Other ways to celebrate a Feast Day

[PazzoGrande]

I think typically, the only celebration of a Feast Day that a practising Catholic will have is that the saint will be commemorated at the day’s Mass, and there will also be a commemoration during the Liturgy of the Hours.

I attend Mass where there are shrines two Hawaii’s two saints, one of whom was ordained a priest there, for their Feast Days, there is a special Mass and their relics are put out, and that’s pretty much it.

Aside from that, I also know that people sometimes name their kids after a saint whose feast falls on their birthday, sometimes Encyclicals or other important documents are put out on a feast day, and buildings are sometimes dedicated specifically on a particular feast. Also, novenas are done to precede Feast Days. In some cases, there are processions, and of course there’s the liquifying miracle of the blood of Saint Januarius, the blessing of throats for Saint Blaise and the blessing of chalk for the Epiphany.

Because they use the word “Feast,” do they ever actually have feasts – real meals – anywhere for a saint’s feast day?

Historically and around the world, what are and have been other ways that Feast Days are celebrated?

 

[EasterJoy]

There were traditional foods for that saint’s day–e.g., the Italian recipes for the feast of St. Jospeh that call for bread crumbs, which epresented the sawdust of a carpenter’s trade–which became traditional because somebody somewhere came up with the connection. In new places and with new saints, that means somebody needs to get with it!

If you can think of a food that symbolises something about the saint–a special version of native dish of that season for a native-born saint or perhaps for St. Damien of Molokai a treat that he would have enjoyed as a child on feast days back in Belgium–then you could make it a point to prepare that for the day’s celebratory meal. Or you might even combine the two: for St. Damien, truffles of coconut and Belgian chocolate! Or Belgian waffles with macadamian nuts.

You could also give alms or gifts that fit the saint, such as something to do with skin problems or those who are outcasts, in the case of St. Damien. Something like that, maybe many things like that. Use your imagination, that’s how traditions start!

 

[PazzoGrande]

You could also give alms or gifts that fit the saint

Ah, yes, how could I forget Peter’s Pence.