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momwise
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In the past few months Mary M has come up with a couple of really great field trips on All Souls' day and Ascension Thursday.
We took atour of our Catholic cemetery and did tombstone rubbing to take home. Mary had a nice prayer service printed up for the poor souls and then when we left the group we went around a prayed for our family's grandparents and friends.
You can read about our "mountain top picnic" on this Ascension Thursday thread.
My dc love these field trips! The summer is a little slower but it's a good time to look ahead and plan.
So far I've considered a visit to the botanical gardens in Aug. for the feast of the Assumption. I'd like to try and get a priest to join us before or afterward for a blessing of our own herbs, as well as take a tour of the Marian plants and have a "fruit potluck" for lunch.
Why not keep this thread going throughout the year? We can't do many field trips but these feast day trips are definitely the dcs favorites.
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
"If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." JPII
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JennGM
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momwise wrote:
| So far I've considered a visit to the botanical gardens in Aug. for the feast of the Assumption. I'd like to try and get a priest to join us before or afterward for a blessing of our own herbs, as well as take a tour of the Marian plants and have a "fruit potluck" for lunch. |
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I love it! The blessing of fruits and herbs on Assumption makes it one of my favorite feasts. A dream of mine is to one day walk those gorgeous Lavender fields in France...and to pair it up on Assumption would be a dream come true.
Can I post an idea for a field trip? If you live near the New Jersey shore, the Feast of the Assumption is special there for the Wedding and Blessing of the Sea. It has different titles, but churches near the shore have a special blessing and row out from the shore and lay a wreath on the ocean. I've been once in Ocean City. In Atlantic City bus loads of people come to the celebration. I can't find my links about it right now...and I've been unsuccessful in finding more about it except time and place.  This might be done in other countries and other coastline places, but I'm only aware of NJ right now.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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lapazfarm
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I know in Tarpon Springs, FL, due to the large Greek Orthodox population, it is a big celebration on Epiphany to have the blessing of boats and water. It is huge and lots of fun to attend with a wonderful Greek festival atmosphere with food and music on the sponge docks. The culmination is that they throw a crucifix into the water and all the young Greek men dive for it. The one who comes up with it is said to be blessed all year. If you can't visit Tarpon Springs, it might be fun to do a similar celebration anywhere. Since Epiphany is in January it may be too cold to dive right in, but you could do an apple-bobbing sort of thing with blindfolds and a big tub of water.
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Donna Marie
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Don't forget couch field trips...aka...dvd's or videos of places that you would like to include on a special pilgrimage....even if you cannot be there in person, you can always visit in prayer and through use of modern media....even the internet!
YMMV... 
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Donna Marie from NJ
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JennGM
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lapazfarm wrote:
| I know in Tarpon Springs, FL, due to the large Greek Orthodox population, it is a big celebration on Epiphany to have the blessing of boats and water. It is huge and lots of fun to attend with a wonderful Greek festival atmosphere with food and music on the sponge docks. |
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That's what has me puzzled about the Assumption blessing. I knew about the Epiphany blessing of the sea, but this was news to me.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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MaryM
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JennGM wrote:
| Wedding and Blessing of the Sea. It has different titles, but churches near the shore have a special blessing and row out from the shore and lay a wreath on the ocean. ....This might be done in other countries and other coastline places, but I'm only aware of NJ right now. |
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This sounded intriguing Jenn. A love the challenge of trying to find out more. In doing a little searching sea blessings do seem to be common to some coastal areas in Europe - particularly France (and French influenced areas of the New World - like islands in the Carribean). Some of the blessings seem to be associated with the Assumption feast, but similar blessings seem to also happen other months as well. I couldn't find any others that have the specific "wedding" connection. If you search "benediction de la mer" or variations you get a few hits - wish I could read French. This location has it associated with the Ascension.
There are great old pictures of sea blessing ceremonies if you do a google image search on "benediction de la mer". I've tried going backward in the web addresses from the images to see if there is more explanation - but so far not much luck. Clearly there is something there and it will be interesting to see what can be found out about this tradition.
The tradition in Tarpon Springs that Theresa mentioned sound really intriguing also.
Wish we lived by an ocean - I feel so deprived.
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Mary M. in Denver
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momwise
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JennGM wrote:
Can I post an idea for a field trip? |
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Post away!  That's what I had in mind.
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
"If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." JPII
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momwise
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MaryM wrote:
| Wish we lived by an ocean - I feel so deprived. |
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ah well......you'll have to offer that up Anyway, I live by Standley Lake 
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
"If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." JPII
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JennGM
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MaryM wrote:
JennGM wrote:
| Wedding and Blessing of the Sea. It has different titles, but churches near the shore have a special blessing and row out from the shore and lay a wreath on the ocean. ....This might be done in other countries and other coastline places, but I'm only aware of NJ right now. |
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This sounded intriguing Jenn. A love the challenge of trying to find out more. In doing a little searching sea blessings do seem to be common to some coastal areas in Europe - particularly France (and French influenced areas of the New World - like islands in the Carribean). Some of the blessings seem to be associated with the Assumption feast, but similar blessings seem to also happen other months as well. I couldn't find any others that have the specific "wedding" connection. If you search "benediction de la mer" or variations you get a few hits - wish I could read French. This location has it associated with the Ascension.
There are great old pictures of sea blessing ceremonies if you do a google image search on "benediction de la mer". I've tried going backward in the web addresses from the images to see if there is more explanation - but so far not much luck. Clearly there is something there and it will be interesting to see what can be found out about this tradition. |
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Here's the only link I have Wedding and Blessing of the Sea. It is also called "Blessing of the Waters."
This and other blessings in wine/olive country in CA for Blessing of Olives, Sonoma County intrigue me because they are local customs, not mentioned in the current Roman Ritual.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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MaryM
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All these "sea blessings" associated with the Ascension and the Assumption likely have some kind of common origin. The Ascension link would explain why I was finding a lot of sea blessings held in May. Here are a couple celebrations in Italy specifically called Sea Weddings (Sposalizio del mare) - all are associated with the Ascension.
Cervia
Venice
There are tons of links about "sposalizio del mare" - NOW if only I could read Italian!
Edited to add: EMILIA ROMAGNA: ‘LO SPOSALIZIO DEL MARE’ IN CERVIA FROM MAY 2 TO 8
Rome, April 26 (Adnkronos) - ‘’Lo sposalizio del mare’’ (the marriage of the Venetian Republic to the Adriatic Sea) is the evocative name of the event that will take place in Cervia from May 2 to 8. A festival of the sea, between tradition and the discovery of new and far away places. Tradition because ‘’lo sposalizio del mare’’ is born from an ancient legend that describes how the bishop of Cervia, on his return to Venice in 1445, was surprised by a terrible storm. To placate the storm he threw his pastoral ring into the water, saving in this way himself and his crew. Since then the maritime city remembers the event with a colourful and folkloristic as well as religious celebration. Dates seem to be last years festival. This sounds very much like what they are doing in the NJ parish (wedding sea to land) just the differing feast day.
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Mary M. in Denver
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momwise
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For a possible Spring/Mardi Gras or Lent field trip to a pretzel maker, check out this thread and link.
What other feasts would be a good time for this?
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
"If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." JPII
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momwise
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We are making a homeschool group visit to the Catholic cemetery, Mount Olivet, again this year on All Souls Day. We will have a prayer time, more grave rubbings, visits to the graves of prominent local Catholics (I especially love visiting Bishop Machebeuf).
Is anyone else doing this this year?
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
"If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." JPII
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anniemm
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We will be doing that this year. One of my friends' daughter passed away in June (she was 2  and it was totally unexpected, in her sleep, supposedly healthy), so we will be visiting her gravesite and also the others around it on All Soul's. We might try doing tombsone rubbings, and I'll take a bunch of single flowers to leave around, and a bouquet for Mary Clare's gravesite. I need to find some sort of simple prayer service that we can do...
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Michaela
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Could someone explain tombstone rubbings?
Is it for the religious artwork on the tombstone or the entire name/date? To pray for the person?
Thank you! 
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ALmom
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We did it to post and remind us to pray for the person. Since none of my relatives are buried in town, we cannot visit their graves. My dc really got excited about finding specific things - like my son prayed all Nov. one year for a deceased veteran (army and navy background). You find a lot of history on the tombstones in the older cemeteries. Most of the people probably were not Catholic - we don't even have a Catholic cemetery in our area.
Janet
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MaryM
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Michaela wrote:
| Is it for the religious artwork on the tombstone or the entire name/date? To pray for the person? |
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It could be either. Last year we did both. We had the kids fill a paper with different rubbings of Christian symbols they found. We also did rubbings of whole gravestones, with the names and dates. The kids liked finding ones that were significant in some way (same birthday, etc.) We brought them home as a reminder of our visit and to pray for the deceased in general during November (and share with dad). The praying for that individual is a very nice idea - liked your story about the one your son prayed for, Janet.
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Mary M. in Denver
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MaryM
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Bumping thread...
Have been hoping for a few years to schedule a field trip to a farm on the Feast of St. Isidore (May 15) but haven't managed it. The other recently bumped thread on rogation days reminded me - this week of St. Isidore and the rogation days would be a perfect time for such a field trip. So it could be a local farm, nursery, orchard, urban gardens, etc.
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Mary M. in Denver
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Liturgical Year Field trips
