This grand procession strikes the note of all the others, and in the
afternoon each parish brings out its banners, arrays itself in its
choicest dresses, and with pomp and music bears the _ostia_ through the
streets, the crowd kneeling before it, and the priests chanting. During
the next _ottava_ or eight days, all the processions take place in
honor of this festival; and when the week has passed, everything ends
with the Papal procession in Saint Peter's piazza, when, without music,
and with uncovered heads, the Pope, cardinals, _monsignori_, canons,
and the rest of the priests and officials, make the round of the
piazza, bearing great Church banners.
One of the most striking of their celebrations took place this year at
the church of San Rocco in the Ripetta, when the church was made
splendid with lighted candles and gold bands, and a preacher held forth
to a crowded audience in the afternoon. At Ave Maria there was a great
procession, with banners, music, and torches, and all the evening the
people sauntered to and fro in crowds before the church, where a
platform was erected and draped with old tapestries, from which a band
played constantly. Do not believe, my dear Presbyterian friend, that
these spectacles fail deeply to affect the common mind.
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