Procession
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): ( n.) The act of proceeding, moving on, advancing, or issuing; regular, orderly, or ceremonious progress; continuous course.
(2): ( v. i.) To honor with a procession.
(3): ( n.) That which is moving onward in an orderly, stately, or solemn manner; a train of persons advancing in order; a ceremonious train; a retinue; as, a procession of mourners; the Lord Mayor's procession.
(4): ( n.) An orderly and ceremonial progress of persons, either from the sacristy to the choir, or from the choir around the church, within or without.
(5): ( n.) An old term for litanies which were said in procession and not kneeling.
(6): ( v. t.) To ascertain, mark, and establish the boundary lines of, as lands.
(7): ( v. i.) To march in procession.
Charles Buck Theological Dictionary [2]
A ceremony in the Romish church, consisting of a formal march of the clergy and people, putting up prayers, &c. and in this manner visiting some church, &c. They have processions of the host or sacrament; of our Saviour to mount Calvary; of the Rosary, &c. Processions are said to be of Pagan original. The Romans, when the empire was distressed, or after some victory, used constantly to order processions, for several days together, to be made to the temples, to beg the assistance of the gods, or to return them thanks. The first processions mentioned in ecclesiastical history, are those set on foot at Constantinople, by St. Chrysostom. The Arians of that city, being forced to hold their meetings without the town, went thither night and morning, singing anthems. Chrysostom, to prevent their perverting the Catholics, set up counter-processions, in which the clergy and people marched by night, singing prayers and hymns, and carrying crosses and flambeaux. From this period the custom of processions was introduced among the Greeks, and afterwards among the Latins; but they have subsisted longer, and been more frequently used in the Western than in the Eastern church.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [3]
the Hebrew term הֲלַיכָה , Htli kka /H, rendered "going" in Psalms 78:25, means a religious procession, as described in the context, headed by the phylarchs, who preceded the sacred ark, while the instrumental musicians followed it, and a line of females with timbrels accompanied it on either side. On the general subject see the monographs in Volbeding, Index Programmatum, p. 159. (See Processions).
