Oneida
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"CELEBRATION OF CHRIST" TO RETURN TO SOLIS
After a Long Debate, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Conception's Annual Christmas Celebration Returns to it's Home in Solis
[SOLIS] A time-honored tradition seeks to make a requite in good faith as Archbishop Alfonso Sandino met with the Commissioners of the Ministry of the Interior’s Department of Cultural Preservation to make the case for once again hosting the Cathedral of Our Lady of Conception’s annual Christmas celebration on the Plaza de la República. The celebration dates well before the First Republic and into the time of the Aurarian Kings.
The Plaza de la República was constructed during a time when Auraria was far more concerned with form rather than function – as if such a period ever really ended. Many of Solis’s most famous structures were constructed during this period as a tangible display of the wealth and power of the Aurarian Monarchy. The Plaza itself was constructed to house a Royal Garden in front of a newer, bigger palace. The garden was never installed and the newer, bigger place never housed a King as in 1819 the very concept was done away with.
It was in the Plaza that the revolutionaries first waved the purple, gold, and black tricolor and proclaimed the Republic. It was in the Plaza that the first Constitution was officially proposed to the public. Today the Plaza remains a popular, relaxing public gathering space connecting the Museo Nacional (old Palace) and the Aurarian National Court. It’s also the site of the execution of King Alejandro IV and King Alejandro V – a fourteen-year-old boy who ruled for all of twenty minutes before the Calderón Line ceased to exist.
In spite of that bloody affair, the Plaza has hosted the Cathedral of Our Lady of Conception’s Christmas Celebration for hundreds of years – the largest such celebration in the country. It would see thousands of the faithful arriving from all corners of the country to take part. The Caudillo, in 1997, made it a point to never miss a ceremony and ensured that the Archbishop was seated next to him, front and center, each year.
The Old Regime’s policy of linking its authority to that of the Church has undoubtedly caused controversy that continues today. It wasn’t any surprise then that the location of the celebration – which ended in 2012 during the Revolution and only resumed in 2014 after the peace – was moved to outside the city. Archbishop Alfonso Sandino, however, made it a point to return the celebration to its historic home in the Plaza.
“This is a celebration of God and the story of the savior’s birth,” he said in a letter to President Ordenes “Our past cannot change but our futures remain to be seen. I have no doubt that the faithful display of Jesus Christ’s story will only serve as a benefit to the healing our country so desperately needs.”
In general, the Plaza can be reserved for any sort of public demonstration as per the guidelines issued by the Department of Cultural Preservation – which oversees the maintenance of the grounds. Applications are voted on by the Grounds Commission, made up of members selected by the Department Director, the Minister of the Interior, and even one from the President himself. The secular nature of the country, however, has drawn controversy from the Church’s application.
“When it became public that the Cathedral intended to resume the tradition, the Commission received over three hundreds requests to reserve the Plaza for a variety of celebrations on the same day,” said Commissioner Rodrigo Vasquez “Many of them were protests to Christianity, one of them was a…well, alternative lifestyle celebration and others were even more ridiculous.”
Nevertheless, with the controversy surrounding the decision remaining, President Sebastian Ordenes weighed in on his own “Letter of Recommendation” to the Commission on the matter. In the letter, President Ordenes stressed no particular power of his own to compel the Commission one way or another but stated “This country needs to heal and part of that is celebrating who we are, who we all are, and we must consistently be fair and impartial to that.”
The public vote concluding by a thing 5-4 margin (most votes are almost always 9-0), the Cathedral’s request was approved and the celebration will once more resume on the Plaza’s grounds.
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