Faithful Celebrate Vernal Rite; Harvard Hails Spring's Return

A shivering band of Harvard sun-worshippers celebrated the vernal equinox with fertility rites yesterday.

Dressed in flowing robes and brandishing umbrellas and giant phalli, the celebrants marched from Matthews to the John Harvard statue where David S. Kenyon '76, High Priest, gave a sermon on "lecherous living" which was received with general applause and shouts of "I believe" and "Amen, brother."

The group, members of the International Society of Sun-Worshippers, marched to the Union and then to Harvard Square before returning to Matthews and disbanding. At times they attracted a crowd of 50 curious onlookers.

The fertility rites which the group had planned were sharply curtailed by their inability to find a virgin. "We had a volunteer, but he was really more a virgin in spirit than in body," said Robert L. (Big'un) Morgan '76, Messiah.

"There was a girl that called, but she didn't leave her name," Morgan said. "We asked the person who we thought it was, but she felt insulted that we thought she was a virgin."

Among the people that the celebrants attracted during their march was an old lady. "I don't know what it is," she said, "but it's marvelous."

"It's like 'The King of Hearts,'" she said. "It's so unreal."