W , dld and 'PWtraMike. A ,ed flush of i 8i 8 \il l Z w eathaing darkness, and made an illuminated circle S^o D " mei I lt /retimes this circle of light revealed a JXii? n V ?*? m?i 3a " dator y opitaph, or the pale outlines of a not nnoTJ? I ' ° T the /5 atures of a painted likeness-for such is not uncommon here-or the silken knot of ribbon binding the ends all Sf o^? ?v wmortdle*. And as I stood on Ibis bright, and coked down into the wide field beyond, filled with the graves of uLITI r^ aW r bc^° at^ me tho wbo]e vast space sparkling with twinkling little lights that fluttered in the evening wind, and the whole sceue was like to a great marsh over which hovered hosts of fiieflics It was redolent of moibid and gloomy imaginings and avocations And these were heightened by the presence of the tall cypresses, that rose blackly into the night, and seemed to watch as gloomy sentinels over the silent and dimly -lighted graves. f1 S°rae say that this custom of placing a light on the grave of a Jtrt w ° r re , ]atlve '. ls a remLant of the Paganism which writers w ? ♦ bas " ever been thoroughly extirpated, at l^ast in its customs 5-1 OnS> , m * be bcarts of the Eoman people. I think it is needless to go back so far to seek the origiruof this cusnZ'^f e p£".V vhc ° we *ayfh.d a veiy probable and reasonable S=^' n n , da '' S ,- As you P ass alo °?> in the subterranean & f f ?? Catacombs, amidst the perpetual darkness that reigns ™iw™ yOlir l ? ny taper only disperses for a moment over a small space, you see at inteivals a little blackened niche in the wall Sitl?nJ raYe 1 ' 1 - Onin ? Ull ' y>your g«ido, following the conclusions ?n *w • i ?? h i S P r ? decessoT s- will tell you that a lamp was placed ™i, I nicb « b y the friends of the deceased one lying hard by, in SnSi cU \ StepS ?^ llgh tbe ° 100m y labyrinth to that spot, mom™ 33 ik* ° l^? ih v flame Of tbeir los * l0 ™ d one on the ?£?™^!f ?! 7 i Whlch the grave was enclosed. As these niches, im^n?, 7 f f- Sm °l c ° f the lam Ps.are very numerous, the C.ita™w T n tiraes bave Presented the appearance of a dimly illu£E?t ii g allery \ sucb a « we may see to-day on the feasts of certain Z ™Zl u W T, bm^ *" tbeir de P tbs - Many of the Christian cusoms and Symbols of the Catacombs have been adopted in the churches na^Zf W at £ T tbese lonely ref «g es were no longer required, ?* b-hke a tar &c. Ibis lighting of the catacombal graves, s, in all probability the origin of that Euman custom, which seems ovoTa fS^Dnf lin = lam P sattbe S^esof the dead on the