ECHTERNACH. The oldest town in the old duchy of Luxembourg on the Sure, close to the Prussian, f rontier, and the centre from which the English saint Willibrord converted the people to Christianity in the 7th century. A Benedictine abbey is represented mainly by an old Romano-Gothic church. The hos pital-almshouse is said to be the oldest in Europe save the Hotel Dieu in Paris. The Benedictine abbey has been greatly shorn of its original dimensions, but the Basilica remains a fair monument of Romano-Gothic art.
The Church of SS. Peter and Paul contains the remains of St. Willibrord and stands on an isolated mound; it is reached by 6o steps which are the scene of a remarkable ceremony on Whit Tuesday. The archbishop of Trier attends on behalf of Germany and holds a religious ceremony on the Prussian side of the Sure before the procession crosses the bridge into the grand duchy, where it meet% a procession of Luxembourgeois, partly religious, partly popular, to go through the streets of the town to the steps of SS. Peter and Paul. The religious procession (30o singers) under the bishop of Luxembourg, chants St. Willibrord's hymn; it is followed by a miscellaneous band which plays the old German air "Adam had seven sons." Next come the dancers who take three steps forward and two steps back up the 6o steps. The procession is thus a considerable strain on those who partake but, as the saint is reputed to cure epilepsy and St. Vitus dance, and other illnesses, n'iany sick persons try to reach the church and may be in danger of being trampled by the throng if they collapse on the way up. It is said that the ceremony dates from a cholera epidemic of the i3th century. The abbey was of old the goal of the procession. King William I. of the Netherlands tried to change the day from a Tuesday to a Sunday, so as to avoid loss of a full working-day, but the old order re-established itself. In spite of changes of political relations following the war of 1914-18, the ceremony still takes place as of old. Students of folk-lore have tried to trace a connection between the dancing procession of Echternach and the spring dance of the heathen races, but at any rate it invests the little town with importance.