A Solemnity is the highest rank of commemoration of an event in the life of Our Lord or Our Lady, or of a Saint. Many of them are holydays of obligation. After Solemnity comes Feast, then Memorial, then Optional Memorial. After that, it’s just a weekday. There’s probably a better definition in the Catechism or the Catholic Encyclopedia or Google.
Maybe your son’s classmates were hungry for a burger! Yes, that means no meat today, a Lenten Friday. If, for some reason, your Bishop decided that today’s feast was enough reason to suspend the abstinence for today, you would surely have heard about it in your Catholic newspaper or last Sunday in your bulletin, or even on the news, since what Catholics do is endlessly fascinating to the media. Some Bishops will lift the rule of abstinence on St. Patrick’s day if it falls on a Friday, especially if they have a large Irish population.
Thanks for the B-day wishes!
Betsy