Fired Cannon and Veil Removing

There are a few accounts of Lenten Veiling on various blogs, I confess I veil, at one time veiling wasn’t just “doing” statues and crucifixes but in the past the whole sanctuary was veiled.
In Seville’s huge Cathedral, consisting of seven naves, thirty-seven chapels and eighty altars, on the Wednesday of Holy Week the Passion of Luke was read, three black candles would be lit on the altar the rest of the great church would be in darkness, when the words “…and the curtain of the Temple was torn in two” (Lk 23;45), a canon would be fired from the cornice overlooking the altar and immediately the white veil which was hung from the ceiling to the floor behind the altar was torn down its middle. The canon continued to be fired, shattering the deep silence, lighting up the altar and surrounding pillars.
An eye witness in the 19th century said, “The sudden explosion in the midst of profoundest silence; the momentary flood of light then darkness denser than before, silence more profound from the contrast, to be followed by another flash and crash again and again, was almost terrifying.” I am not quite sure when this stopped, around the time of the Civil War, I just love the idea of the spectacle and drama.