tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242187022431135161.post6208207213117478335..comments2024-03-22T15:15:53.970-04:00Comments on Ellie's Ancestors: Graveyard MassesElliehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03597553254090967849noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242187022431135161.post-43089697803484311782016-02-06T19:33:15.320-05:002016-02-06T19:33:15.320-05:00Thank you Dara, for that informative comment. I&#...Thank you Dara, for that informative comment. I'd like to read more about Pattern Day.Elliehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03597553254090967849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7242187022431135161.post-85253424632260449802016-02-06T12:03:04.694-05:002016-02-06T12:03:04.694-05:00Hi Ellie, the ceremony is also called the ‘Blessin...Hi Ellie, the ceremony is also called the ‘Blessing of the Graves’. It’s now held in nearly every parish in Ireland, but it’s not an old custom, I don’t think, at least not in its current widespread form. It spread in the 1970s and 1980s. I suspect the main objective was to prompt people to regularly tidy up their family graves. Once a year, parishioners go to the cemetery, stand at their family grave, and the priest prays for the dead and everyone says the Rosary. I haven’t been to one where Mass is said, though in my husband’s home parish, Mass is held in the church followed by the ceremony in the graveyard.<br />The custom probably had its roots in another old annual Parish ceremony, Pattern Day, which has/had more or less died out. And you’re right- Patterns likely gained popularity during the penal era when Catholic Mass was outlawed. Yet, it too probably derived from an older pre-Christian tradition, given the ceremony was held at a local ‘holy place’, e.g. an ancient well. Dara https://www.blogger.com/profile/16643201998217385573noreply@blogger.com