The satanic mass scheduled to be held at Harvard University last night was canceled, according to reports in the local media. But it’s rumored that the event might have been held at an off-campus location instead.
According to the Harvard student newspaper, The Crimson, some members of the Satanic Temple based in New York gathered at Hong Kong Restaurant & Lounge around 10 p.m. on Monday. They reportedly held the black mass reenactment on the second floor of the eatery, where around 50 people attended wearing black clothing and face paint.
Temple spokesman Lucien Greaves confirmed to The Boston Globe that the event happened at the restaurant around 10:35 p.m. Staff of the eatery, however, could not confirm that any such event took place.
An employee by the name of Fred told the The Globe that members of the temple sat at the bar and drank, but said he hadn’t seen them perform a ritual or had any complaints from other patrons. Paul Lee, the owner of the Hong Kong Restaurant & Lounge, told The Crimson that he was not aware of the incident.
The Harvard student group that was originally sponsoring the event, the Harvard Extension School Cultural Studies Club, backed out of the event on Monday.
“The Satanic Temple has informed us that they will stage their own black mass ceremony at an undisclosed private location to ‘reaffirm their respect for the Satanic faith and to demonstrate that the most powerful response to offensive speech is to shame those who marginalize others by letting their own words and actions speak for themselves,’” the studies club told The Globe.
Members of the community, school and Catholic Church had spoken out strongly against the original event. The Archdiocese of Boston released a statement when the event first came to light and asked the school to distance itself from the mass ritual.
According to the student group that had planned on hosting the event, the ritual reenactment was designed to serve educational purposes.
“We are hosting a reenactment of a historical event known as a Black Mass,” the original statement read. ” The performance is designed to be educational and is preceded by a lecture that provides the history, context, and origin of the Black Mass.”
