Tea at Trianon: The Traditional Use of Fragrant Greenery for Processions

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, March 29, 2023

The Traditional Use of Fragrant Greenery for Processions

From Liturgical Arts Journal:

Aside from their appearance, leaves such as these also give off a perfumed like fragrance, especially as they were walked upon. How and why this custom came about is a matter of some speculation, however it is thought to have its origins in antiquity where processions, especially triumphal one's, were frequently accompanied by fragrant leaves such as these. Of course, this tradition also appears at other times other than stational processions in Rome. For example, traditionally on the Feast of Ss. Peter and Paul, the custom was to suspend a large basin of box leaves before the great door of the Vatican basilica. Similarly, for the papal procession of Corpus Christi, the procession was led by the gardeners of the papal palace who would spread out myrtle/mortella along the path of the procession. (Read more.)