Last weekend, I was invited to a baptism in a little village. I had been warned that the parents might not be prepared to answer the priest's questions, and that it might very well turn into a circus at the altar. Everything about this mass was bizarre: first, it was Palm Sunday, but the villagers were carrying
buis, or boxwood instead of palms. Then, the priest put on his vestments at the altar, didn't proceed in, and seemed a bit gruff to me. "Are we at least going to sing something?" he asked the congregation. Despite the awkward start when one
of the families was late to their own daughter's baptism, baby Alice was finally baptized. Afterwards, we went to Philippe and Valérie's for a celebratory dinner. It's tradition to offer
dragées, or candy-coated almonds, to the guests, and for dessert, we had a
pièce montée made of creampuffs and
nougatine.
Last weekend, I was invited to a baptism in a little village. I had been warned that the parents might not be prepared to answer the priest's questions, and that it might very well turn into a circus at the altar. Everything about this mass was bizarre: first, it was Palm Sunday, but the villagers were carrying buis, or boxwood instead of palms. Then, the priest put on his vestments at the altar, didn't proceed in, and seemed a bit gruff to me. "Are we at least going to sing something?" he asked the congregation. Despite the awkward start when one
of the families was late to their own daughter's baptism, baby Alice was finally baptized. Afterwards, we went to Philippe and Valérie's for a celebratory dinner. It's tradition to offer dragées, or candy-coated almonds, to the guests, and for dessert, we had a pièce montée made of creampuffs and nougatine.
1 comment:
Though there seems to be no canonical prohibition against baptism during Lent, they are customarily not performed, at least in the US, except for pastoral reasons.
As for boxwood, this, from a website claiming information on "Everything about boxwood:"
(http://www.buxusfiguren.de/E/03_start_E/Start_E.htm)
"Many pre-Christian, pagan Germanic spring customs were taken over at the time of Christianisation. The best known example is probably the Easter egg. The evergreen boxwood first appeared in Central Europe at pagan Germanic Tribes as a decoration plant with life symbolism, and it was easily transformed into Christian Easter palm. In the Catholic Church boxwood plays an important role at Palm Sunday."
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