Catholic Holydays - Pagan? Not! > Christian > Secular ... Reclaim Them!
by Jean Elizabeth Seah on Friday, May 1, 2009 at 6:44pm ·
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.
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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
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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.
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
Catholic Holydays - Pagan? Not! > Christian > Secular ... Reclaim Them!
by Jean Elizabeth Seah on Friday, May 1, 2009 at 6:44pm ·
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.
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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
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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.
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
Catholic Holydays - Pagan? Not! > Christian > Secular ... Reclaim Them!
b
y Jean Elizabeth Seah on Friday, May 1, 2009 at 6:44pm ·
Catholic Holydays - Pagan? Not! > Christian > Secular ... Reclaim Them!
by Jean Elizabeth Seah on Friday, May 1, 2009 at 6:44pm ·
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.
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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
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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.
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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.
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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
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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.
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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