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A Day For Fellowship, Culture & Refinement.
PERHAPS THE Spring Festival, celebrated April Tenth in honor of the Pre-Eminent of the Koreshan Unity, Victoria Gratia, was the most successful in every way, of any similar undertaking by her people. It seemed to many that it was the most enjoyable. There was a nearer approach to a realization of the purpose of its celebration, evincing progress made in the minds and hearts of the Koreshans.
Religion is the strongest, deepest, and most permanent bond of unity known to the human race. The ideal devotion is found, in religion. No love of home or country can ever equal that of the genuine love of the Almighty spirit of truth. The genuine religion inspires and cultivates all that is high and noble, pure and refined. Incentive to service is greatest when springing from a pure love of the neighbor in whom the truth finds welcome. The subjects of the greatest masterpieces of art in this dispensation, are those of the life of the Messiah of the age; and literature abounds in poetic imagery which reflects and expresses the conception of God in man.
The central thought in the Festivals celebrated by the Koreshan people, is that of the humanity of Deity, expressed in Father-Motherhood, not in some distant or intangible sphere, but in the world of human life and activity. They are days of fellowship, culture, and refinement, constituting climaxes for the expression of the beautiful and artistic. They are designed to be days from which spring fresh impulses in the path of our progress. The season of preparation for the celebrations manifest a depth of devotion seldom seen in the history of human development.
The exercises and entertainments are intensely educative; and the Festivals will assume, as the years go by, greater and greater importance and splendor, until the nation and the world will look to them for the unfoldment of newer forms of beauty and power. For it is here and by means of the spirit of these Festivals, that the drama will reach the climax of usefulness. The stage will be elevated through the powerful and purifying spirit of Koreshanity; for the higher loves and emotions, the higher art forms of expression, will supplant the sordid loves and attractions of mortality.
Here in the Southland, under tropical skies and amid tropical scenery by the sea, opportunity for magnificent display is unexcelled. It is here where, undisturbed by the noise of the modern city, and the mad clamor for inglorious wealth, that the heart is free to enjoy and anticipate the things present and future, that spring from heroic endeavor.
The program will enable the reader to follow the order of the exercises of the day, including the impressive ceremonies at the Art Hall, where the Pre-Eminent’s Annual Edict (published in the first Department), and the Oration by KORESH, profoundly impressed and inspired the hearts of the people. The Evening Entertainment, designated as the Aquarian Carnival, surpassed in splendor all previous entertainments at Estero. The amphitheater was by the riverside; the stage was the landing at the river entrance to Estero Park. The landscape embraced terraces rising from the riverside; and the whole scenery, with natural foliage and artistic decorations, was at once beautiful and imposing in the brilliant lights provided for illumination. And while all these were strikingly real and artistic, there were dreamland reflections in the placid stream, where fantasies and fairies held high carnival in gorgeous display in the rippling water.
Music, recitations, and songs, enjoyable to all present, including many visitors from surrounding towns, interspersed the magnificent Floats which were the main attractions of the evening. Large barges were employed, and they each served uniquely the double purpose of float and temporary stage. Noteworthy were “The Bees in Flowerland,” where eight girls in pretty costumes representing bees and flowers, appeared in a fairy-like performance above the water. In another float there was a representation of a massive stone portico. About the imposing columns stood living statuary representing science, commerce, art, literature, manufacture, agriculture, justice, and judgment. “The Heralds of the Holy City;” was an impressive scene, and the Grecian Dancing Girls paid a beautiful and graceful tribute to Terpsichore.
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Source: The Flaming Sword, Vol. 22, No. 5 (15 May 1908), PDF p. 20.
The Flaming Sword · Vol. 22, No. 5 · 15 May 1908 · PDF p. 20