Annunciation

I admit - I'm struggling a bit with this self imposed straitjacket of blips till Easter. I'll be incredibly relieved to get back to 'normal' blipping!

Today is the Feast of the Annunciation, when the Angel Gabriel came and gave Mary the news about the turn her life was about to take. The only thing relevant I could find in the house to blip was this black and white illustration in my Mum's old pre Vatican II Missal.

The church calendar is full of these feast days. In the middle ages these 'holy days' would have been opportunities to down tools, hence the word holidays. I seem to remember reading somewhere that although there weren't statutory holidays in the way we know them, the preponderance of feast days and holy days before the Reformation allowed plenty of opportunities for fun and merriment - after church observances of course!! For a few of them the strictures about observance still apply - these are now known as Holy Days of Obligation. You're obliged to attend Mass even if it's the middle of the week, which isn't always easy given today's work patterns!!