376 ON THE ANTIQUITIES OF 



Coeloque aperto sabditam 

 Rcgem tenebrarum traliit. 

 Vt sis perenne mentibus 

 Paschale Jesu gauilium, 

 A morte dira criminum 

 Vitae renatos libera. 

 Deo Patri sit gloria, 

 Et Filio, qui A mortuis 

 Sunexit, ac Paraclito, 

 In sempiterna saecula. 



10. ROGATION SUNDAY, and Rogation Days. 

 Dimanche des Rogations. — Fr. 



Obs, The fifth Sunday after Easter is called Rogation Sunday, 

 and the Rogation days are the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday 

 following, and immediately preceding Holy Thursday or Ascen- 

 sion Day. 



Rogation Week, Saxon Eang bagai*, i. e. days of perambula- 

 tion, is always the next but one before Whitsunday, and so called 

 because on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of that week, Roga- 

 tions and Litanies were used ; and fasting, or at least abstinence, 

 then enjoined by the Church to all persons, not only for a devout 

 preparative to the feast of Christ's glorious Ascension, and the de- 

 scent of the Holy Ghost shortly after, but also to request and suppli- 

 cate the blessing of God upon the fruits of the earth ; and in this 

 respect the solemnization of matrimony is forbidden from the first 

 day of the said week till Trinity Sunday. The Dutch call it 

 Cruysweek, Crossweek, and it is so called in some parts of England, 

 because when the priests go in procession this week the cross is car- 

 ried before them. In the Inns of Court it was called Grassweek, 

 because the commons of that week formerly consisted much of sal- 

 lads, hard eggs, and green sauce upon some of the days. ■ 



The weather on this feast is usually fine, and the village proces- 

 sions in Catholic countries afford a remarkable instance of the inno- 

 cent hilarity so closely connected with the Christian festivals ; they 

 are well described by Chateaubriand in his Christianisme. As the 

 Anemone Pulsatilla from blowing often at Easter is called Pasque 

 Flower, so is the Polygala vulgaris from being used in the Roga- 

 tion processions often called Rogation Flower. Some other 

 flowers, however, have obtained this name from the same cause. 



