JOAN OF ARC

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 July 1939, Page 6

JOAN OF ARC

CELEBRATIONS IN FRANCE. Joan of Arc celebrations were commemorated throughout France on May 7. The President of the Republic was present at Orleans, where the principal celebrations, lasting several days, in which both the church and the State took part, are held every year. The importance that is attached to Jeanne d'Arc can best be gauged by the programme of these celebrations. At Orleans, after a torchlight procession through the town as a preliminary, was a lecture by the eminent French writer Paul Claudel, former Ambassador to the United States. On May 6, in the church of St Pierre du Martroi, the presentation of 250 flags of regiments disbanded at the end of the Great War took place, and in the evening, at the Theatre Municipal, the first rendering in France of Arthur Honegger’s “Joan at the Stake,” an oratorio, with Mme Ida Rubinstein and the Paris Philharmonic Orchestra and chorus under the direction of M Felix Raugel. The same evening, at 9 o’clock, there was a reception of former soldiers of the Great War gathered at Orleans to render homage to Joan of Arc and to Peace, and on the illuminated square where the statue of the Maid of Orleans stands, all the school children of the town gathered to sing, accompanied by bands of several regiments.

Sunday was the day of the great, celebration, with high mass in the cathedral, and on the principal square a gathering of delegates in local costume from all the provinces of France to do homage to the saviour of their country. On the steps of the cathedral the replica of the standard of Joan of Arc was presented to the Bishop of Orleans by the municipal authorities, and a cantata, “L’Etendard,” sung by massed choirs. At night the towers of the cathedral were flood-lit, the whole town illuminated, and a great torchlight procession marched through the streets.

On Monday, May 8, after early mass at the cathedral, came the traditional march past before the statue of Joan of Arc in which the representatives of the church, the municipal authorities and the army took part. The standard of Joan of Arc, which was watched over all through the night in the cathedral, was handed back to the municipal authorities for safe keeping for another year. Athletic sports, a football match in the afternoon, yet another torch-light procession, and a firework display brought the celebrations to an end. The national enthusiasm everywhere in France during the annual Joan of Arc celebrations is extraordinary, but it is at Orleans that it reaches its climax. ———