Yesterday I wrote about Halloween, and got more comments on a single post than I have in a long time. Everyone knows about Halloween of course, but did you know that today, the very day after Halloween, is a Holyday? If you’re a heathen (non-Catholic) you probably don’t know that this is a Holy Day of Obligation. If you don’t go to Mass today, you get a one way ticket to hell, at least if you’re a Catholic.
Today is All Saint’s Day, from whence incidentally, Halloween derives its name, as it is the evening before said Hallowed day. For the ignorant among you, let me explain Holy Days of Obligation. On said days, whether they fall on a Sunday or not, you are obligated to go to Mass, or suffer, as I said the pangs of hell, it being a mortal sin etc.
Truth be told, All Saints Day is possibly the least hallowed of the bunch. Let’s see if I can get them all. First, the big two: Christmas and New Years Day, both of which by a strange coincidence fall during the time of the year when the Romans used to celebrate the Saturnalia. By an equally strange coincidence Jesus had his foreskin lopped off on New Year’s Day, which is why that day is also the Feast of the Circumcision. When I was a kid I liked it when those days fell on Sundays, as it considerably reduced Mass time.
Sorry, I’m wandering. Okay, the others are the feast of the Assumption (August 15) at which so far as I know no one actually feasts, and the feast of the Immaculate Conception (Dec 8, again no actual feasting). As you can see the holy days come fast and furious toward the end of the year. Geez, I almost forgot: Good Friday rounds them out.
So, as you can also see, all the other obligatory days (If I got them all) involve either Jesus or his sacred mother (or both). All Saints Day is definitely junior league.
But All Saints Day had one attraction none of the others did. We Catholic school kids got the day off. That meant that we could stay out as late as we wanted (or our parents would let us) back in those halcyon days when kids actually went out on their own on Halloween. To paraphrase the French Henry IV, the added fun was well worth a Mass.
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