Old Catholic Customs or Traditions From Other Countries

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Hi. Does anyone know of any pious devotions, customs, or traditions that come from other countries?

For example, I know it is an old Irish tradition to keep a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the house, and to light a red candle next to it.

Can anyone name a few?

Thank you. 🙂
 
bben15 said:
Hi. Does anyone know of any pious devotions, customs, or traditions that come from other countries?

For example, I know it is an old Irish tradition to keep a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the house, and to light a red candle next to it.

Can anyone name a few?

Thank you. 🙂
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Blessed Chalk on the Epiphany. They have a priest bless chalk, people take it home and write the new year over their door. Not a bad tradition.

Also, in times past, they used to take wax from the Paschal Candle that the Pope uses, break it down and melt it into wax discs, then imprint a Lamb with the flag of victory on one side, and the cameo and name of the Pope on the other. They’d dip it in chrism, and give them out, though sometimes the pieces they give out are small bits so more may go around. This is called the Agnus Dei.

For Lent, Portuguese specially friend sugar-coated dough called a malasada, though it’s also eaten year-round.

When Catholic Queens meet the Pope, they wear white. All other women wear black. Papal protocol dictates that all women wear a mantilla when going to the Pope, though if the Pope goes to see you in your country then he has to follow your custom rather than you following his. Queen Elizabeth wore the mantilla when going to the Vatican to see Pope John Paul II but did not when Pope Benedict visited her at Windsor Castle.

Popes used to eat alone. There used to be elaborate protocol when Popes would eat. When he’d sip, people would have to kneel. He’d be seated on a dais above everyone else. Eventually the Popes got sick and tired of it and just ate alone. Pius XIII was a solitary eater. Though, the subsequent Popes would invite guests. Still, they do not go to lavish banquets. When Pope Benedict visited the US, the President held a special dinner to honour him even though he himself just had a simple meal elsewhere.

In the Philippines, there is special devotion to the Black Nazarene, which is supposedly a miraculous statue of our Lord carrying the Cross. There is also special devotion to the Santo Niño, another miraculous statue of Christ, but as a Child.

In France, they would put Christmas gifts inside of shoes. (Any Saint Therese devotee knows the story with her and her father at Christmas).

When someone is dying, Polish people light a candle at the window so the soul can find its way out.

In a grotesque distortion, some Latin American cartels venerate an alleged drug lord saint and also the personification of death. It’s occult and wrong, but there is a problem like this everywhere. People mingle superstition with Catholicism and come up with rubbish. Voodoo is an example too. It also happens in Italy and even secular France, and isn’t contained in the impoverished third world where we tend to assume they’re less educated.

That’s a lot. I’ll probably remember more and I’ll post them up. Except for the last one, isn’t it great that the Church is so big and old that we have these beautiful traditions? Great idea to try to get us all to recount them. I hope to learn too.
 
My family is Polish. We don’t eat meat on Christmas Eve in remember emcee of Jesus’ poverty and we put straw underneath our table cloth.
 
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Luz Maria
Go to the Novena thread for details.
54-Day Rosary Novena for Lent

The posting done on “my” Thursday will include Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Some countries have no work during Holy Week. With God’s grace, the program for Holy Week, including Easter Monday, will be posted on Thursday, April 10, 2014. I hope that works for everyone!

Traditional 54-Day Rosary Novena Schedule for Lent 2014
Petition:
March 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26, 29: The Joyful Mysteries Posts 2 & 3.
March 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30: The Sorrowful Mysteries Post # 10
March 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28, 31: The Glorious Mysteries Post # 11
The Concluding Prayers for all the Mysteries: - Posts 4 & 9

Thanksgiving:
April 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16, 19, 22, 25: The Joyful Mysteries Posts 2 & 3.
April 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 23, 26: The Sorrowful Mysteries Post # 10
April 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27: The Glorious Mysteries Post # 11
The Concluding Prayers for all the Mysteries: - Posts 4 & 9
 
If you are Hungarian, you not only have a birthday but also a name day.
Birthdays are usually celebrated with family.
Name days are large celebrations and people bring gifts, candy or flowers.
A name day is a day chosen by your parents because it is a day dedicated to a saint.
:flowers::flowers::flowers:
 
The Italians have the custom of serving 7 fish dishes on Christmas Eve. My grandmother used to spend hours preparing these dishes. Some of them were cod (baccala), smelt, octopus, squid, and a couple of others. Usually the octopus and squid (calamari) were served in a sauce.

We all went to midnight Mass, which was a High Mass and long, and I usually fell asleep. Now I take my grandchildren to Midnight Mass and they fall asleep. The tradition of falling asleep during Midnight Mass remains intact. 🙂
 
An old Hungarian Easter custom was that on the morning of Easter Sunday the lady of the house would put the ham, the eggs, the horseradish, the salt, and the brioche in a basket.
The basket was covered with a cloth for the family to take it to the Easter Sunday Morning Mass.
The priest would bless the contents of the basket.

:signofcross::signofcross::signofcross:
 
CyrilSebastian said:
An old Hungarian Easter custom was that on the morning of Easter Sunday the lady of the house would put the ham, the eggs, the horseradish, the salt, and the brioche in a basket.
The basket was covered with a cloth for the family to take it to the Easter Sunday Morning Mass.
The priest would bless the contents of the basket.

:signofcross::signofcross::signofcross:
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Was this on Easter Sunday or the day before?
 
Polish people have the custom of exchanging oplatki (the l should have a slash across it to use the correct Polish letter) at Christmastime. These are oblong shaped wafers, about the size of a greeting card, although some can be much smaller. They are kind of like a host in texture and embossed with a Christmas scene. Pieces are broken off and exchanged with others for good wishes, health, etc.
 
An Australian custom/tradition is genuflecting on both knees before the exposed Blessed Sacrament.
 
Last Saturday we were invited to a devotion to pray “two thousand Hail Mary’s”. It lasted from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Different people, like us, come in and out as their schedules permit. I was told this devotion originated in the Philippines. It is done once a month and like the block rosary it shifts from home to home. Usually this devotion is for special intentions and thanksgiving for graces and favors received. Participants were asked to write their prayer intentions in a piece of paper which are placed in a dish close to the icons. The papers are then burned at the end of the prayers. Displayed was a Crucifix and the image of Our Lady of Fatima. It was my first time to see a “Rosary” with 100 beads representing 100 Hail Mary’s. They pray 20 of those. Lastly, I noticed that, like all Filipino gatherings, there is abundant food which has a benefit as well as a disadvantage. True, praying makes you hungry but eating often, also makes you sleepy. On the whole I think it is a good devotion.
 
If there is an enclosed space you can go into, Spanish Catholics have put a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe in there. There’s four on my fridge and maybe more in my mom’s room. Midnight Mass is also HUGE in Latin America, as in, the biggest thing of the year. We also baptize our kids rather late, as in at 2-5 years old.

As a result, I was weirded out when I saw babies at Mass this year being baptized when they looked like they had just been born in the last six weeks. It just doesn’t happen down there and to my eyes, it was abnormal.
 
VanSensei said:
If there is an enclosed space you can go into, Spanish Catholics have put a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe in there. There’s four on my fridge and maybe more in my mom’s room. Midnight Mass is also HUGE in Latin America, as in, the biggest thing of the year. We also baptize our kids rather late, as in at 2-5 years old.

As a result, I was weirded out when I saw babies at Mass this year being baptized when they looked like they had just been born in the last six weeks. It just doesn’t happen down there and to my eyes, it was abnormal.
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In the olden days, they we’d to baptise within days after birth. I think it’s because of instant mortality risks. Saint Theresa of Lisieux was one example. Pope Benedict XVI is another.

Yet in the fourth century, the exact opposite was the case. They would baptise people just before they would die. Constantine was an example of that.
 
In mexico the 12 days leading up to december 12th people sign up to take turns hosting Our Lady’s statue in thier home for the night and when the statue is carried by the people on thier shoulders from house to house thier is always singing “La Guadalupana” and the person hosting her for the night has to feed all the pilgrims then the next night the pilgrims come and carry her to the next house then the 12th day she is carried up the mountain to the local parish church where a big fiesta takes place with aztec dancers and feasting.

Also Mexico has Los posadas as well around christmas renacting the nativity by going door to door asking for shelter and then praying the rosary around the nativity scene of different homes this all lasts from dec 16-24 the last day ending in the church

Los reyes is celebrated on epiphany in mexico and it remembers the wise man giving Jesus his gifts by giving kids thier gifts and normally going to church

Another interesting tradition is feb 3 St. Blaise day and the blessing of the throats by placing crossed candles on the throat.

St. John’s eve on June 23 or 24 and it involves bonfires, blessing water and collecting medicnal herbs and having them blessed also St. John’s wart is blessed to hang in the home to ward off witches as the bonfires as well are thought to drive away witches

Candlemas on february 2nd the purification of mary and the day all the candles the church will use are blessed for the year

There are many many traditions in the catholic church I could go on all day about them.
 
A German custom (though it may have been widespread) was to get the Christmas tree and decorate on the 24th so as not to celebrate Christmas during advent. Also, instead of taking everything down on the 26th as is the modern secular custom, it would stay up until at least epiphany, if not candlemass.
 
I think it’s an American custom to stop playing Christmas songs the day after Christmas in malls, stores, radio, and TV. 😃
 
PazzoGrande said:
In the olden days, they we’d to baptise within days after birth. I think it’s because of instant mortality risks. Saint Theresa of Lisieux was one example. Pope Benedict XVI is another.

Yet in the fourth century, the exact opposite was the case. They would baptise people just before they would die. Constantine was an example of that.
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In the Byzantine Rite, it is traditional to baptize on the 40th day.
 
aroodawakening.tv

EASTER pagan traditions

Traditions can blind us from the truth and cause us to wander in the myopic fog of man-made religious systems for an entire lifetime.

Join Michael on a journey “out of Babylon” and away from its pagan traditions to uncover long lost truths preserved in the Biblical record.

Part 1 of this Teaching can be viewed here: youtube.com/watch?v=5GF5iR…

youtu.be/-W52y1USfAg
 
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