HOLYROOD 41 Sept. 14, in commemoration of the ex- altation of the Saviour's Cross. Also called holy cross day. HOLYROOD, a palace and abbey in Edinburgh, at the E. extremity of the old town. The abbey church, founded in 1128 by David I., containing the royal vault, with the ashes of numerous mem- bers of the Scottish royal race, is now mostly in ruin. The palace, erected in successive parts from 1501 to 1679, con- tains the private royal apartments, the rooms associated with the events in the reign of ^ Mary Queen of Scots, and a gallery, in which are portraits of all the Scottish kings, most of them imagi- nary. HOLY SEPULCHRE, the sepulcher in which the body of Jesus was laid between His death and His resurrection. Also the Byzantine Church, built at Jeru- salem on what is by some believed to be the site of the sepulcher. The Order of the Holy Sepulcher is an order founded by Godfrey of Bouillon. HOLY SYNOD, a council established at St, Petersburg in the former Russian Empire, to act for the Emperor, he being the earthly head of the Greek Church in Russia. HOLY THURSDAY, in the English Church, Ascension Day; in the Roman Church the Thursday in Holy-week, Maundy-Thursday. HOLY WATER, in the Roman Catho- lic Church, water which has been blessed, or consecrated, by an appropriate serv- ice, and used to sprinkle the worshipers and the things used in the church. HOLY WEEK, or PASSION WEEK, the week which immediately precedes Easter, and is devoted especially to com- memorate the passion of our Lord. The days more especially solemnized during it are Spy Wednesday, Maundy Thurs- day, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. It is an institution of very early origin. HOMAGE, in feudal law, a formal ac- knowledgment made by a feudal tenant to and in presence of his lord on receiv- ing the investiture of a fief or coming to it by succession, that he was his vas- sal. HOMBURG (hom'borg) a town of Prussia, and the former capital of the landgraviate of Hesse-Homburg; at the foot of the Taunus Mountains, 9 miles N. W. of Frankfort-on-the-Main. It has been much frequented on account of its mineral waters. Until the closing of the Casino in 1872 and the suppression of gambling it was crowded by the wealthy HOME ECONOMICS and pleasure-loving from all over the world. Since then it has steadily de- clined as a fashionable resort. Pop. about 15,000. HOME ECONOMICS, a broad term covering all the sciences and arts per- taining to the home, formerly known as household economics, domestic econ- omy, domestic science, etc. Like agri- culture, it is a complex science, including such subjects as the chemistry of cook- ing, dietetics, hygiene, house decoration, clothing, sewing, etc., all subject to de- sultory instruction in all kinds of schools. Cooking, sewing and housekeeping were taught in the public schools of the United States as far back as 1876, and later were taken up more scientifically by a few western universities, notably in Illinois, Iowa, and Kansas. The object was especially to educate the wives or daughters of the farmers to become more proficient as homemakers by giving them a fundamental knowledge of the sciences pertaining to the home. As an instance, a knowledge of physiology soon taught the farmers that hot biscuits, cooked with a large quantity of saleratus, was the cause of much of the dyspepsia which was so prevalent among them in those days, and that proper cooking, rather than pills or drugs, was the real cure. Hygiene, teaching them that sleeping with closed windows, propagated the tuberculosis germ, gave practical results in a reduction of the number of deaths from this one cause. The advantages of preserving foods according to the recipes of the cooking schools or classes soon convinced the more igno- rant that well-grounded theoretical knowledge was superior to household practices handed down from mother to daughter, and so created a further demand for this class of instruction. This demand was most distinctly articu- lated by the farmers' organizations, such as the Patrons of Husbandry, or the Grange, which emphasized instruction in home economics. This demand, in its turn, brought about a higher specializa- tion among educators and made of the ai'ts of homemaking a distinct depart- ment of science by itself. The subject and its various branches is now taught in nearly 150 colleges throughout the coun- try, and in a large number of normal and high schools. Generally it is divided into two distinct phases: cultural and technical. The former includes such branches as house decoration, furniture designing and embroidery; the latter has to do with the chemistry of cooking, drainage, dressmaking of the plainer sort, food preserving, etc. The technical branches of home economics, naturally,
