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5 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.