Monday, April 11, 2016

Feast of the Annunciation: 2016



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This past Monday, April 4, 2016 the Feast of the Annunciation was celebrated.  The Feast of the Annunciation commemorates the angel Gabriel's announcement to Mary that she would conceive Jesus, and the conception of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. (Luke 1: 26-38)  Normally this feast day is celebrated each year on the liturgical calendar on March 25 because March 25 is exactly 9 months before December 25 when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

   Source: Saints and Angels by Claire Llewellyn

So why did the Feast of the Annunciation get moved?  March 25 this year fell on Good Friday. Celebrating a feast day like the Feast of the Annunciation is one of the Solemnities on our liturgical Church calendar and it's a big deal and a time for celebrating and feasting.  Good Friday is not a time for feasting, but rather fasting (to put it simply), so the Feast of the Annunciation got moved to the day after Divine Mercy Sunday this year.  Did you know this convergence of a big fast day (Good Friday) and a big feast day (Feast of the Annunciation) won't happen for another 141 years?!!!?

"From the year 1900 until this year, the Annunciation and Good Friday have converged only five times, 1910, 1921, 1932, 2005 and will happen again this year.  After this year, however, these two holy days will not converge again for another 141 years.  This is the longest stretch of time where those two holy days will not converge since at least as far back as the year 1700.  While the stretch of time may not be of any consequence, it is interesting to think about, especially considering these two feasts will not coincide again within our lifetimes..."  Read More

In 2011, we celebrated the Feast of the Annunciation with coloring pagesIn 2014, we did this fun coloring activity and last year in 2015 we made megaphones to "announce" the Angelus prayer and ate waffles and fruit for dinner!   This is how we celebrated this year....


We had a busy evening of soccer practices, so we celebrated with a special themed lunch.  I put on our plastic blue tablecloth and then a plastic "lace" tablecloth to make it "fancy".  In the center of the table I lit a white candle and hid a Baby Jesus in a little space that I carved out of the candle.  I displayed Mary: The Mother of Jesus by Tomie DePaola behind the candle that gave information on the Annunciation.   The artwork on the right side of the Annunciation was painted by my oldest daughter several years ago.  On the left side of the table is the stack of "megaphones" I created last year to "announce" the Angelus prayer. We prayed the Angelus with our megaphones.  However, since April 4 this year was technically in the Easter season, we should have prayed the Regina Caeli vs. the Angelus.  We ate waffles, fruit  homemade whipped cream, and bacon for lunch because there is an interesting connection between waffles and the Annunciation. Yum!



The Catholic faith reminds me of a bottomless treasure chest...the more I learn and love about the faith, the more I realize how much I don't know!   Blogging allows me to share about our faith's rich history and traditions, family and homeschooling and I hope to inspire others through my little corner of the blogosphere. 


 
Photo Source:  Training Happy Hearts

With that being said, it looks like by me posting about our Annunciation themed lunch on my Instagram and Facebook page, it inspired a fellow blogger, Martianne at Training Happy Hearts, to have an Annunciation celebration with her family also.  Her post sums up perfectly why I love blogging so much as I love to share our Catholic faith to bring my family joy and inspire others, Catholic or not! I just love how beautiful hers turned out and her post goes into great detail about the symbolism behind each item on her table.  Be sure to visit, When Celebrating the Liturgical Year Goes Viral , and be inspired!

And I'll conclude this post all about the Annunciation with this beautiful song and images about the Angel Gabriel visiting Mary.



This post is linked at #48 at New Evangelists Monthly-May 2016, Issue #41





2 comments:

Martianne said...

Thank you, again, for inspiring us. You have so many great links and so much information in this post to teach and inspire others, too - ideas, background, etc. LOVELY! Have a blessed day!

And thank you Martianne for all your inspiration and sharing of ideas! We seem to be kindred spirits with our passion and love to pass down our faith to our children in sometimes creative and delicious ways! Thanks for your visit!

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