Holy Day of Obligation: Assumption

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Public schools here (Nebraska) started Monday August 13. Rather than have the Catholic schools go for two days and then take tomorrow off (they are closed on Holy Days of Obligation), the schools in my diocese don’t start until Thursday August 16.

Personally I think it’s nuts that school is starting so early…but nobody asked for my (name removed by moderator)ut on the calendar. : )
 
Glennon_P said:
Personally I think it’s nuts that school is starting so early…but nobody asked for my (name removed by moderator)ut on the calendar. :
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Tell your school board member they could save money on A/C by waiting until after Labor Day.
 
SuscipeMeDomine said:
Tell that to the people who complain because priests
  • don’t spend enough time hearing confessions
  • aren’t available when someone is sick or dying
  • don’t offer enough Masses
  • aren’t available for spiritual direction
  • aren’t available for pastoral counseling
  • don’t put enough time and effort into their homilies
  • and the 101 other things people on CAF castigate priests for neglecting
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Was waiting for someone to mention that! Totally agree. And, realistically, you can replace the word, “clergy” with “All people,” and then list all the duties of work and family.
 
Augustinian said:
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phil19034:
Kids in your area are already in school on Aug 15th?
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The old school tradition of waiting until after Labor Day is long gone.

I think the advent of air conditioning in school buildings was the impetus. I graduated 1974, and they would have laughed at such a suggestion
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Where I live (suburban Philadelphia), school still starts the day after Labor Day.

Where my sister lives in Delaware, they used to start the week before labor day (which was silly) but now they went back to after Labor Day because of all the beach traffic & local beach vacations.
 
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Not sure that it would do any good. And our parish school (K-8) isn’t air conditioned. The kids and teachers generally melt the first couple weeks of school.

There is actually a decent reason for starting so early…they have finals before Christmas break, unlike when I was in school. We’d have a couple weeks off for Christmas, come back, and two weeks later we’d have finals. It does make some sense to have them before break. I just wish there were another way to get all their state-required classroom hours in but not have to start so doggone early.
 
I don’t know about my friend in Georgia. My son’s school doesn’t get out until May 31st. They do have almost 3 weeks for Christmas and a full week for Thanksgiving.
 
babochka said:
I don’t know about my friend in Georgia. My son’s school doesn’t get out until May 31st. They do have almost 3 weeks for Christmas and a full week for Thanksgiving.
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three weeks off for Christmas!!! wow, people around here would have to get a baby sitter for 2 weeks. That’s crazy. we only have 1 week off for Christmas, thankfully.
 
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I’m pretty sure that the earlier school start dates are so that there can be maximum instructional time before all the standardized tests. Those tests are so high-stakes, they take priority. Sadly.
 
In the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (U.S., Canada etc.) the Assumption/Dormition IS a BIG Holy Day of Obligation.

In fact, the Dormition (Assumption) is such a big feast that it has its own fast in preparation for the Feast from Aug. 1 - 14. And the rules for the Great Fast apply to the Dormition Fast.
 
its almost Thursday here now. I attended a wonderful Mass, the Cathedral was full, and many were school children
 
I just came from the 12:10 PM Mass at the cathedral here in Vancouver. It was a full house. Big crowd. While not a Holy day of obligation, it really warmed my heart to see so many people (most, presumably working downtown) using their lunch break to celebrate the feast.
 
I served at the 6:00 pm Solemn Mass presided by the Rector of the Cathedral. The Mass was well attended, albeit not a day of obligation in the Philippines. The Rector focused on heaven as our ultimate goal and to imitate the Blessed Virgin’s humility in his homily.
 
I just returned from a 5:30 Divine Liturgy. It was beautiful, as always, but sadly was not well attended. Most of the parish drives considerable distances to come on Sunday and aren’t able to make the drive during the week. Most people will have gone to Mass at a parish near their home or work.

One of my daughters was sick, so I left her, my husband, and the three-year-old behind. Being able to leave the three-year-old behind made it a much more peaceful and less stressful evening.
 
GoGoDiego said:
The Rector focused on heaven as our ultimate goal and to imitate the Blessed Virgin’s humility in his homily.
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My pastor’s homily took the Assumption as a reminder that we’re body and soul. That so often we only really think of making sure we’re spiritually healthy, but that we should also take care of our physical selves too. (Smoking was one big thing to him.) There were also a couple of other minor points he made that I can’t remember.

(For those wondering, he’s in his 50s but I’ve heard he’s ripped.)
 
babochka said:
Most of the parish drives considerable distances to come on Sunday
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That’s a problem with many of the Eastern Catholic communities as far long term survival. The churches were built to serve a tight knit community that mostly worked at nearby mills or mines. Even if the mills and mines survived, the descendants didn’t want to work in a mine, and usually moved far away from the parish church near their job and likely married to a non-eastern spouse.
 
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