(urth) Seven American Nights procession

[Dave Tallman]

I had a question about the day of the week of the final day described in
"Seven American Nights." The main clue is an outdoor procession Nadan
supposedly witnessed on that day:

*A very old man -- I suppose a priest -- carried a cross on a long pole,
using it as a staff, and almost as a crutch. A much younger one, fat and
sweating, walked backwards before him swinging a smoking censor. Two robed
boys carrying large candles proceeded them, and they were followed by more
robed children, singing, who fought with nudges and pinches when they felt
the fat man was not watching them.*
*
*
*...the entire procession, from the flickering candles in clear sunshine, to
the dead leader lifted up, to his inattentive, bickering followers behind --
seemed to me to incarnate the philosophy and the dilemma of these people...
I realized that its ritualized plea for life renewed was more foreign to
them than to me.*

Borksi says this is a stations of the cross procession for Good Friday.
Others think it was an Easter Sunday procession. I'm not sure, and I'm not
familiar enough with Catholic ritual to tell the difference. It matters for
the symbolism of the story.

We also have the statement by Ardis, "Tomorrow night the theater will be
closed for Easter, and you can take me to a party." She said that the day
before the procession. It's barely possible the theater would be closed for
Good Friday and she would still say the same thing, but the fallen America
doesn't seem that religious.
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