Pascua Florida, or Feast of Flowers
Of the two big religious holidays, it is Easter that is the one that makes the most sense, culturally to Florida. In the imagination, Christmas is a cold weather holiday, and a “too hot” Christmas in Florida, frankly, can be a disappointment if you wish a bit of chill.
But Easter is a holiday that is meant for us. In other climates, you have to get palms for Palm Sunday shipped in; we just get them out of the yard. It is the same for Easter the next week; even as the holiday is celebrated as a secular holiday, the day is about color and new life.
While most churches fall back on florists to provide the church flowers on Sunday, many of us can remember decorating a cross with flowers for Easter.
This mostly forgotten custom from perhaps the 6th century had everyone bring in flowers from their yards and place them in a wire-framed cross. This takes on a bit of a botanical experiment in Florida, as so much is in bloom.
Perhaps it is time to bring that tradition back?
Many forget that Florida was named because our founder, Juan Ponce de León, came here sometime between April 2 and April 8, 1513, and claimed this land for Spain on Easter, and named it Florida.
There is a state holiday, Pascua Florida, that is mostly forgotten, but is April 2. It was a holiday suggested by a social studies teacher in the 1950s to help schoolchildren understand the history of Florida.
Ponce de León met his death just off these waters in 1521; shot by Calusa as he was trying to establish a Spanish settlement here. The great Spanish knight was no match for our local fishermen-warriors.
Born in 1474, he is a person worthy of study, as he was actually on Christopher Columbus’ second voyage to the New World in 1493, before he came here and claimed the state for Ferdinand the Fifth and proclaimed himself Adelantado of the Land of Florida, a military title.
So many have written about Ponce de León, but most of the recent writings are schoolbooks. So sanitized is the story that it has lost all its richness. Searching about, we found one account from 1910 by a writer named Florian Mann.
It is appropriate for Gasparilla Island because of the popularity of Easter services on the beach. (See Ballyhoo, p. 7). While we will have music, and clergy dressed in clerical garb, we will sadly have no cannons, or culverins.
Perhaps we will have time to find one for next year?
Here is Florian Mann’s flowery, and partly fictionalized, account of the arrival, for the sake of mystery:
“The tide being at the full, the boat came easily to the shore, upon which the Knight stepped and halting, awaited Fray Antonio with his cross, before which upon bent knees he gave thanks to God for his great mercy in bringing him safely to this goodly land.
“Then trumpets sounded, drums beat, culverins thundered and in eager haste all disembarked and forming a procession, headed by the priests, the cross, with Ponce de León and his banner, marched to the music of bugles and kettle drums towards the center of the square, where was celebrated the first mass on the continent of North America.
“The priests had brought with them from the ship the chapel altar, decorated richly with votive offerings and sacred emblems; and clad in alb and stole and other vesture suited to their offices, with boys swinging censors formed the central feature of the picture, the golden cross high facing the morning sun.
“Fronting them in a semi-circle knelt the soldiers making their responses as if they had been in the Cathedral of San Geronimo at Valladolid, instead of one whose dome was the blue sky with forest trees for upholding pillars, surely a temple fit for the worship of the Almighty even if its only organ to time the chanting of the worshippers was the great sea near by with the solemn booming of its breakers on the inlet’s bar.
Mann ends up with a bit of a realization, for the end was not good for either party:
“Perhaps unseen by priest, or soldier, or sailor, pitying angels bent above them as they prayed; sad, if sorrowful they can be, for the evils that were to come upon these men, sincere in their faith, and the greater evils they were destined also to bring upon an innocent defenseless people, in the names of their God, their religion and their King.”
What else is Easter but happiness and sadness, remembering not only who we have lost, but also recalling the cost they paid in bringing us our lives, and our todays?
Let us have a happy Easter here on the beach in this flowery paradise, this Pascua Florida.
Garland Pollard is the editor of the Boca Beacon. Email editor@bocabeacon.com
