Today is May Day. It is also the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker.
St Joseph the Worker 1 May
The
feast of Saint Joseph the Worker is not a mere Catholic copying of the
Communist First of May – any more than Christmas is a mere copy of the
pagan feast of
Saturnalia.
The
Christian view of work is diametrically opposed to the materialist
view. A worker such as St Joseph is not a mere lump of labour – “1.00
human work units.” He is a person. He is created in God’s own image, and
just as creation is an activity of God, so creation is an activity of
the worker. The work we do echoes the glorious work that God has done.
It may not be wasted; or abused; or improperly paid; or directed to
wrong or pointless ends. To do any of these things is not oppression, it
is sacrilege. The glory of the present economic system is when it gives
so many, of whatever class, the chance to build and create something
worthwhile, whether from their own resources, or in collaboration with
others, or by attracting investment from others. But its shame is when
that does not happen: when people are coerced, by greed or by poverty,
into being “lumps of labour.” Whether the labour is arduous or not makes
no difference; whether it is richly paid or not makes no difference.
Because
she must combat the anti-humanist Communist heresy the Church is
sometimes thought to be on the side of capital. Reading the successive
Papal encyclicals on labour and society, from Rerum Novarum (1891)
onwards, will soon dispel that illusion. The enemies of the Church have
no reason to read them; all too often we feel too comfortable in our
present economic state and refrain from reading them also.
See the Wikipedia article on
Catholic social teaching.
-Universalis,
http://www.universalis.com/20090501/today.htm
In
1847 Pope Pius IX declared Saint Joseph patron of the universal Church
and instituted another feast, with an octave, to be held in his honour
on Wednesday in the second week after Easter. This was abolished by Pope
Pius XII, when in 1955 he established the Feast of St. Joseph the
Worker, to be celebrated on 1 May.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Joseph_the_Worker
JOSEPH VS. COMMUNISM
"Where did this Man get such wisdom and miraculous powers? Isn't this the carpenter's Son?" –Matthew 13:54-55
In
1955, Pope Pius XII instituted this feast day in honor of St. Joseph
the Worker. He put the feast on this day to oppose the May Day military
celebration of the Communist world. It seemed so foolish of Pius XII to
bring up Joseph, the poor carpenter of Nazareth, to confront Soviet
military might. Joseph seemed even less likely of defeating the mammoth
Communist machine than David against Goliath. In a few short decades,
however, Soviet Communism was shattered.
May Day has lost its
triumphal glory. The Lord has conquered. Christianity has defeated
Communism. Joseph has conquered in the name of his Foster Son, Jesus
(see Rm 8:37). Joseph the Worker has conquered by faith. "This is the
work of God: have faith in the One Whom He sent" (Jn 6:29). "All depends
on faith, everything is grace" (Rm 4:16). "The power that has conquered
the world is this faith of ours. Who, then, is conqueror of the world?
The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God" (1 Jn 5:4-5).
http://www.mycatholic.com/reflections/2010-121.html
Apparently
in response to the “May Day” celebrations for workers sponsored by
Communists, Pius XII instituted the feast of St. Joseph the Worker in
1955. But the relationship between Joseph and the cause of workers has a
much longer history.
In a constantly necessary effort to keep
Jesus from being removed from ordinary human life, the Church has from
the beginning proudly emphasised that Jesus was a carpenter, obviously
trained by Joseph in both the satisfactions and the drudgery of that
vocation. Humanity is like God not only in thinking and loving, but also
in creating. Whether we make a table or a cathedral, we are called to
bear fruit with our hands and mind, ultimately for the building up of
the Body of Christ.
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1370
This
is St. Joseph's second feast day on the Church calendar of
celebrations. We honour him also on March 19. St. Joseph is a very
important saint. He is the husband of Our Lady and the foster-father of
Jesus. Today we celebrate his witness of hard work. He was a carpenter
who worked long hours in his little shop. St. Joseph teaches us that the
work we do is important. Through it we give our contribution and our
service to our family and society. But even more than that - as
Christians, we realise that our work is like a mirror of ourselves. That
is why we want our work to be done with diligence. Many countries set
aside one day a year to honour workers. This encourages the dignity and
appreciation of work. The Church has given us a wonderful model of work,
St. Joseph. In 1955, Pope Pius XII proclaimed this feast of St. Joseph
the Worker to be celebrated every year.
We can ask St. Joseph to help us become more diligent in our study and work.
-
http://apps.facebook.com/saint_of_the_day/,
http://www.tntt.org/vni/tlieu/
saints/St0501.htm
A Prayer of Pope John XXIII, Entrusting Workers to St. Joseph
http://catholicism.about.com/od/prayers/qt/Prayer_Workers.htm
Most
countries celebrate Labour Day on May 1, known as May Day and
International Workers' Day. In Europe the day has older significance as a
rural festival which is predominantly more important than that of the
Labour Day movement. The holiday has become internationalised and
several countries hold multi-day celebrations including parades, shows
and other patriotic and labour-oriented events. However, in Northern
Europe,
Walpurgis Night is celebrated on the preceding night and this holiday merges with the Labour Day in some countries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_Day
Walpurgis Night (Walpurgisnacht)
is a traditional religious holiday of pre-Christian origin, celebrated
today by Christian and non-Christian communities as well, on April 30 or
May 1 in large parts of Central and Northern Europe.
The current festival is in most countries celebrating it named after
Saint Walpurga, born in Devon about 710. Due to her holy day falling on the same day, her name became associated with the celebrations.
Walpurgis
Night is celebrated on the night of April 30th, the eve of Saint
Walpurga's feast, when the witches and other occult folk can celebrate
before being banished by the dawn of this saint's special day.
-=+=-
Christmas [
Christ's Mass] 25 December
Many
Christians think that Christians celebrate Christ’s birth on December
25th because the church fathers appropriated the date of a pagan
festival. Almost no one minds, except for a few groups on the fringes of
American Evangelicalism, who seem to think that this makes Christmas
itself a pagan festival. But it is perhaps interesting to know that the
choice of December 25th is the result of attempts among the earliest
Christians to figure out the date of Jesus’ birth based on calendrical
calculations that had nothing to do with pagan festivals.
Rather, the pagan festival of the
“Birth of the Unconquered Son” instituted by the Roman Emperor Aurelian on 25 December 274, was almost certainly
an attempt to create a pagan alternative to a date that was already of some significance to Roman Christians. Thus the “pagan origins of Christmas” is a myth without historical substance.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/markshea/2006/12/14618.html
Read "Calculating Christmas" at
http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=16-10-012-v
Also see
http://bornonchristmasday.com/
http://www.bib-arch.org/e-features/christmas.asp
Nine months after the Annunciation determined the date on which the Western Church chose to celebrate the Lord's birth.
http://shoutsinthepiazza.blogspot.com/2010/03/happy-feast-of-annunciation-to-one-and.html
In
Greek, the first letter for Christ (Chi) also happens to be 'X'-shaped,
as in the Chi Rho Cross. An alternative name for Christmas is 'Xmas', a
valid abbreviation although rejected by some as being a commercial
attempt to remove Christ from Christmas, by crossing Him out. To
secularise the event even further, some might say "Happy Holidays", but
the word "holiday" originates from "holy day".
http://www.seiyaku.com/customs/crosses/andrew.html
Epiphany:
The Magi and the Star
"The
great majority of people will go on observing forms that cannot be
explained; they will keep Christmas Day with Christmas gifts and
Christmas benedictions; they will continue to do it; and some day
suddenly wake up and discover why."
-
G. K. Chesterton,
On Christmas: Generally Speaking
-=+=-
Halloween: All Hallows' Even - Eve of All Saints' Day 31 October
The
origin of the festival of All Saints as celebrated in the West dates to
May 13, 609 or 610, when Pope Boniface IV consecrated the Pantheon at
Rome to the Blessed Virgin and all the martyrs; the feast of the
dedicatio Sanctae Mariae ad Martyres has been celebrated at Rome ever since.
painting by Fra Angelico
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fra_Angelico
The
feast of All Saints, on its current date, is traced to the foundation by
Pope Gregory III (731–741) of an oratory in St. Peter's for the relics
"of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors, of all
the just made perfect who are at rest throughout the world", with the
day moved to November 1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Saints_Day
Everyone
thinks this is the Irish Feis Samhain, which began at sunset on 31 Oct
and that the Church co-opted the date. Pope Gregory III (d. 741) moved
the feast "in honor of all the saints in heaven" from 13 May to 1 Nov
to correspond to the dedication day of All Saints Chapel in St. Peter’s
at Rome. There was no connection. Later, in the 840s, Pope Gregory IV
declared All Saints to be a universal feast, that is, not restricted to
St. Peter's. The holy day spread to Ireland. The day a feast is the
"vigil mass" and so after sunset on 31 Oct became "All Hallows Even" or
"Hallowe’en." It had no more significance than the "Vigil of St.
Lawrence" or the "Vigil of John the Baptist" or any of the other vigils
on the calendar.
In 998, St. Odilo, the abbot of the
powerful monastery of Cluny in Southern France, added a celebration on
Nov. 2. This was a day of prayer for "the souls of all the faithful
departed." This feast, called All Souls Day, spread from France to the
rest of Europe.
That took care of Heaven and Purgatory.
The Irish, being the Irish, thought it unfair to leave the souls in Hell
out. So on Hallowe'en they would bang pots and pans to let the souls
in Hell know they were not forgotten. However, the Feast of All Damned
never caught on, for fairly obvious theological reasons. The Irish,
however, had another day for partying.
After the Black Death, All
Souls Day became more important, and a popular motif was the Danse
Macabre (Dance of Death). It usually showed the devil "leading a daisy
chain of people — popes, kings, ladies, knights, monks, peasants,
lepers, etc. — into the tomb." Sometimes the dance was presented on All
Souls’ Day itself as a living tableau with people dressed up in the
garb of various walks of life.
"But the French dressed up
on All Souls, not Hallowe'en; and the Irish, who had Hallowe'en, did not
dress up." During the 1700s the Irish and French Catholics began to
bump into one another in British North America and the two traditions
mingled. "The Irish focus on hell gave the French masquerades an even
more macabre twist."
http://m-francis.livejournal.com/107162.html
http://markshea.blogspot.com/2009/11/everybody-knows-that-halloween-was.html
http://reader.creativeminorityreport.com/2009/11/halloweens-pagan-holiday-right-not.html
In
the persecution of Diocletian the number of martyrs became so great
that a separate day could not be assigned to each. But the Church,
feeling that every martyr should be venerated, appointed a common day
for all. The first trace of this we find in Antioch on the Sunday after
Pentecost. We also find mention of a common day in a sermon of St.
Ephrem the Syrian (373), and in the 74th homily of St. John Chrysostom
(407). At first only martyrs and St. John the Baptist were honoured by a
special day. Other saints were added gradually, and increased in number
when a regular process of canonization was established; still, as early
as 411 there is in the Chaldean Calendar a "Commemoratio Confessorum"
for the Friday after Easter. In the West Boniface IV, 13 May, 609, or
610, consecrated the Pantheon in Rome to the Blessed Virgin and all the
martyrs, ordering an anniversary. Gregory III (731-741) consecrated a
chapel in the Basilica of St. Peter to all the saints and fixed the
anniversary for 1 November. A basilica of the Apostles already existed
in Rome, and its dedication was annually remembered on 1 May. Gregory IV
(827-844) extended the celebration on 1 November to the entire Church.
The vigil seems to have been held as early as the feast itself. The
octave was added by Sixtus IV (1471-84).
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01315a.htm
Halloween (or, by semantic correctness: Hallowe’en) is a holiday celebrated on October 31.
In
the 9th century, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in
accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although All Saints’ Day is now
considered to occur one day after Halloween, the two holidays were, at
that time, celebrated on the same day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween
[
Halloween: The Real Story!]
[
Catholic Coping with Halloween]
[
Halloween and Catholicism: Can these two Co-exist?]
[
How Halloween Can Be Redeemed]
[
The Tale of Jack O'Lantern]
[
American Catholic: Halloween]
[
Halloween - Anti-Christian?]
The
Celtic elements included lighting bonfires, carving turnips (and, in
America, pumpkins), and going from house to house, collecting treats, as
carolers do at Christmas. But the "occult" aspects of Halloween--ghosts
and demons--actually have their roots in Catholic belief. Christians
believed that, at certain times of the year (Christmas is another), the
veil separating earth from Purgatory, heaven, and even hell becomes more
thin, and the souls in Purgatory (ghosts) and demons can be more
readily seen. Thus the tradition of Halloween costumes owes as much, if
not more, to Christian belief as to Celtic tradition.
The (First) Anti-Catholic Attack on Halloween:
The
current attacks on Halloween aren't the first. In post-Reformation
England, All Saints Day and its vigil were suppressed, and the Celtic
peasant customs associated with Halloween were outlawed. Christmas, and
the traditions surrounding that feast, were similarly attacked, and the
Puritan Parliament banned Christmas outright in 1647. In America,
Puritans outlawed the celebration of both Christmas and Halloween, which
were revived largely by German Catholic (in the case of Christmas) and
Irish Catholic (in the case of Halloween) immigrants in the 19th
century.
http://catholicism.about.com/od/thecatholicfamily/p/Halloween.htm
Since
the night before All Saints Day, "All Hallows Eve" (now known as
Hallowe'en or Halloween), was the vigil and required fasting, many
recipes and traditions have come down for this evening...
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/overviews/months/10_2.cfm
One place in Italy has a much longer Halloween history.
A
small town in the southeastern region of Puglia, Orsara di Puglia, has
been celebrating it for the past 1,000 years... but in Orsara di Puglia
the pumpkins come out on the evening between November 1 (All Saints Day)
and Nov 2 (All Souls Day).
http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/english/2010/10/29/visualizza_new.html_1726961651.html
http://www.bustedhalo.com/features/the-saints-on-halloween
http://catholiccuisine.blogspot.com/2010/10/saint-o-lantern-link-up.html
http://smalltalkwitht.blogspot.com/2006/10/halloween-catholic-holiday.html
The
colours of Hallowe'en are orange and black because of the orangish
unbleached candles and black candlestands used in a Requiem Mass.
http://raphael.doxos.com/comments.php?id=2494_0_1_0_C
-=+=-
St. Valentine's Day 14 February
The
Valentines honoured on February 14 are Valentine of Rome (Valentinus
presb. m. Romae) and Valentine of Terni (Valentinus ep. Interamnensis m.
Romae). Valentine of Rome was a priest in Rome who suffered martyrdom
about AD 269 and was buried on the Via Flaminia. His relics are at the
Church of Saint Praxed in Rome. and at Whitefriar Street Carmelite
Church in Dublin, Ireland.
Valentine of Terni became
bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) about AD 197 and is said to have been
killed during the persecution of Emperor Aurelian. He is also buried on
the Via Flaminia, but in a different location than Valentine of Rome.
His relics are at the Basilica of Saint Valentine in Terni (Basilica di
San Valentino).
The Catholic Encyclopedia also speaks of a
third saint named Valentine who was mentioned in early martyrologies
under date of February 14. He was martyred in Africa with a number of
companions, but nothing more is known about him.
No romantic elements are present in the original early medieval biographies of either of these martyrs.
By the time a Saint Valentine became linked to romance in the
fourteenth century, distinctions between Valentine of Rome and Valentine
of Terni were utterly lost.
Legenda Aurea still providing no connections whatsoever with sentimental love,
appropriate lore has been embroidered in modern times
to portray Valentine as a priest who refused an unattested law
attributed to Roman Emperor Claudius II, allegedly ordering that young
men remain single. The Emperor supposedly did this to grow his army,
believing that married men did not make for good soldiers. The priest
Valentine, however, secretly performed marriage ceremonies for young
men. When Claudius found out about this, he had Valentine arrested and
thrown in jail. In an embellishment to The Golden Legend, on the evening
before Valentine was to be executed, he wrote the first "valentine"
himself, addressed to a young girl variously identified as his beloved,
as the jailer's daughter whom he had befriended and healed, or both. It
was a note that read "From your Valentine."
See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine%27s_Day#Attested_traditions
Saint Valentine... is the patron saint for people who have already found their Mr or Mrs Right; of lovers and fiancés. Meanwhile, Saint Raphael is patron for those who are still looking for a partner and are seeking help.
http://www.life4seekers.co.uk/lifestylevalues/St.Raphael.html
There
are several theories about the origin of Valentine’s Day celebrations
that relate to love and sentiment. Some believe the Romans had a
mid-February custom where boys drew the names of girls in honour of the
sex and fertility goddess,
Februata Juno; pastors" “baptised”
this holiday, like some others, by substituting the names of saints such
as Valentine to suppress the practice. Others maintain that the custom
of sending Valentines on 14 February stems from the belief that birds
begin to pair on that date; by 1477 the English associated lovers with
the feast of Valentine because on that day “every bird chooses him a
mate.” The custom of men and women writing love letters to their
Valentine started on this day.
http://saints.sqpn.com/saint-valentine-of-rome/
*
pastor (n.)
1242, "
shepherd," also "spiritual guide, shepherd of souls" (1377), from O.Fr. pastur "herdsman, shepherd" (12c.), from L.
pastorem (nom.
pastor) "shepherd," from
pastus, pp. of
pascere "to lead to pasture, graze," from PIE base *
pa-
"to tend, keep, pasture, feed, guard" (see food). The spiritual sense
was in Church L. (cf. Gregory's "Cura Pastoralis"). The verb in the
Christian sense is from 1872.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=pastor
-=+=-
Mardi Gras (French: "Fat Tuesday") aka Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day (day before
Ash Wednesday)
...it's
not too surprising that two happy events for people, pancakes and
festivals, are often linked together. Perhaps the best known one is
Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day, which heralds the beginning of fasting in
Lent. On this day (so the historians say) there were feasts of pancakes
to use up the supplies of fat, butter and eggs... foods that were
forbidden during austere Lent.
-
The Pancake Parlour
Mardi
Gras, also known as Shrove Tuesday or Carnival, annual festival marking
the final day before the Christian fast of Lent, a 40-day period of
self-denial and abstinence from merrymaking. Mardi Gras is the last
opportunity for revelry and indulgence in food and drink before the
temperance of Lent.
The date of Mardi Gras varies from
year to year, always falling between February 3 and March 9. Although
Mardi Gras refers to a specific day, the term often encompasses a much
longer period of celebrations leading up to Mardi Gras Day. The Carnival
season is marked by spectacular parades featuring floats, pageants,
elaborate costumes, masked balls, and dancing in the streets.
Some scholars have noted similarities between modern Mardi Gras celebrations and
Lupercalia,
a fertility festival held each February in ancient Rome. However,
modern Carnival traditions developed in Europe during the Middle Ages
(5th century to the 15th century) as part of the ritual calendar of the
Roman Catholic Church.
Today
pre-Lenten Carnivals are celebrated predominantly in Roman Catholic
communities in Europe and the Americas. Cities famous for their
celebrations include Nice, France; Cologne, Germany; and Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. New Orleans, Louisiana, holds the most famous Mardi Gras
celebration in the United States. Residents of New Orleans have been
celebrating Mardi Gras since the 18th century. Mobile, Alabama, has a
lesser known but equally old Mardi Gras tradition. Mardi Gras is
informally observed in many North American cities, usually invoking the
spirit of the New Orleans festivities.
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761553106/mardi_gras.html
-=+=-
Easter (40 weekdays/Saturdays + 6 Sundays after Ash Wednesday)
Easter (Greek: Πάσχα) is the most important annual religious feast in the Christian liturgical year.
The
First Council of Nicaea (325) established that the date of Easter would
be the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon)
following the vernal equinox. Ecclesiastically, the equinox is reckoned
to be on 21 March. The date of Easter therefore varies between 22 March
and 25 April.
Easter is linked to the
Jewish Passover not only for much of its symbolism but also for its position in the calendar.
The
modern English term Easter developed from Old English word Ēastre or
Ēostre or Eoaster, which itself developed prior to 899. The name refers
to
Eostur-monath, a month of the Germanic calendar attested by
Bede as named after the goddess Ēostre of Anglo-Saxon paganism.* (see
below as to why this is doubtful)
The Greek word Πάσχα and hence the Latin form Pascha is derived from Hebrew Pesach (פֶּסַח) meaning the festival of Passover.
In
all Romance languages the name of the Easter festival is derived from
the Latin Pascha. In Spanish, Easter is la Pascua, in Italian Pasqua, in
Portuguese Páscoa and in Romanian Paşti. In French, the name of Easter
Pâques also derives from the Latin word.
In Dutch, Easter
is known as pasen and in the Scandinavian languages Easter is known as
påske (Danish and Norwegian), påsk (Swedish), páskar (Icelandic) and
páskir (Faeroese). The name is derived directly from Hebrew Pesach. The
letter å is a double a pronounced /o/, and an alternate spelling is
paaske or paask.
In most Slavic languages, the name for
Easter either means "Great Day" or "Great Night". For example,
Wielkanoc, Veľká noc and Velikonoce mean "Great Night" or "Great Nights"
in Polish, Slovak and Czech, respectively. Велигден (Veligden),
Великдень (Velykden), Великден (Velikden), and Вялікдзень (Vyalikdzyen')
mean "The Great Day" in Macedonian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and
Belarusian, respectively.
In Croatian and Serbian,
however, the day's name reflects a particular theological connection: it
is called Uskrs, meaning "Resurrection".
In Finnish the name for
Easter pääsiäinen, traces back to the Swedish påsk, as does the Sámi
word Beassážat. The Estonian name lihavõtted and the Hungarian húsvét,
however, literally mean the taking of the meat, relating to the end of
the Great Lent fasting period.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter
Easter - Christian or pagan?
So where did the word "Easter" come from?
It's time for a lesson in Christian missionary history.
When
part of Britain was ruled by the Roman empire, Christianity spread
there, as it did to the other parts of the Roman empire and beyond.
Romano-British Christians evangelised Ireland, and Irish Christians sent
missionaries to northern Britain to evangelise there among the Picts.
Roman Britain was multi-cultural and multi-religious. There were
Christians and a variety of local and Roman cults, and mixtures of them.
In the 4th and 5th centuries Germanic "barbarians" were invading the
Roman empire from the East, and at the beginning of the 5th century
Roman troops were being withdrawn from Britain to help defend Italy
against the Visigoths. By 410 the withdrawal was complete, and the
British were told that they were on their own. The Emperor wrote a
letter to this effect to different cities, as there was no longer any
central authority. The "barbarians", Angles and Saxons from the
continent, the ancestors of the English, arrived in Britain in
increasing numbers. Sometimes they settled peacefully among the British,
but at other times they embarked on violent conquest (this was the time
of the legendary King Arthur), and by the middle of the 6th century
they ruled most of what came to be called England, driving the
Romano-British and the Celtic population to the north and west --
Cornwall, Wales and Cumbria.
Christian missionaries then
evangelised the English -- Celtic missionaries from Ireland and Scotland
in the north, and a Roman mission led by St Augustine of Canterbury in
the south, which arrived in 597.
A couple of centuries
later the English monastic historian Bede wrote his History of the
English Church and people and other works on Christian festivals, about
which there had been some contention. Among other things Bede tells us
about the origin of the word "Easter". The English word Easter comes
from the Anglo-Saxon name for the month of April, which was known as
"Eostremonath" in the AngloSaxon tongue, and since Pascha was most often
celebrated in Eostremonath, the English Christians began calling it
"Easter". Bede surmised that the month was named after a goddess Esostre
(nothing to do with "Oestrus", which has another derivation
altogether), and there is also no demonstrable connection with "Ishtar".
Bede tells us very little about Eostre, and there is nothing about her
in earlier or contemporary sources. Bede is the earliest reference.
English
missionaries to other places, like Germany, took the term "Easter" with
them, and so German Christians called it "Ostern", but the rest of the
Christian world called it Pascha, or derivatives thereof. So to claim
that Passover/Pascha was "stolen" from pagans because the English called
it "Easter" several centuries later is anachronistic nonsense.
http://methodius.blogspot.com/2007/09/easter-christian-or-pagan.html
http://methodius.blogspot.com/2009/04/eostre-making-of-myth.html
http://reallivepreacher.com/node/1422#comment-3901
-=+=-
St. Patrick's Day 17 March
St.
Patrick's feast day was placed on the universal liturgical calendar in
the Catholic Church due to the influence of the Waterford-born
Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding in the early part of the 17th century,
although the feast day was celebrated in the local Irish church from a
much earlier date. St. Patrick's Day is a holy day of obligation for
Roman Catholics in Ireland. The feast day usually falls during Lent; if
it falls on a Friday of Lent (unless it is Good Friday), the obligation
to abstain from eating meat can be lifted by the local bishop. The
church calendar avoids the observance of saints' feasts during certain
solemnities, moving the saint's day to a time outside those periods. St.
Patrick's Day is very occasionally affected by this requirement. Thus
when 17th of March falls during Holy Week, as in 1940 when St. Patrick's
Day was observed on 3 April in order to avoid it coinciding with Palm
Sunday, and again in 2008, having been observed on 15 March. St.
Patrick's Day will not fall within Holy Week again until 2160 - when it
will fall on the Monday before Easter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Patrick%27s_Day
In the 1970s, Irish laws mandated that pubs be closed on March 17th.
-
http://www.netglimse.com/holidays/saint_patrick%27s_day/index.shtml
---
pagan
c.1375, from L.L.
paganus "pagan," in classical L. "villager, rustic, civilian," from
pagus "rural district," originally "district limited by markers," thus related to
pangere "to fix, fasten," from PIE base *
pag-
"to fix" (see pact). Religious sense is often said to derive from
conservative rural adherence to the old gods after the Christianisation
of Roman towns and cities; but the word in this sense predates that
period in Church history, and it is more likely derived from the use of
paganus
in Roman military jargon for "civilian, incompetent soldier," which
Christians (Tertullian, c.202; Augustine) picked up with the military
imagery of the early Church (e.g.
milites "soldier of Christ," etc.). Applied to modern pantheists and nature-worshippers from 1908. Paganism is attested from 1433.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=pagan
---
holiday
O.E.
haligdæg, from
halig "
holy" +
dæg "
day;" in 14c. meaning both "religious festival" and "day of recreation," but pronunciation and sense diverged 16c.
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=holiday
festivity
1387, from O.Fr.
festivité, from L.
festivitatem (nom.
festivitas), from
festivus "festive," from
festum "festival or holiday," neut. of
festus "of a feast." Festival first recorded as a noun 1589, having been an adj. 14c., from M.L.
festivalis "of a church holiday."
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=festival
