HOLY DAYS - FESTA – Holidays and Feast Days

If I were in America today I would be enjoying at some point a drink to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with some friend or another. I remember asking my friend Ethna, who comes from Ireland, how they celebrate there, she said it is a Saint’s feast day and usually the family has a big mid-day meal and attend church sometime during the day. A far cry from the American drinkfest, although in Dublin it is now becoming a drinking holiday as well. Here in Piegaro it is the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy, and it too is a feast day. Following the mornings festivities throughout the country in all the villages, families everywhere had feasts. One of the treats of this visit is that I am pretty sure I would not have known about the 150th anniversary, much less had the opportunity to celebrate if I had not been here. To be invited and welcomed into family and community here has been a great blessing and reminder to CELEBRATE!!!

I am very blessed to have been adopted into a family here and to have enjoyed a lovely meal with them. Lila’s family is different, yet mostly so similar to mine in America it is sometimes startling. There are not just family members around the table, but those, like myself who have been adopted into the family. But the celebration with food to me is the most wonderful thing of all. It displays the abundance of God in the fullest, an abundance of people, an abundance of food, and an abundance of conversation. As is typical anywhere, I get lost between 2 or three conversations, losing myself even more here since I can’t catch all the words, yet the interest in one another is similar and very comforting, it is in these relationships that the celebration is truly important.

What makes a holiday holy always seems to be the same things, giving thanks to God, sharing in the abundance of God, and spending time loving others; be it family, extended family or friends. One of my joys this day was to have taken many photos of the village celebration and then have the wonderful family of the sindico (mayor) come by the pub as I downloaded pictures and Laura, the wife of the sindico and a facebook friend not only bought me a drink, but told me about another photo opportunity. Relationships just keep growing through our connections on holidays, via sharing. Truly holy experience as neighbors grow in numbers.

How do you keep holy days holy?
How can you take the opportunity to accept and give invitations for growing relationships in even the smallest of holidays?
How can you celebrate with others who may be celebrating things you know