Interesting, thank you.Yes, it’s true that every Friday used to be a day to abstain from meat.
Women covering heads was required.
Parishes used to have 40 hours devotion before the Blessed Sacrament.
May crownings of the Virgin Mary were done by most parishes, although you’ll still find a few that do it now.
There were 4 mandatory ember days per year with fasting and partial abstinence.
Outside processions were commonly done for the feast of Corpus Christi, although some parishes are getting back to that now.
Parishes commonly had a mission priest come in and do a retreat during Lent and/or Advent, whereas now, many parishes don’t have anything like this.
The fast before communion, which had been 3 hours, was reduced to 1 hour by Pope Paul VI.
There was a white cloth attached to communion rails that the altar boys would flip over to cover the rails before started to kneel at the rails to receive. After everyone received, they would flip it back over.
Of course there are the more obvious things like Mass not facing the people back then, no communion in the hand, no altar girls or women readers, Mass in latin, choirs were in the choir loft and not in front of the church.
I’m sure there may be other things - this is just what I remember right now.
As I understand it, there were exceptions in that period as well. I wasn’t alive then, but if certain sources (and my memory thereof!) were correct, those exceptions were holy days of obligation in general. (I’ve possibly read that the exception didn’t apply to any such days that fell on Fridays within Lent, or maybe at least at some time in some places.) For example, a Christmas that fell on a Friday probably wouldn’t have required a special menu compared to a Christmas that fell on a Tuesday.Yes, it’s true that every Friday used to be a day to abstain from meat.
(Canon 1253 mentions the possibility of a conference of bishops substituting “other forms of penance,” as has happened in the United States.)Can. 1251 Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday.
These periods are still occurring too, though maybe more rarely than they used to.Parishes used to have 40 hours devotion before the Blessed Sacrament.
In Oregon (the Archdiocese of Portland and the Diocese of Baker) there are 66 parishes which have some for of regular Adoration; 16 of them have Perpetual Adoration (24/7/363). That is out of 204 parishes, missions, and stations.These periods are still occurring too, though maybe more rarely than they used to.
I don’t think I referenced adoration chapels. Some have them, many don’t.Well, yes I know there are adoration chapels. But the 40 Hours Devotion was a special devotion that started with a Mass and ended with a Mass and benediction. It also had a special indulgence attached to it.