With 12 of my first 18 years spent doing time in Catholic schools, today’s date made me stop and think “Isn’t it some Saint’s birthday or something today?”
Turns out I was correct in that today, August 15th is The Feast of the Assumption whereby Mary was taken up into heaven body and soul. (Quick aside here – does that mean that Mary is bopping around up there naked while everyone else is just floating around as a soul? Mary may be putting on a nice little show for everyone. Think about it.)
And a second take away from all my education of things holy is that today would also be a Holy Day of Obligation requiring Catholics to attend Mass. However, on this one I was only sorta correct about it being a Holy Day of Obligation because, due to some loophole, Catholics are not obligated to attend Mass today given that it fell on a Monday. So, does that mean today is a Holy Day of Non-obligation? Just asking.
But when it comes to Holy Days of Obligation, Mary is a central figure in 3 1/2 of the recognized Holy Days. Why the halfsie I hear you wondering. Well, even though Christmas is officially celebrated as the Nativity of Christ, without Mary doing a little pushing here and there, we would not be celebrating any of these days and events. And because Mary doesn’t get much credit nor recognition for her role in Christmas, I am thinking about starting a new movement called JMM as in Jewish Mothers Matter.
Note too, that when the decision was made to change the 1 January Holy Day from the Feast of the Circumcision, it then became the Solemnity of Mary. Guess you can say that the Circumcision got cut. (OK bad one there, but stay tuned because today I’m gonna set a record for most bad puns in a single Buzzyblog post!)
Here then from Catholic.com is a summary of the Holy Days. See their upfront concession that holy days in the U.S. “can be a little bewildering.” Their words not mine.
One final comment about Mary’s Assumption into heaven is that it didn’t really hit prime time as sanctioned feast day until 1950 when Pius XII made it official (click here.) Then there was the young girl named Mary who planted sweet potatoes just because she wanted to have a little yam. Sorry.
So what’s all this got to do with Buzzy’s Country Store? All I can say is that Buzzy’s is closed today and should you beieve the closure is in honor of Mary, that would be a “bad assumption.” (Told you I was going for the most-bad-puns-record!)
Ever notice how a couple of the great songs with Mary in the title don’t really have anything to do with her, nor any other woman for that matter? For example, Proud Mary is about a boat, Along Comes Mary is about pot and Cross Eyed Mary I have no clue what that one is about.
But check out my favorite Mary song where Jimi is talking about a girlfriend named Mary with whom he had just had an argument that escalated to the point where she threw some dishes at him. Hence the great line “A broom is drearily sweeping up the broken pieces of yesterday’s life.”