"HPSCHD" is antic and circus-like, its Mozart quotations unmistakably mocking the solemn rites of classical tradition.
"When Mr. Barnum brings the church and its solemn rites into his show business, he outrages public decency," intoned The Brooklyn Eagle.
Funeral weeds had had their day, solemn rites were dead and gone: in the dining room of the Grand Hotel, she sensed that she was forgiven for her unshed tears, the grief she could not manage.
Rev. F. A. DeRosset, rector of the Church of the Redeemer, conducted the last solemn rites and a quartette choir composed of Mr. Buchanan, Miss Lelia Miller, and Messrs. Buchanan and Tunnel sang several beautiful hymns.
I saw in my imagination a solemn pagan rite: sage elders, seated in a circle, watching a young girl dance herself to death.
Yet only since 2009 have journalists been allowed to photograph coffins returning from the war zones, the most solemn of rites at this air base.
"The Last of the Unjust" is a solemn celebration, a secular rite.
Here sacred pomp and genial feast delight, And solemn dance, and hymeneal rite; Along the street the new-made brides are led, With torches flaming, to the nuptial bed: The youthful dancers in a circle bound To the soft flute, and cithern's silver sound: Through the fair streets the matrons in a row Stand in their porches, and enjoy the show — The Iliad, Book XVIII, Trans.
Descendants of the Mayans greeted the date with a shrug, or for the dwindling numbers still practicing ancient rites, with solemn, more closed ceremonies.
