Holy Name Parades

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When I was a child, every year there would be a parade here in Cincinnati by the Holy Name Society.
Did other cities do this as well?
Why were they stopped?

I remember ours was huge with members coming from all the parishes in the area.

Just curious

Peace
James
 
Just wanted to bump this once.
It appears that Cinci may have been unique in this.

Peace
James
 
Years ago, all the church societies would hold feasts and parades for their patron or holy day. The problem now is thses socieities are fewer and have less members than before. The ethnic societies seem to be holding on a little longer though.

In my city, there are several Portuguese Catholic societies that host feasts each year which usually includes a parade.

The anual Great Feast of the Holy Ghost of New England attracts thousands from as far away as Toronto. The French-Canadians hold the St Anne’s feast that 30 years ago, would also bring thousands of pilgrims to the local shrine. That is also still held today, but is much smaller.
 
Cincinnati was not the only one. I grew up in a small town just outside New Orleans and we had a St. Rosalie procession every year.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans has held a Corpus Christi procession for the last two years.

So many things that we knew forty years ago have gone by the wayside.
 
Fall River? Isn’t that Emeril’s home town? I will never forget leaving Chicago in a snow storm when I was in the Navy and landing in Lajes, Azores to a mild day with temps in the 70s and verdant green everywhere. Such beautiful islands and such beautiful traditions.
 
JRKH said:
When I was a child, every year there would be a parade here in Cincinnati by the Holy Name Society.
Did other cities do this as well?
Why were they stopped?

I remember ours was huge with members coming from all the parishes in the area.

Just curious

Peace
James
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Perhaps it is due to declining membership in the Holy Name Society. In most of the parishes around here, most of the men in the Holy Name Society are retired. There are very few young men in the organization. Fraternal organizations, Catholic or otherwise, are rapidly declining around here. Only the senior citizens seem to have interest in these groups. Many of the fraternal organizations are literally dying off. I belong to a historical society that has members from all religions and walks of life. One of the members mentioned that the Elks, Eagles, Masons, etc. are also declining and closing clubs and lodges. The KofC is not doing well here either.
 
lak611 said:
Perhaps it is due to declining membership in the Holy Name Society. In most of the parishes around here, most of the men in the Holy Name Society are retired. There are very few young men in the organization. Fraternal organizations, Catholic or otherwise, are rapidly declining around here. Only the senior citizens seem to have interest in these groups. Many of the fraternal organizations are literally dying off. I belong to a historical society that has members from all religions and walks of life. One of the members mentioned that the Elks, Eagles, Masons, etc. are also declining and closing clubs and lodges. The KofC is not doing well here either.
Click to expand...
Pretty much true here in Western Wisconsin, except that the K of C’s are thriving and growing very well. Maybe because they are more inclusive of family in their events and projects. Seems like the others, although for men only like the Knights, were not so heavy on promoting family.

We had processions in my home town in Michigan in the 50’s. Seems that the move away from a lot of the para-liturgical events soon after Vatican II took it’s toll. Wednesday night Perpetual Help Devotions, Friday night Stations, 40 Hours, Missions, and May Crowning of Mary disappeared almost overnight. Some of them are starting to come back and 40 Hours has kind of morphed into Perpetual Adoration in some parishes. We are scheduling Missions here and there in the Diocese again, and Stations on the Fridays of Lent are back.

I would suspect that as the influx of Hispanics into the U.S. Church continues we will see more processions and special devotions. They are a people who know how to celebrate their faith.🙂
 
rwoehmke said:
Pretty much true here in Western Wisconsin, except that the K of C’s are thriving and growing very well. Maybe because they are more inclusive of family in their events and projects. Seems like the others, although for men only like the Knights, were not so heavy on promoting family.

**We had processions in my home town in Michigan in the 50’s. Seems that the move away from a lot of the para-liturgical events soon after Vatican II took it’s toll. Wednesday night Perpetual Help Devotions, Friday night Stations, 40 Hours, Missions, and May Crowning of Mary disappeared almost overnight. **Some of them are starting to come back and 40 Hours has kind of morphed into Perpetual Adoration in some parishes. We are scheduling Missions here and there in the Diocese again, and Stations on the Fridays of Lent are back.

I would suspect that as the influx of Hispanics into the U.S. Church continues we will see more processions and special devotions. They are a people who know how to celebrate their faith.🙂
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This is an interesting point and I hadn’t really attached the Holy Name Parade to any other devotions, but you are right. Many devotions went away dring that time.

I was going to start a thread about how rich the liturgical and devotional life of the church is, but then I began to think about all the things that our parents did, but we don’t. May Crowning is a good “for instance”. Perhaps I will put together a thread along these lines. I still believe that our faith is more rich in liturgy and devotional life than any Protestant sect, with the possible acception of the Anglicans.

Peace
James
 
rwoehmke said:
Pretty much true here in Western Wisconsin, except that the K of C’s are thriving and growing very well. Maybe because they are more inclusive of family in their events and projects. Seems like the others, although for men only like the Knights, were not so heavy on promoting family.

We had processions in my home town in Michigan in the 50’s. Seems that the move away from a lot of the para-liturgical events soon after Vatican II took it’s toll. Wednesday night Perpetual Help Devotions, Friday night Stations, 40 Hours, Missions, and May Crowning of Mary disappeared almost overnight. Some of them are starting to come back and 40 Hours has kind of morphed into Perpetual Adoration in some parishes. We are scheduling Missions here and there in the Diocese again, and Stations on the Fridays of Lent are back.

I would suspect that as the influx of Hispanics into the U.S. Church continues we will see more processions and special devotions. They are a people who know how to celebrate their faith.🙂
Click to expand...
Boy, if that’s not true, I don’t know what is. Novena to OLPH was on Tuesday night here followed by Benediction. May Crownings - my mother grew sweet peas specifically to be able to weave a crown for us to take to school. 😃 (Pleasant memories).

I often wonder about the ethnic identity component in that way back when we were Irish, Italian, German, French (Creole and Cajun) and, yes, African Americans. Could it have something to do with moving from “immigrant church” to being accepted as “mainstream”. It should not have happened here since Catholics are in the majority. I have a newspaper clipping of me as crucifer for the St. Rosalie procession. A strawberry blonde with a big round Irish face in amongst all those Sicilians. One Church.
 
I think there was indeed an ethnic component in a lot of that old stuff. When one checks out the immigrants from parts of Europe that still had a strong Catholic Faith in their particular region, for example Poland, Bavaria, parts of France there are still a lot of hangovers of certain practices in their American Descendants, but more on an individual family level than on a parish level. Unfortunately as we have intermarried into other ethnicities and even with non-Catholics a lot of these practices have died out. I don’t think that has happened yet with our Hispanic members.
 
Certainly there were a lot of ethnic aspects as you both say.
I remember my mom talking about where she grew up in Reading Ohio. She lived between two Catholic churches. Now the German Church was about 6 or 7 blocks one way and the Irich church was 5 or 6 blocks the other.
But she was “German” so went to SS. Peter and Paul intead of Sacred Heart which was closer.
I just recently read a history on the Cincinnati Archdiocese and found out that the “German” Church in this area was left pretty much alone to run itself during much of the second half of the 19th century and into the early part of the 20th century. This was primarily due to language issues. Anyone who has been to this area knows there is a large German influence here.

Peace
James
 
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