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Forgotten Memories of
Negro Festivals
I)r. Ira De A. Reid, of the department
of sociology at Atlanta University, ad
dressed a convocation audience in Sis
ters Chapel on January 16. In speaking
on the “Forgotten Memories of Negro
Festivals.” Dr. Reid said that every cul
ture has found a festival or carnival of
some type through which it can express
a play life and also the philosophies of
the living and the dead. The festivals
grew out of the agricultural life, and in
fluenced the religions later developed.
When the Roman calendar w r as made,
the primitive people felt that there were
twelve days in the course of a moon
cycle in which the gods had no control
over their lives, so that they were free
to express themselves. When Christianity
came, these festivals were considered un
desirable and the Church decided to in
stitute others in their stead. As a result
came the festivals of Easter, Christmas,
and the like. Remnants of the Harvest
festivals are to he found in our State
and County Fairs.
In the United States only one festival,
the Mardi Gras, has the external charac
teristics of the old celebrations.
The old Roman Saturn Day, growing
out of respect for one of the gods, has as
a chief feature a sort of hero whom the
audience selects, who rules for a day,
and who is then killed. This hero grew
into the mock “King” who was. however,
allowed to live after his brief reign.
The Catholic Church was more tolerant
than was the Protestant in permitting
these mock king festivals, which were
carried over into the French "Festival
of Kings” and the English “Festival
of Fools.”
Mexico has the greatest number of
feast days, with 28 national celebrations
covering 77 days. West African feast
days are connected with the wet and dry
seasons. A number of Negro festivals
grew from the so-called \ am feasts.
There were several oustanding festi
vals in the 17th and 18th centuries
among Negroes in the United States. I he
festival of Santo Domingo, a riotous cele
bration outlawed when it was brought
to Louisiana, was celebrated by the
Moors in Deleware. A main feature was
a dance between the Moors and Chris
tians in which the Moors always won.
“Row so low and make company was
one of the refined fertility festivals com
bining pagan and Christian characteris
tics. The hero motif was present in the
young woman who wa- queen for the
day.
The most important celebration was
that of John Canoe, which took place
(Continued on Page t •
CAMPUS MIRROR
Dr. Douglas V. Steere
Professor of Philosophy,
Haverford College
The Call to Apostleship
The Wheels of Man’s inventions are
crushing him. Is he to stay forever
pinned down? This was the opening
challenge of Dr. Douglas V. Steere of
Haverford College when he spoke in
Sisters Chapel on February first, at a
joint Morehouse-Spelman chapel service.
According to Dr. Steere the resurrec
tion of man may be effected by the in
crease in the number of apostles. An
apostle he said may be characterized
as a religious genius, as one having
power in extraordinary qualities. How
ever, a genius lasts as long as his bril
liance lasts; an apostle has power by
which he lays a claim on the life of
every man. If the definition of genius
and that of apostle oppose each other,
the apostle may be called the person
who has yielded or wholly abandoned
to the purposes of God all the possi
bilities or gifts he has.
The authority of the apostle does not
come from surplus power, brilliant in
tellect, or the power of expression. On
the contrary, the power is revealed to
those in his presence. There was I ranch
of Assisi who preached and. though the
people did not remember what he said,
they returned to hear more from him.
The aged St. John was so old he could
not preach a sermon, but when he said
“Little Children, love thy Father." whole
audiences melted. No. it is not from
outside forces that the power of tin*
apostles comes. It is from the steady,
solid, tempered, utterly dedicated gilt~
of the individual.
The way of apostleship leads not in
the way one may expect to go. St.
Augustine, the greatest mind in the Me
dieval Church was hidden away working
as a bishop in Northern Africa; Francis
of Assisi wanted to spend his time in
prayer, but he was thrust out to preach.
Often apostles are torn out of what
they want to do so as to meet a greater
need.
The way of an apostle is not a way
of sacrifice, however, but it is the way to
the fullest, deepest life. It is the way
through which the resurrection of man
may be achieved.
Eminent Haitian Scholar,
Guest Professor
Monsieur Dantes Bellegarde, former
Haitian Minister to France and one-time
Minister to the United States joined the
faculty of the University System as guest
professor of French for the second se
mester. He made a special trip from
Haiti in May 1937 to give a series of
lectures at this institution.
He has represented Haiti in France
and in the United States, and was his
Nation’s special envoy to the League of
Nations where his brilliant speech be
fore the Assembly of the League brought
to the attention of the world the brutal
treatment of South African natives by
the government of the Union of South
Africa.
M. Bellegarde served as. professor of
French language and literature and also
as professor of law at the Lycee Petion.
Port-au-prince, and has held the position
of Minister of Education in Haiti. In
1936, he lectured at the University of
Puerto Rico under the auspices of the
Ibero-American Institute. Just prior to
coming to Atlanta University, he was
director of the Ecole Normale d’lnstitu-
teurs at Port-au-Prince (Haiti). He is
the author of many authoritative books
on various phases of Haitian life.
Instructor and Pupil
\\ in Awards
Word has been received that Hale
Woodruff, an artist of international repu
tation. won the first prize in water colors
at the Tri-County art exhibit at the High
Museum of Art recently for his exhibit,
entitled "Rain and Fog in the Rockies."
Robert Neal, a pupil of Mr. Wood
ruff's in the Atlanta University Labora
tory School, received the second award
in the group of oil paintings for hi'
painting entitled. “Georgia Landscape,
a colorful view of a tumbledown Negro
sback and outhouse.
The exhibit sponsored by the Studio
Club of Atlanta and the Artists Guild
of Atlanta was made up of oil paintings,
water colors, graphics, and sculpture.