Yesterday on October 7, we celebrated the feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary.
Did you know that this feast day was formally called "Our Lady of Victory" and "it takes place in honor of a 16th century naval victory which secured Europe againstTurkish invasion. Pope St. Pius V attributed the victory to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was invoked on the day of the battle through a campaign to pray the Rosary throughout Europe."  Fascinating and miraculous history that you may not have read about in your history texts!

There are so many beautiful Marian feast days in the liturgical Church calendar, besides the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.  Some of our favorites are the Solemnity of Mary on January 1, Our Lady of Lourdes on February 11, Feast of the Annunciation on March 25, Feast of the Annunciation on August 15, Our Blessed Mother's birthday on September 8, Our Lady of Sorrows on September 15, Our Lady of Fatima on October 13, Feast Day of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, and Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12.  Whew! Celebrating our Blessed Mother throughout the year vs. just at Christmas time is really a wonderful way to honor such a special and important blessed Lady!  

Last year, I saw this cute idea on how to celebrate this feast day.
  

Celebrating the feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary this year involved candy corn (that my oldest daughter thought would make a fun rosary), chocolate chips, M&Ms, pretzel sticks and a dab of peanut butter to hold together the pretzel crosses.  We set up our rosaries and then prayed a decade of the rosary before anyone could eat some of their edible rosaries.

I think I caught my son with a mouth full of pretzels and chocolate, hence the strange looking face :)

My 7 year old wanted to make just a rosary with 1 decade and she made a horse with the extra candy corn.  My 2 year old got a few pretzels, peanut butter and chocolate chips and tried to make a rosary before she gobbled up the sweet treats.

We hope to continue with this tradition each year on October 7 in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary!


And have you entered the The Story of the Bible giveaway I'm hosting on my blog this week?  If not, go read all the details and enter!  Giveaway ends this Friday, Oct. 9 at midnight!

Once upon a time I was a freshman in college (Go Wolfpack!) and I was at a Christian retreat with college friends, including my boyfriend, now husband.  I was staying in one of the girl's cabins and my boyfriend asked a cute little red head gal if I was in the cabin since he was looking for me.  This gal (whose name is A.H.) didn't really know who my boyfriend was talking about since there were many girls in the cabin and A.H. and I hadn't formally met yet.  My boyfriend finally found me and I finally met A.H.

Fast forward some time and A.H. and I finished our freshmen year with our freshmen roommates and LOTS of drama because A.H. and I broke the news to our freshmen roommates that A.H. and I wanted to room together our sophomore years.  A.H. loved me soooo much that we took several classes together, shared many laughs and memories, roomed together through our senior years, and our friendship has blossomed for close to 20 years now!  To the right is a picture of A.H. and I during a surprise party for me when I turned 19! A.H., we were  19 at one time? Really?  Glad I have a picture to prove it! :)


Here's A.H. and me at our college graduation in 1997.  Notice A.H. is on her tippy toes... :) 













So recently A.H. sent me a special birthday card (my birthday was on Aug. 24) and gift that she made after she saw the idea on...you guessed it! Pinterest :)

Here's my gift and I love it!

This painting of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was painted by Cameron Smith (no relation to me) at Smith Catholic Art

In the Catholic Church, our Blessed Mother's birthday is traditionally celebrated on September 8 each year on the Church's calendar.  One of the many reasons I love being Catholic is that our Church celebrates Mary throughout the entire year with lots of  Marian feast days.  Mary did have such an important role in salvation history by having the privilege to cradle Jesus in her womb for 9 months and raise our Savior, it's always nice to give her honor on more days than just at Christmas time when we celebrate Jesus' birth.

There are so many wonderful Marian Feast Days in the church throughout the year and celebrating Mary's birthday is one of our family's favorite.  My children love birthdays and celebrating our Blessed Mother's special day is definitely a birthday party our family doesn't want to miss!   Each year our homeschool group gathers for Mass on September 8 and then we have a birthday party for Mary.

Each year we create an edible rosary, which is always a hit with the children.

We say a decade of the rosary with the children and parents then sing "Happy Birthday to Mary!".

Here are some photos of the rosaries our homeschool group has made for Mary's September 8 Feast Day:

On Sept. 8, 2009, our rosary was made with the traditional sized "Our Father" cupcakes and small "Hail Mary" cupcakes.  We put my Mary statue/vase in the center with flowers in it.  Then we placed candles in the "Our Father" cupcakes.


On Sept. 8, 2010, we simplified our rosary by using Hershey kisses for the "Our Father" prayers and cupcakes for the " Hail Mary " prayers.  We gathered at a local park for this year's celebration and  it was windy so we couldn't light candles as we sang "Happy Birthday".  We did say a decade of the rosary together and as each child led a "Hail Mary" prayer, they took one Hershey kiss away from the rosary.  After praying and singing everyone loved eating the extra cupcakes parents had made and the Hershey kisses.



Today, Sept. 8, 2011, our homeschool group met at a local church for Mass, then we went to a park to enjoy the beautiful weather and eat another edible rosary after we said a decade of the rosary and sang "Happy Birthday" to Mary.  This year our rosary was made from donuts and donut holes.  Thanks C.V. for the idea with the donuts! The kids loved how delicious it was and the parents loved how easy it was to assemble!  Thanks M.S. for picking up all the donuts :)  Here are some pictures:




















You can check out how others celebrate the Nativity of Mary (Mary's Birthday!) HERE at Lacy's Blog at Catholic Icing.  HERE are some more edible rosaries via Lacy's blog too!

As mentioned in the first link of this post, "the Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been celebrated in the Church at least since the 8th Century."  Wow! since the 8th century!?!  I didn't know this! Our family and homeschool group will continue to keep this special and fun tradition alive each year as we gather around our edible rosary and sing "Happy Birthday to Mary!"

In the Catholic Church, our Blessed Mother's birthday is traditionally celebrated on September 8 each year on the Church's calendar.  One of the many reasons I love being Catholic is that our Church celebrates Mary throughout the entire year with lots of  Marian feast days.  Mary did have such an important role in salvation history by having the privilege to cradle Jesus in her womb for 9 months and raise our Savior, it's always nice to give her honor on more days than just at Christmas time when we celebrate Jesus' birth.

There are so many wonderful Marian Feast Days in the church throughout the year and celebrating Mary's birthday is one of our family's favorite.  My children love birthdays and celebrating our Blessed Mother's special day is definitely a birthday party our family doesn't want to miss!   Each year our homeschool group gathers for Mass on September 8 and then we have a birthday party for Mary.

Each year we create an edible rosary, which is always a hit with the children.

We say a decade of the rosary with the children and parents then sing "Happy Birthday to Mary!".

Here are some photos of the rosaries our homeschool group has made for Mary's September 8 Feast Day:

Last year on Sept. 8, 2009, our rosary was made with the traditional sized "Our Father" cupcakes and small "Hail Mary" cupcakes.  We put my Mary statue/vase in the center with flowers in it.  Then we placed candles in the "Our Father" cupcakes.


This year on Sept. 8, 2010, we simplified our rosary by using Hershey kisses for the "Our Father" prayers and cupcakes for the " Hail Mary " prayers.  We gathered at a local park for this year's celebration and  it was windy so we couldn't light candles as we sang "Happy Birthday".  We did say a decade of the rosary together and as each child led a "Hail Mary" prayer, they took one Hershey kiss away from the rosary.  After praying and singing everyone loved eating the extra cupcakes parents had made and the Hershey kisses.

You can check out how others make edible rosaries over at Lacy's blog at Catholic Icing.

As mentioned in the first link of this post, "the Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been celebrated in the Church at least since the 8th Century."  Wow! since the 8th century!?!  I didn't know this! Our family and homeschool group will continue to keep this special and fun tradition alive each year as we gather around our edible rosary and sing "Happy Birthday to Mary!"