The Christian year in Palestine, among the Greek Church peasantry, is according to the Julian style. Whenever a fast is the order of the Greek Church calendar those who heed it refuse resolutely any animal food, or food that is cooked in fat or that contains any amount whatever of butter, milk or other animal substance. Once while out traveling, during Greek Lent, we wished to share our lunch with a Christian native who attended to the riding animals. Among other supplies were some cookies. These were, of course, a new style of food, but sufficiently near to what the natives call “_ka‛k_,” cake. Being a little uncertain as to how such a thing might be made, the conscientious man had to inquire, and on our confessing that there was some animal substance in the article, he felt it necessary to decline it. Easter goes by the name of the “Great Feast” among Oriental Christians, and its approach and occurrence arouse the keenest ecclesiastical activity during the year. Weddings, not being allowed during the Lenten fast, come in rapid succession after Easter Day. On a Palm Sunday we saw girls dancing on the threshing-floor of the village.[121] In the week preceding Easter come the ceremonial of feet-washing[122] before the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, and the descent of the Greek fire at the Sepulcher, inside the same church. Good Friday evening is such a time of general attendance at church for prayer that it offers opportunities to those not of the faith to break into the village houses and steal. ----- ----- The feasts constitute a convenient calendar, marking the seasons for the peasantry. For instance, in the autumn three of the feasts are connected in the minds of the peasantry with the coming of the rain. At the Feast of the Cross, towards the end of September, the peasants say there is rain on one hand and summer weather on the other. At the later Feast of St. George (el-Khuḍr), observed especially at Ludd, it is expected that the rain will come in an amount sufficient to enable the farmer to sow and plow. At the Feast of Burbâra (Barbara), in December, they say the rain will come in through every mouse-hole in the house, that is, in an exceptionally heavy downpour. On the first and last of these feasts, The Cross and St. Barbara, parents like to make for their children dishes of boiled wheat with little candies stuck around the top. The Roman Catholic priests are zealously cultivating the native Christian population, and trying to increase in influence, though the feeling against them on the part of the Greeks is one of bitter hostility. They are forced to adopt a missionary policy and their growth in the country villages is very slow. They have established excellent monastery accommodations for the shelter of such of their pilgrims as pass through the country.