Month: March 2020

March Religious Holidays

March Religious Holidays

Month: (Sorted Alphabetically)

  • Spiritual Wellness Month

2020 Weeks: (Sorted Alphabetically)

  • Consider Christianity Week – March 29 – April 4, 2020 (Begins the Second Sunday before Easter)
  • Holi – Evening of March 8, 2020 – Evening of March 9, 2020 (Hindu)
  • Jewish Book Week – February 29 – March 8, 2020 
  • Lent – Begins on Ash Wednesday – February 26 – April 9, 2020
  • National Catholic Sisters Week – March 8-14, 2020 (Second Week)
  • Purim – Evening of March 9 – Evening of March 10, 2020 (Jewish)

2020 Days: (Sorted by Date)

  • St. David’s Day – March 1
  • Clean Monday – March 2, 2020 (Orthodox Christian)
  • World Day of Prayer – March 6, 2020 (First Friday in March)
  • Ta’ Anit Esther – March 9, 2020 (Jewish)
  • St. Patrick’s Day – March 17
  • Goddess of Fertility Day – March 18
  • Nowruz – March 20
  • Spring Equinox – March 20 (Pagan)
  • International Day of Nowruz – March 21
  • Isra and Mi’raj – March 22, 2020 (Muslim Holiday)
  • The Annunciation – Known also as The Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, or the Feast of the Annunciation (Christianity) – March 25
  • Knights of Columbus Founders Day – March 29

Shrove Tuesday! What Is This?

What is Shrove Tuesday?

Updated Feb 25, 2020; Posted Feb 25, 2020

What is Shrove Tuesday?
It’s Shrove Tuesday today, also known as Shrovetide Tuesday or Pancake Tuesday.

By Greg Garrison | ggarrison@al.com

It’s Shrove Tuesday today, also known as Shrovetide Tuesday or Pancake Tuesday. So what does “Shrove” mean? And why are some Christians eating pancakes today?

Pancakes were traditionally eaten on the day before Ash Wednesday because they were a way to use up eggs, milk, and sugar before the fasting season of the 40 days of Lent. Liturgical fasting during Lent emphasizes eating plainer food and refraining from “pleasurable” foods such as meat, dairy and eggs. Many people “give something up” during Lent as a way to prepare for Easter, which is on April 12 this year.

Shrove is the past tense of shrive, which means to gain absolution of sins by confession and repentance. Shrove Tuesday is also known as Pancake Tuesday in some western European countries. The pancake aspect is not as widely observed in the United States as it is in England.

Of course, in America today is more popularly known as Mardi Gras, which is “Fat Tuesday” in French.

It’s called Fat Tuesday because it’s the last day of indulgence before Ash Wednesday, when ashes are imposed on the forehead in the mark of a cross, with the minister quoting Genesis on the mortality of man.

Many Episcopal churches have pancake suppers on Shrove Tuesday, often as fundraisers for parish youth groups.

Unusual Animal!!!

Dumbo octopus

Grimpoteuthis or the dumbo octopus is the deepest living of all octopus species. It got its name for its ear-like fins, which loosely resemble those of the Disney character, Dumbo the Flying Elephant. 

Slide 5 of 27

Famous Poem

In valleys green and still

by A. E. Housman

An illustration for the story In valleys green and still by the author A. E. Housman
Forest Wander, West Virginia
    In valleys green and still
    Where lovers wander maying
    They hear from over hill
    A music playing.

    Behind the drum and fife,
    Past hawthornwood and hollow,
    Through earth and out of life
    The soldiers follow.

    The soldier's is the trade:
    In any wind or weather
    He steals the heart of maid
    And man together.

    The lover and his lass
    Beneath the hawthorn lying
    Have heard the soldiers pass,
    And both are sighing.

    And down the distance they
    With dying note and swelling
    Walk the resounding way
    To the still dwelling.

Quote

See the source image

Irish Sayings

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind be always at your back.

May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.

May the rain fall softly upon your fields. And the sun shine warm upon your face.

Top of the mornin’ to you…..(and the rest of the day to ‘me self!)

May there always be work for you to do.

May your purse always hold a coin or two.

May the sun always shine on your windowpane.

May the hand of a friend always be near you.

May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

May the wind at your back not be from the cabbage and corned beef that you eat today!

May your blessings far outnumber the shamrocks that grow, and may trouble avoid you wherever you go.

Everyone’s at least a little bit Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. (how true, how true).

When Irish eyes are smiling… they are probably up to something.