So today’s the Assumption and I always hunger for more knowledge on why it’s August 15th. Seems random but also in a way very appropriate: this is the harvest season extraordinare. Peaches, tomatoes, you name it. And so there’s the image of Mary being “harvested” by God, a picture of the good wheat going to Heaven. No tares in her.
The origins are murky, except that by the 7th century it was celebrated. Wikipedia mentions that it seems to have been a Christianization of an earlier harvest festival, but also points to the possibility of the goddess Isis having a birthdate nearby (Aug 12) and Christianizing that pagan day. Which is appropriate given today is Mary’s birthday in Heaven.
I certainly don’t see anything wrong with that given that no one but Protestant apologists think Catholics worship Mary. (It’s akin to how only “woke” radicals think that black lives don’t matter to whites. Both of the following are “the sky is blue” statements for the vast majority of people: “black lives matter” and “Mary is not God” so in both cases there’s no need for whites or Catholics to feel defensive.)
Interestingly, in Ancient Rome, “the religious meaning of all Roman festivals was being forgotten or ignored even as the customs continued.” The belief in the pagan gods was strong in Rome in, say, 1000BC but by 200AD the meaning had drained if the customs continued. I think we’ve seen a similar thing with Christian feasts like St Patrick’s Day and St. Valentine’s Day, which are very light on religious meaning even if the customs continued. They could stand be re-Christianized.
Wikipedia goes on to say: “In some cases, these customs became part of the combined classical and Christian culture of the Early Middle Ages.” Also:
This holiday, which has been celebrated since the fourth century CE, is a Christianization of an earlier harvest festival and, in many parts of Europe, is known as the Feast of Our Lady of the Harvest. For centuries celebrations were held in the honor of the goddess Isis of the Sea, who was born on this day according to mythology. With the coming of Christianity church leaders decided that the easiest way to handle this pagan ritual was to simply change it into a Christian holiday, hence the introduction of Assumption Day came forth...It is around the Roman Lychnapsia, or lamp-lit festival, that celebrated Isis's own birth on August 12.
Festivals of Isis and other polytheistic deities were celebrated throughout the fourth century CE, despite the growth of Christianity in that era and the persecution of pagans that intensified toward the end of the century. The Isia was celebrated at least as late as 417 CE, and the Navigium Isidis lasted well into the sixth century.
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I’m no fan of Taylor Marshall, but he makes an interesting point that you had to protect Mary by not saying too much about her in NT writings lest she experience persecution:
Cases have been made that Galatians and 1 Peter are basically tracts on baptism...I believe that the New Testament speaks of the mysteries of the faith in clouded language on account of the fierce persecution that Christians received from both the Jews and the Romans. Mary would have been revered, but to speak of her openly would have placed her danger.
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Elsewhere, Amy Welborn often says things that uncomfortably hit too close to home. She talks about how the emphasis on works of charity didn’t originate since Vatican II:
“No, Catholics did not get the message about faith-charity-justice since Vatican II. In fact, it was the opposite: charity was at the core of faith. People took Jesus in Matthew 25 at his word.
My evolving theory on how that changed during the course of the 20th century involves socio-economic factors: as in, with greater general prosperity and mobility, human beings were more able to segregate themselves and therefore shut themselves off from those in need and create little worlds where they could pretend they didn’t exist and the growth of ‘Real Faith = Me Following My Heart and I’m going to Heaven Anyway‘ instead of ‘Real Faith=Me Following Jesus’ Commands Or Else.‘