I was just looking at my wall calendar, which as all French calendars should, has the saints' days on it... And today is St Ella's day ! Yay for Saint Ella !!
Wow, i didn't know this. Curses, St Ella's day is nearly over. Could I have used this as a reason for not washing up? From now on I'm taking this as a religious holiday. Thanks Katcal 8)
Lots of Catholics celebrate their Name Day - the day of the saint with the name they received at their First Holy Communion - like a second birthday.
No, for a long time, in France, you could only give your child a name that was on the official list, which was more or less the ones on the calendar (some saints share the same day) this ended in the 70's if I remember rightly... I'll look up some other people's name-days if you like... Oh and Nester... We all know that Adam was made of Clay
Kat, I would be surprised if French Catholics didn't receive a saint's name on their First Holy Communion in addition to their proper name - and I'd be even more surprised if the majority of saints' names weren't on that list in their francified form.
Well of course they're in a francified form, that's the one true way to spell them, all these foreign people go around spelling their name wrong But as far as I recall, French catholics don't get an extra name at first communion or even at confirmation, only people who get ordained choose a new saint's name. And even then it's sometimes the same as their original one. Some people are so lazy However, what they do at first communion is establish the link between the saint of your first name and you, making it a kind of official link. Often, first names were derived from the saint's name, Paulette being a female version of Paul, or a version of the female Paule (there hapens to be a saint Paule) so you would be associated with the saint whose name was the closest to yours, so you have a day to party on, but it's not a replacement name. I think my favourite must be Saint Kevin. There's something so geekish about Kevin
Catholics choose a Saint's name when they are confirmed but it's not something that gets legally added to your names. I think the idea is to choose a saint you admire or feel connected to as an inspiration for the future (It's been a long time since I was confirmed and the memory is a bit hazy)
I too kept my heathen names when being baptized (at eight) and when I got my first communion. The oldfashioned names are coming back after decades of heathen naming though, but rather for being oldfashioned than for being Saint-related.
So... St Ella : 1st Feb. St Grace : 21st Aug. St Damien : 15th Apr. (Damien of Molokai, isn't that the greatest name ever ?) St Benjamin : 31st Mar. St Stephen : 26th Dec. (so Doors gets out of washing up on the only day of the year when everyone oders takeaway and does no washing up... yay ! ) St Yvette/Yvonne : 13th Jan. St Sophie/Sofia : 25th May St Stanislas : 11th Apr. St Adam (see !) : 22nd Dec. Uh... can't think of any other names off hand, I must be missing some, shout if you want to know yours... Sorry Avgi and Clay, you don't exist
St James the Lesser 3rd May St James the Greater 25th July St James of the Marche 28th Nov So far I've found three nicely spaced through the year. Popular name James! (Jacqueline comes from the french Jacques)
Well, I was gonna blame it on Doors, but it is his birthday so we'll put it down to global warming. Spring is the new autumn you know...
The saint name doesn't replace the given name, and isn't always used - you just get a great excuse to have a second birthday. And 21st August is my dad's birthday, and 25th July is my mum's! (By the way, Kat, in case you didn't know, Garner's first name is actually James.)
That would be so PTerry... I didn't know about "my" Saint! The German calendar didn't have any! I have a names day!
How bout St. Thomas? If my mom sees this post she will freak because she thinks everyone on the Internet is out to get me. (I prefer Tom anyway)
Hooray :!: :!: :!: Now all I have to do is pester my parents to let me celebrate it though i'm not Christian. You should get back to cheese wars
I'm pretty sure there's no St. Toni, but I want to see you try to find one :badgrin: BTW so if Garner's first name is James, and his last name is Garner, does that mean that Clay is fictitious or in the middle or both?
Well thats just ever so slightly disappointing. I was hoping you'd say the Clay was fictitiously in the middle, which just opens up all sorts of possibilities for hilarity... but my fun has been thwarted I shall just have to go make fun of Kat. So much easier...
