Easter Rock: A Louisiana Negro Ceremony

Abstract

An Easter rock is one of those pagan rites clothed in Christian symbolism which are not altogether uncommon among the Negroes of the South. Its practice, as the writers know it,I seems however to have been very widespread, being restricted today to that part of Louisiana lying in the lower Mississippi delta. However, it is quite probable that there are to be found variations of it elsewhere, as the Easter rock is terminated by a service; and the sunrise service is especially common among the Negro Baptists of the South. Though the Easter rock itself does not begin until midnight, the general begin to assemble between nine and ten o'clock Easter Saturday night. At ten, or thereabouts, a preliminary service, known as cul'n (a corruption from covenant), begins. Cul'n consists of a series of testimonials of faith in and random requests of the Lord, and it lasts about an hour. After each set of two or three testimonials and prayers, the head deacon, who presides until the minister arrives for the sunrise service, declares a brief intermission during which are tuk up (in a collection plate). Most of the contributors apparently provide themselves against being embarrassed at the various further considerations of finances by changing what contributions they expect to make into nickels and pennies. Cul'n exhausted, the congregation is favored with a program of special events, largely impromptu, by groups of singers representing churches other than the host-church. This program, also interrupted periodically by finances, is stopped shortly before midnight to allow opportunity for arranging the properties required for an Easter rock.