Summary

A nameless narrator, who will later be revealed to be a soldier (or former soldier), describes the legend and ceremonious rituals of The Mass of St. Sylvestre, the Christian version of the Roman god Janus who had two faces representing both the past and the future, who was symbolic of the new year and new beginnings. Like a modern New Year's Eve, the feast of St. Sylvestre took place on the last night of the year, and St. Sylvestre himself would use his keys to unlock the gates of many Christian cities around the world, including Manila, to open them to the new year. Then, they would have the first mass of the new year. In the eighteenth Century, Manila was still a walled cathedral city, and St. Sylvestre's processional was a divine, ornate, sensational experience, but was one that...