St. Anne's Episcopal Church
| Bible Facts? |
| Church colors? |
| Easter eggs? |
| Pentecost? |
| Shrove Tuesday? |
| St. Patrick's Day? |
| St. Valentine's Day? |
| Sign of the Cross? |
| Tips from Altar Guild? |
Bible facts
When the books of the Bible were divided into chapters and
verses?
According to the Cambridge History of the Bible (Cambridge University
Press), the Old Testament of the Bible used by most Christians took shape
in AD 405 under Pope Innocent I. (The New Testament around the same time.)
The books of the Bible, however, were not divided into chapter and verse
as they are today. A lecturer at the University of Paris named Stephen
Langton did division of the text into chapters in the 13th century. A
Parisian printer named Robert Stephanus did the separation of chapters
into verses in 1551.
Boston Globe, January 2001
Colors of the Church Year
At St. Anne's, you will find these colors in our altar linens and clergy vestments to underscore the season and accentuate our worship:
Purple, or Blue, is used during the seasons of Advent and Lent. Purple is a penitential color which is sometimes used for burials.
White, or Gold, is used at Christmas, Easter, Ascensiontide, Transfiguration and at weddings and baptisms. The colors symbolize joy. These colors are often used now at burials to symbolize the joy of the resurrection.
Red, or Scarlet , is used at Pentecost and on saint's days (martyrs only). Red is also used for confirmations and ordinations. It symbolizes the "tongues of fire" of the Holy Spirit, as well as blood.
Green is used during the seasons of Epiphany and Pentecost. It is the universal color and symbolizes creation, nature and hope.
Black is used on Good Friday. It symbolizes grief.
Why are eggs and rabbits associated with Easter?
Easter is the most joyous of Christian holidays. It is celebrated
in commemoration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The exact day on
which Easter falls may vary from year to year, but it always comes, of
course, in the spring of the year. Thus, as Christianity spread, the celebration
of Easter included many customs that were linked with the celebration
of spring’s arrival. This explains why many Easter customs go back to
traditions that existed before Christianity itself.
Both Easter and the coming of spring are symbols of new life. The ancient
Egyptians and Persians celebrated their spring festivals by coloring and
eating eggs. This is because they considered the egg a symbol of fertility
and new life. The Christians adopted the egg as symbolic of new life,
the symbol of the Resurrection.
There is another reason why we observe the practice of eating eggs on
Easter Sunday and of giving them to friends or children. In the early
days of the Church, eggs were forbidden food during Lent. With the ending
of Lent, people were so glad to see and eat eggs again that they made
it a tradition to eat them on Easter Sunday.
The Easter hare also was part of the spring celebrations long before Christianity.
In the legends of ancient Egypt, the hare is associated with the moon.
The hare is linked with the night because it comes out only then to feed.
By being associated with the moon, the hare became a symbol of a new period
of life. Thus the hare stood for the renewal of life and for fertility.
The early Christians therefore took it over and linked it with Easter,
the holiday that symbolizes new life!
By the way, the tradition of wearing new clothes on Easter Sunday is also
symbolic of casting off the old and beginning with the new!
- from the book, The Big Book of Tell Me Why, by Ardady Leokum
Shrove Tuesday
Lent is a time of penance, prayer, preparation for or recollection of baptism, and preparation for celebrating Easter. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, the 40th weekday before Easter. Of the Sundays in Lent the fifth is Passion Sunday and the last is Palm Sunday. The week preceding Easter is Holy Week. Lent ends at midnight on Holy Saturday.
Shrove Tuesday is also known as Pancake Day. In the old days the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday was the day when the priest "shrove" his parishioners -- meaning that he heard their confessions, so that they could enter the fasting season, Lent, with a clear conscience.
People were not allowed to eat milk, eggs or fat during Lent, so it became the custom on Shrove Tuesday to use up all your butter and eggs by making pancakes. Traditionally the pancake is turned in the pan by tossing it in the air. Pancakes may seem an unlikely last indulgence, but because the recipe uses up all the rich ingredients like butter and eggs from the larder, it became a tradition.
Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day is also known as Mardi Gras (French for "Fat Tuesday"),Carnival (from the Latin for "farewell to the flesh"), and Fasnacht (the Germanic "night of the fast"). It is a big occasion and is celebrated around the world. In New Orleans, USA, Mardi Gras is a huge event and people hold parades and parties to celebrate.
Families gather for sweet and savory pancake suppers, and housewives still compete in the peculiar tradition of donning their aprons and racing each other holding pancake-filled frying pans. Strict rules require that each contestant successfully toss and flip her pancakes into the air at least three times before crossing the finish line!
- found on Kidsdomain
St. Patrick Day
Saint Patrick's Day (March 17th), is an Irish holiday honoring
Saint Patrick, the missionary credited with converting the Irish to Christianity
(in the AD 400's). Saint Patrick was not actually Irish. Historical sources
report that he was born around 373 AD in either Scotland (near the town
of Dumbarton) or in Roman Britain (the Romans left Britain in 410 AD).
His real name is believed to be Maewyn Succat (he took on Patrick, or
Patricus, after he became a priest). Pirates kidnapped him at the age
of 16 and sold into slavery in Ireland. During his 6-year captivity (he
worked as a shepherd), he began to have religious visions, and found strength
in his faith. He finally escaped (after voices in one of his visions told
him where he could find a getaway ship) and went to France, where he became
a priest (and later a bishop).
When he was about 60 years old, St. Patrick traveled to Ireland to spread
the Christian word. It's said that Patrick had an unusually winning personality,
and that helped him win converts. He used the shamrock, which resembles
a three-leafed clover, as a metaphor to explain the concept of the Trinity
(Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).
Legend has it that Saint Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland --
that they all went into the sea and drowned. Poor snakes, I don't know
why he would want to do this, except that the snake was a revered pagan
symbol, and perhaps this was a figurative tale alluding to the fact that
he drove paganism out of Ireland.
In America, Saint Patrick's Day is a basically a time to wear green and
party. The first American celebration of Saint Patrick's Day was in Boston,
Massachusetts, in 1737. As the saying goes, on this day "everybody is
Irish!" Over 100 U.S. cities now hold Saint Patrick's Day parades, the
largest held in New York City.
Green is associated with Saint Patrick's Day because it is the color of
spring, Ireland, and the shamrock. Leprechauns are also associated with
this holiday, although I'm not sure why. Leprechauns of legend are actually
mean little creatures, with the exception of the Lucky Charms guy. They
were probably added later on because capitalists needed something cute
to put on greeting cards.
What's good luck on Saint Patrick's Day?:
- Finding a four-leaf clover (that's double the good luck it usually is).
- Wearing green.
- Kissing the blarney stone.
An Irish blessing to take with you today:
May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow,
and may trouble avoid you wherever you go.
- found on Yahooligans, a Web
site designed for kids (of all ages)
St. Valentine's Day
Although St. Valentine's Day is a well-established American
holiday, little is known
about the man after whom the day is named. Here are some answers to questions
about St. Valentine and his day:
Who was St. Valentine?
Valentine was a priest and physician who lived in Rome during the third
century.
At that time, Christianity was a persecuted faith and Valentine was imprisoned.
When
he would not recant his faith, Valentine was put to death on February
14.
How did Valentine become the patron saint of lovers?
According to legend, when Valentine was a priest in Rome, Emperor Claudius
II
ordered young men not to marry, believing if they did not have wives,
they would
be more willing to go to war. Moved by compassion of the young lovers,
Valentine
married them secretly.
Why is February 14 associated with romance?
February 15 was the date set aside to honor the Roman god, Lupercus. On
that
day, young women would write love notes and deposit them in a large urn.
The
young men would take the notes out and then court the women whose messages
they had drawn. When Christianity became the official religion of Rome,
the church
merged the Roman holiday with the martyrdom of St. Valentine on February
14.
Courtesy of Good Housekeeping, February 1994
Sign of the Cross
Originally, the Sign of the Cross was used partly as sanctifying every action in daily life from rising in the morning to retiring at night, partly as an encouragement from temptation, and partly as means of mutual recognition in times of persecution. From early times, the sign was also used in Baptism and Confirmation. Its use was then extended to the liturgical blessing of persons and things.
Tips from the Altar Guild
Cleaning:
1)Glass cruets can be cleaned with denture cleaner and rice in a little
water. Shake gently.
2)Glass cruets may be stored upside down on wooden dowels that have been
installed in a heavy block of wood.
3)Crystal cruets may be cleaned with unpopped corn kernels and a little
water. Shake gently.
Pentecost - what is it and what does it mean?
A religious observance that has roots in the Old Testament and continues to be observed in both Judaism and Christianity.
In the Old Testament the customary name for the observance is the Feast of Weeks, or the first fruits of the harvest. It was originally an agricultural festival, an occasion on which the community was expected to show gratitude to God for the first fruits.
Somewhere between 300 BC and 300 AD, Pentecost lost its association with agriculture and became associated with the religious history of the Jewish people identified with the covenant between God and Noah.
After the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, Pentecost was transformed into an observance of the giving of Torah on Mount Sinai.
In the New Testament (first century) Pentecost was celebrated and came to have special meaning. The first Pentecost after Jesus' death and resurrection was a gathering of apostles and others in Jerusalem. There was a sudden sound "like the rush of mighty wind" from heaven, followed by "tongues" as of fire, distributed and resting on each of them. The apostles began to speak in tongues. Peter proclaimed that Jesus had been raised from the dead, and he called for repentance. About 3,000 people were added to the group of believers.
(Harpers Bible Dictionary)
Today Pentecost falls on the seventh Sunday of Easter and is known as the birthday of the Christian church.