Happy Easter II
I just got back from Night Prayer, and for some reason, nothing keeps me from sleeping well than praying for a Happy Death. Just kidding. But that reminds me, I have a question, probably for LC, maybe for Denis---at Gethsemani during the prayers, all make profound bows during the Doxology. This was carried over for obvious reasons at St. James in Elizabethtown. Is this something peculiar to these guys, or Trappists, or...... I can't remember anyone doing it when I was at St. Ignatius in Bucks County (which predated my membership to St. James), and I was the only one doing it at St. Callistus tonight. Just wondering.
We all have our Easter Traditions. I used to work with an engineer that emigrated from Poland. He was surprised his first Easter in Kane that when he brought his Easter Basket to Mass, there was no blessing provided and he was the only one with a basket. Only years later did he learn that the Byzantine Rite Church 20 miles away still carried out this old tradition.
Well, Danielle Bean has an interesting yet frightening Easter tradition. I wonder if she further terrified them with a can of Niagara.
We all have our Easter Traditions. I used to work with an engineer that emigrated from Poland. He was surprised his first Easter in Kane that when he brought his Easter Basket to Mass, there was no blessing provided and he was the only one with a basket. Only years later did he learn that the Byzantine Rite Church 20 miles away still carried out this old tradition.
Well, Danielle Bean has an interesting yet frightening Easter tradition. I wonder if she further terrified them with a can of Niagara.
Comments
ok back to baking....
Ours is done on Holy Saturday afternoon, which is really kind of a holdover from the old days, liturgically speaking. Technically, there shouldn't be any holy water available to do the blessing until after the new water is blessed at the Vigil. (Holy water fonts and containers are to be emptied at the start of the Triduum and remain so until the Easter water is blessed at the vigil. Ditto with the fire for votive candles and such.)
But prior to the reforms of Pius XII in 1955 (note that this was pre-Vatican II), all of the Triduum liturgies used to be celebrated in the early morning, mostly with just priests and servers present. People would gather in church for devotions like Stations and stuff during the Triduum, but most of them never saw the early-morning main liturgies.
Pre-1955, the Vigil was over and done with by noon on Holy Saturday, so that's why the basket blessing was done in the afternoon. That's also why older folks will tell you that they were always told that Lent ended at noon on Holy Saturday.
Even after the Triduum liturgies were restored to correspond more closely to the appropriate time of day, some of the customs, like the basket blessing, were kept in what had become their customary time. People got used to the baskets being blessed on Saturday afternoon, so most parishes around these parts kept it there, even though it kind of anticipates things a bit. I have heard of a few places that do it at Easter Masses instead, although that must mean people have to rush home and start cooking right away. :)
My Aunt's parish has added a bit of a twist. Not being a heavily ethnic parish with a strong tradition of blessing the food baskets, the priest asks the kids bring their Easter baskets to Mass to be blessed instead. Holy candy! :-)