THE ROSE IN CEREMONIES, FESTIVALS, ETC. 27 



perfumes those bones which the voice of the All-Powerful would 

 one day restore to Hfe." 



The Roman Catholics of this day admit flowers to their 

 churches and ceremonies, and on feast days they adorn the altars 

 with bouquets and garlands. At the most imposing of these 

 solemnities, the day of the '•' Fete-Dieu," rose petals, during the 

 processions, are scattered in the air, and blended with the per- 

 fume of censers, directed towards the Host ; in many of the 

 towns, particularl}^ those in the south of France and of Europe, 

 the streets through which the procession passes are scattered 

 throughout with fragrant herbs and flowers of every kind. 



Since the extinction of paganism in a greater part of the 

 world, the custom of wearing crowns of flowers at festivals has 

 passed entirely away. Women only use roses as an ornament 

 for their hair, or employ them in different parts of their toilet. 

 In our own country the toilet of a bride is never considered per- 

 fect unless she wears a wTcath of roses and other flowers, whose 

 snow-white hue is an emblem of her departing maidenhood. 

 Sometimes she is provided only with a bouquet of wdiite roses 

 and camellias, and her bridesmaids wear similar ornaments of 

 nature's manufacture. 



The Rose is abundantly used by children in their beautiful 

 celebration of May-day. We w^ell recollect our own enjoyment 

 of one of these scenes some seven years since. We were return- 

 ing from a ride in the vicinity of Charleston, S. C, on the first 

 day of this, the sunniest of the months of Spring — a day dedi- 

 cated not to the spirit of motion, and celebrated not by proces- 

 sions of furniture carts, amid the bustle and noise of a populous 

 city, but dedicated there, at the sunny south, to innocent and 

 joyous festivity, and celebrated amid all the fresh and fragrant 

 luxuriance of southern vegetation, surrounded by the delicate 

 sweetness of the magnolia, the Rose, and other flowers, while 

 the mocking-bird, with its sweet and varied note, is the min- 

 strel for the occasion. Riding quietly along the road, we were 

 suddenly stopped by a procession which had just dismounted from 

 a number of carriages in a beautiful grove hard by. It consisted 



3* 



