Christian antiquities -- Great Britain; Folklore -- Great Britain; Great Britain -- Social life and customs; Manners and customs
Concerning this ceremony, Cranmer says that it was done "In remembrance of
Christ's sepulture, which was prophesied by Esaias to be glorious, and to
signify there was buried the pure and undefiled body of Christ, without
spot of sin, which was never separated from the Godhead, and, therefore,
as David expressed it in the fifteenth Psalm, it could not see corruption,
nor death detain or hold Him, but, He should rise again, to our great hope
and comfort; and, therefore, the church adorns it with lights to express
the great joy they have of that glorious triumph over death, the devil,
and hell."
We have adverted to Easter Sepulchres of stone remaining at the present
time, but they were by no means the only description erected. The Rev.
Mackenzie E. C. Walcott, in his "Sacred Archaeology," names, as follow,
five sorts of sepulchres. The first, a chapel, as at Winchester; second, a
wall recess, usually in the north side of the chancel, as at Bottesford,
Lincolnshire, and Stanton St. John; third, a temporary structure,
sumptuously enriched, as at St. Mary, Redcliffe, Bristol; fourth, a tomb,
under which a founder, by special privilege, was buried; fifth, a vaulted
enclosure, as at Norwich, which, like a sepulchre at Northwold, has an
aperture for watching the light, without requiring the person so employed
to enter the choir.
There was an imposing example at Seville, raised over the tomb of
Columbus. It was constructed of wood, and was three storeys high, and
brilliantly lighted. According to an old poet:
"With tapers all the people come, and at the barriars stay,
Where downe upon their knees they fall, and night and day they pray,
And violets and every kinde of flowers about the grave
They straw, and bring all their giftes and presents that they have."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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