This is the last of the five holidays, during which the custom-house is closed, and commerce suspended. The Passion Week ends to-day, and I have concluded to give you some of the details, without comment, from which you can draw your own conclusions. I find that there is a great difference of opinion among the Spaniards themselves as to the utility of keeping up, in this enlightened day, the observance of customs which were practised in barbarous ages, and are divested in most cases of the imposing and magnificent ceremonies at Rome, during the Holy Week.
Commercial men dislike the prostration and interruption of trade, which continues nearly a week, and which produces great hurry and bustle in loading and discharging vessels, prior to the closing of the custom-house; but on the part of the negro population the festivals are much enjoyed. Dressed in all the finery possible, the sable damsels may be seen with white and black mantillas, and fans in their hands, forming a portion of the church attendants, sitting or kneeling upon the marble pavement, side by side with the wealthy classes, kneeling and reposing upon rugs brought by liveried servants. In the house of worship no distinction is made between bond or free, black or white; all enjoy the same religious privileges.
On Jueves Santo, or Holy Thursday, after ten o’clock in the morning, Havana, the noisy, bustling, active city, is in deep repose, and for forty-eight hours all is silent; not a vehicle is allowed to pass; the bells are muffled; the sentries and military guards have their arms reversed; the flags of all the vessels are half-mast; the altars of the churches and convents are decorated with the figures of angels and cherubim, in gold and silver tinsel robes, bearing in their hands the instruments of torture, symbolical of the crucifixion of Christ. In the Santa Catalina, which, as well as some eight or ten other churches, was illuminated with hundreds of wax candles, and visited by thousands, is the figure of Christ bearing his cross, and borne down by its crushing weight nearly to the marble pave; a little further on are two other figures, representing the flagellated and the mutilated body; the third Christ being in a sitting posture, bound and bleeding from his wound.
The hosts of ladies who scarcely ever appear in the streets unless in volantes, are obliged to make use of their tiny feet, and from the churches wend their way to the Plaza d’Armas, a beautiful promenade in front of the governor’s house, where by the light of the moon they can exchange glances and salutations with friends, and listen to fine music from the military band.
On Viernes Santo, or Good Friday, an immense procession, composed of the clergy and assistants in full dress, with torches, assisted by the military with arms reversed, proceeds from the church of San Juan de Dios to the cathedral, where the dead body of Christ is deposited in a sepulchre, in which it remains until the morning of the third day, when, after the performance of mass to the multitude at ten o’clock, silence is once more broken by the pealing of the bells, the roar of cannon from the forts, and the discharges of the infantry who occupy the Plaza or square, in front of the cathedral, all of which announces the resurrection. The negro drivers, who have bedecked their mules with ribbons, drive wildly through the streets; the military shoulder arms, and the flags of the vessels are again hoisted to the tops of the masts.
The following morning the ceremony of Christ going forth to meet the Virgin took place. The almost naked figure of our Saviour, as large as life, upon a platform supported by twelve men, almost concealed from view by curtains suspended to the ground, sallies forth from the cathedral followed by the priests in robes, bearing the host under a canopy with burning incense, while the military and populace are prostrated upon their knees; after having made the tour of the Plaza, amid the showers of bouquets from the ladies in the balconies, the procession marches in the direction of one of the churches, which contains full-sized figures of the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene, in rich robes of gold and silver tinsel, who are brought out on platforms upon which they are attached, and supported upon the shoulders of four men each; the latter, espying Christ coming in the distance from an opposite direction, run hurriedly towards him, turn as suddenly and go in pursuit of his mother to communicate the glad tidings, while she in turn rushes rapidly forward to embrace him, when, after a salutation, they proceed together, and are placed within the altar, and mass is said, and the scene is finished.
I observed but a small attendance of whites of the upper classes, at this last described ceremony, but hosts of negroes whose curiosity it gratifies. The sensible part of the community wish it dispensed with, as, instead of being imposing and solemn, portions of it excite the laughter of the crowd.
A grand masquerade ball is announced for Sunday night, at the theatre, which will be attended by probably five or six thousand persons; this will close the ceremonies and performances of the Holy Week in Havana.
The cathedral is an antique, and plain, but noble building, with some good monuments. The most interesting, historically, is that which covers the remains of Christopher Columbus, whose ashes were transported from the cathedral of San Domingo by the Spaniards, when that island was ceded to the French in 1795. The reception of the body at Havana is said to have been august and stately. After it was landed with the greatest pomp, it was conveyed to the cathedral, when, after mass and solemn ceremonies, the mortal remains of the great navigator were placed in the wall behind a bust, in basso relievo, in marble, with the following inscription:
“O, remains and image of the great Columbus,