Counting On season 5/6/7 Part 3 - Weddings, Babies, and Denial

[cascarones]

Oh yeah, my Catholic Mom wrote us notes to get out of school, but we still went to short service, just baked things and decorated eggs. My dad is a Baptist, so I think it took them a few years to sort out how fasting and Lent worked and how much he cared to participate (big nope and nope). We were fish on Fridays, but no fasting until we were old enough to understand and ask.

@potato By chance, I was in an Orthodox country (Cyprus) for their celebration of Epiphany (Jesus' Baptism Day). It was really powerful and is one of my favorite memories of traveling. I don't know that I understood it all, but they came to our rental and got us for the festivities. Religiously, standing in the freezing ocean in silence, with the other women watching our little crosses go out to sea was deeply moving.

[BernRul]

26 minutes ago, cascarones said:

Oh yeah, my Catholic Mom wrote us notes to get out of school

I'm not religious at all, and my husband flirts the line between agnostic and atheist, but I decided that when we have kids I'm going to pull the religion card to get them excused from school the day after Halloween. Because having off the day after Halloween was hands down the undisputable best part of going to Catholic school. 

[SapphireSlytherin]

2 minutes ago, BernRul said:

Because having off the day after Halloween was hands down the undisputable best part of going to Catholic school. 

Hah - GryffindorDisappointment's birthday. When she went to Catholic school she was PISSED because she didn't get to celebrate her birthday at school.

I was beyond gobsmacked that school was closed that day. lol

[Vivi_music]

On 9/25/2018 at 1:45 PM, SapphireSlytherin said:

Not Catholic. Crucifixes have ALWAYS creeped me out.

Grew up Catholic. Crucifixes have ALWAYS creeped me out too. ?

I remember the humongus and graphic crucifix in my hometown's church where I grew up. It was on the side wall of the church. I would always fix the alter in the front and look at the nice statues and concentrate very very hard not to turn my eyes to the right.

[NakedKnees]

Where I live (Chile, which is predominantly Catholic), November 1 "All Saints Day" is a big national holiday. People often visit graves of loved ones in a joyous manner, but not everyone does and it's nothing like how deep that tradition runs in Mexico.

For several years, October 31 (Halloween) was also a national holiday because the protestant population wanted a similar holiday recognizing their religion ("Evangelical and Protestant Church Day"). Just a year or two ago, they moved it to November 2. No one is admitting it's because Halloween is increasingly popular here... but as far as I can tell, that's likely why ? or at least partly why.

It's sort of a funny state of affairs if you think eschewing Halloween for religious reasons (like the Duggars and similar fundies do) is over-the-top. Here, explicitly thanks to the often-evangelical and sometimes-fundie crowd, Halloween was a holiday for some time! This year, it's just the first night of a four-day religious holiday weekend... I'm super excited, and I know I'm not alone.

[viii]

I work at a catholic school and we don’t have nov 1st off?

[metheglyn]

I'm both Episcopalian and part of our church choir. Yes, Holy Week is a slog. Lots of gorgeous music and it covers the gamut from Joy to Despair and back to Joy, but it's a slog.

Starting with Palm Sunday we have:

1) Warmup/rehearsal (1 hr) at the service on Palm Sunday (with the full Passion Gospel chanted by cantors, yikes!) - (approx 2 hours of service with the 30 minute chanted gospel)
2) Our regular rehearsal Wednesday night - (1.5-2 hours)
3) Rehearsal/warmup and evening service for Maundy Thursday (2-2.5 hours combined)
4) Rehearsal/warmup and evening service for Good Friday  (2-2.5 hours combined)
We skip singing at the morning Holy Saturday service
5) Rehearsal/warmup and evening service for Easter Vigil Saturday night (2-2.5 hours combined)
6) And finally warmup/rehearsal and the morning service on Easter Day.  (2-3 hours combined) 

Thankfully, we skip rehearsal the next Wednesday and do a low-key service the following Sunday.

For more info on the specific services listed, see here: https://www.episcopalchurch.org/library/glossary/holy-week 

[Sky with diamonds]

12 hours ago, Carm_88 said:

Ah Catholicism, I feel like I'm so removed from it. I grew up in a place here everyone was Catholic, the school was Catholic, and you were yelled at by everyone's parents if you were running wild on Good Friday or wiping off the ashes on Ash Wednesday. As for death, I think at a young age I became pretty educated on death. No, I wasn't watching people die, but I was always at my grandparents and in our small area, the favourite pass time for older men was talking at wakes. My grandfather knew everyone, I went to every wake in the area because if the car was going me and my cousins wanted to go, and we went to the wakes. We knelt, looked in the casket, said a prayer for the dead person that we probably didn't know or just knew their name. When I think about it now, it's so odd. But it was very much a social event.

Reminds me of my years back there. Except I truly hated wakes and furneals, the first I ever went to was at age 13 when my grandmother died. I really wasn't prepared for any of it, even less a couple of years later when my grandfather passed away. That hit me like a ton of bricks, and I never managed to say goodbye to the people I knew and was closely related through the years. 

I once consideried myself a Roman Catholic...I don't have the faith I used to, to be honest.

[Bad Wolf]

October 31 is Nevada Day. We used to celebrate on the day with a parade. The kids would trick or treat the night before and have their sugar high on the holiday. Teachers appreciated it. Now they've made it into a 3 day weekend. The kids will get the 26th off school, and trick or treat like the rest of the country.

I'm taking my citizenship test on the 26th. Shouldn't be much traffic. The feds don't celebrate Nevada Day (obviously).

[amendgitan]

On 9/17/2018 at 10:53 PM, just_ordinary said:

What I don’t get- Lauren had a very clear vision of what she wanted. From fabric to cut. Why the hell did they put her in 3 lace dresses and one with a very big skirt?????? 

Even if they want to create some drama for TV- there are surely more dresses that would at least have fit her idea.

This does not look good for the shop in my opinion. Come here and we give you exactly what you don’t like? I can see trying something out of your comfort zone when what you initially wanted just doesn’t work but this was ridiculous.

Probably because they only had one close to what she wanted. And it's a tv show so they had to fill in time. 

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

2 hours ago, Bad Wolf said:

October 31 is Nevada Day. We used to celebrate on the day with a parade. The kids would trick or treat the night before and have their sugar high on the holiday. Teachers appreciated it. Now they've made it into a 3 day weekend. The kids will get the 26th off school, and trick or treat like the rest of the country.

I'm taking my citizenship test on the 26th. Shouldn't be much traffic. The feds don't celebrate Nevada Day (obviously).

I wish my state celebrated our Statehood Day. We had a really big, fun celebration for the centennial, but nothing before or after that. It's the day before a federal holiday, too, so we could get at least 2 days off in a row.

[Carm_88]

12 hours ago, viii said:

I work at a catholic school and we don’t have nov 1st off?

I went to a Catholic school and I never had Nov 1st off.

[libgirl2]

18 hours ago, sleepy_doggos said:

19 hours ago, libgirl2 said:

I always liked Good Friday because my mom would make salmon patties.... yum. I wish she wasn't ill with dementia and could make them again. 

Sorry about your mom. It is so hard.

Thank you. I would love just one more day with her the way she was. I miss her. 

[sleepy_doggos]

Thank you. I would love just one more day with her the way she was. I miss her. 

Many hugs. My dad has told me what it was like for Alzheimer's to happen to his dad, and my great aunt is doing it right now. Heartbreaking.

[libgirl2]

Just now, sleepy_doggos said:

15 minutes ago, libgirl2 said:

Thank you. I would love just one more day with her the way she was. I miss her. 

Many hugs. My dad has told me what it was like for Alzheimer's to happen to his dad, and my great aunt is doing it right now. Heartbreaking.

Thank you. I belong to a FB group and it amazes me that people younger and younger are getting diagnosed. As young as late 30s. 

[allthegoodnamesrgone]

I got nothing on trick or treating or all souls day, I live in Central Iowa we have beggar's night, the night before Halloween. It is our Halloween, because ebil devil, or some such bull shit, back in the 50's, and since we can't ever change anything, even the stupid stuff, our kids are stuck with the night before Halloween.

[Audrey2]

2 hours ago, allthegoodnamesrgone said:

I got nothing on trick or treating or all souls day, I live in Central Iowa we have beggar's night, the night before Halloween. It is our Halloween, because ebil devil, or some such bull shit, back in the 50's, and since we can't ever change anything, even the stupid stuff, our kids are stuck with the night before Halloween.

My hometown always has Trick or Treat on the Thursday night closest to Halloween from 6-7. I like that it doesn't last all night, and that children can get enough candy to get a good bellyache but not a ridiculous amount. That's plenty of time to get around a neighborhood. After I moved to another state, I'd have trick or treaters knocking on the door/ringing the doorbell until 9:30 or later if they saw any light on in the house, not just the porch light. I'd either have to watch tv in the dark when I was done handing out candy or put black paper over all my windows, which was a pain.

Yes, guess I am a Halloween grinch.

[Satan'sFortress]

As a former Catholic, I am also confused by the chocolate crosses & cross-shaped cakes and candy that appears around Easter.  That is really weird to me.  I can't imagine a Catholic eating a chocolate cross.

[feministxtian]

12 years of Catholic schools here. In HS we'd all get asked what we were giving up for Lent. I'd say things like sobriety or school or some shit like that. 

We don't really "do" holidays anymore...none of them. Christmas/birthdays as a kid always sucked. I'd never get what I wanted. With the X, he'd make such a big deal over it and guess who did all the work? Now, don't give a crap and like just hanging out at home. 

[Knight of Ni]

The last time somebody asked me what I was giving up for Lent I told them “religion”. 

[BernRul]

7 hours ago, Carm_88 said:

I went to a Catholic school and I never had Nov 1st off.

Really? Every school in my diocese had off for All Saint's Day. It was the best because we could stay up all night eating candy and watching scary movies. 

[NakedKnees]

I wasn't raised religiously but I spent ten years in the United Methodist church of my own accord. Lent and holy week were actually some of my favorite times there. I loved the traditions. They weren't a hassle and were sort of a nice, innocent thing to look forward to. I actually broke a soda habit thanks to lent one year, and quit eating meat (which lasted eight years, except two short breaks) another year. I realize that's not the goal of lent at all, but I still think that's pretty neat.

For almost the last decade, I've had the Good Friday tradition of watching movies in the theme... Jesus Christ Superstar, Life of Brian, there are so many I love in a completely un-snarky way, and my friends seem to like it too (athiest here, for the record). We watched The Last Temptation of Christ this year.

[Pecansforeveryone]

I tend to dread gift exchanges. I rarely end up using/liking what I am given so I rarely use it.  This makes me feel so guilty. I worked at a Christian eating disorders center that did a month long secret Santa. I did it one year and never again. The pressure to pick out gifts for someone you might know only in passing was intense. The years i didnt participate my so called firends gave me crap about it saying oh you worry to much. Just pick out simple gifts. People will appreciate it. This while secretly bitching about a gift they didnt like or conplaining they hadn't gotten a gift that week. Thanks but no thanks. 

[justodd]

3 hours ago, Knight of Ni said:

The last time somebody asked me what I was giving up for Lent I told them “religion”. 

Back when I was a teenager, I usually said "going to church." Weirdly, this did not go over well at my Catholic high school...

[Sky with diamonds]

I remember in a town I once lived in, Halloween fell on a Sunday and there was quite the fuss about it. That year, we had to trick or treat a day before Halloween or the day after.

Halloween isn't a big deal where I live. For years, I'd be lucky if I had a couple of trick or treaters come to my door in my old neighborhood. Don't know what it will be like in this neighborhood.