Catholic mamas... If you have a little Mary,

[annettemarie]

how did you choose her nameday? If Baby B is really a girl (crosses fingers and toes) her name will be Mary Beatrice, Molly for short. But there are tons of Marian feast days! Do you just choose any? I'm kind of drawn towards Our Lady of Knock, plus that would put her name day in August and Baby A's name day would be in September, so they wouldn't have to share that as well as birthdays.

Anyway... thoughts?

Just to clarify why it's important-- at our house, we celebrate birthdays, Baptismal anniversaries, and namedays. It's not a huge deal, but the kid gets to choose dinner/desert.

[mum4boys]

We have Mary Margaret whom we call Maggie. Being the only girl in our family, she gets lots of recognition on each individual feast day. the older boys love pointing it out and making a big deal out of it.

[Ethelpea]

We have a Miriam. She is, of course, named after Our Lady and the closest feast day is the Immaculate Conception. We didn't chose her name because of when her birthday landed, I just always knew my first girl would be a Miriam.

[modmom]

We don't have a Mary but if we did I would probably celebrate them all!!! Thant's just me.

[VillageMom6]

I have a Mary and her feast day is the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which is not a set date but something like the third Sunday in June. It happened to fall on my Mary's first birthday, which was the day that I made my consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

(Okay, I just checked. The feast day for the Immaculate Heart of Mary is the Saturday following the Second Sunday after Pentecost. I can never remember these things. I still can't explain how Easter is determined.)

Mary Beatrice is a beautiful name! My Mary is Mary Caroline. I have to tell you... I'm a believer that little girls named after Our Lady are particularly sweet. Mine sure is!

[chaoticzenmom]

My husband is Catholic and he loves nameday celebrations. I'd pick the one farthest from anyone else's birthday or nameday.

[annettemarie]

The more I look into Our Lady of Knock, the more I like it. One website described it as "a silent blessing." With twins, I could really use a silent blessing.

How do you all celebrate namedays?

[Maiasaura]

Originally Posted by VillageMom6

I can never remember these things. I still can't explain how Easter is determined

Easter is the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the Spring Equinox.

HTH

[elmh23]

I'd pick the one that you felt the most called to, in this case Our Lady of Knock. For me, it would be Our Lady of Assumption. I don't have a Mary yet (if I were to have a baby girl today, she'd be named Marian )

We need to start celebrating namedays in this house!

[adoremybabe]

I think that we'll be celebrating baptismal days and namedays from now on! Thanks for the idea.

As a side note, I too love the name Mary. My grandmother Mary was born on August 15th and I have two cousins named Mary. One is Mary Grace...Hail Mary Full of Grace.

[lilyka]

We celebrate name days and I LOVE it. I bring the girls flowers and balloons and make a special dinner and desert. I am trying to focus more on their name day and less on their birthday. If there is a festal liturgy and I could get off work I would pull them out of school for it. I also give them the option of hosting church coffee hour on their nameday and that way the whole church can celebrate with them.

Magdelini has two feast days and she gets a celebration on the first one (the feast if Mary Magdalene in July) and a general nod on the second (the feast of the myrrh bearing women). I think Angelyka has two different days as well. And for Ketavan we celebrate on the feast of St. Queen Ketevan and there is another day dedicated to the all Georgian saints and I think one to the three sainted queens of Georgia.

if I had a Mary I would celebrate on the Dormition of the Theotokos. Which we celbrated this Sunday.

They were all baptized the same day. We don't really celebrate the day but do acknowledge it.