Happy Name Day to me!
By BarBaraPrz
@BarBaraPrz (28555)
St. Catharines, Ontario
December 4, 2007 9:33am CST
December 4 is St. Barbara's Day. My name is BarBara. Therefore... happy name day to me! (No one else is going to wish it for me.) Poles used to celebrate Name Days more so than birthdays. Often, they were the same day, but not always. I don't know if this is still the case, but I remember in my first job after college, the boss' wife wishing me a Happy Birthday on December 4... She was Polish and assumed it was my birthday because I'm Polish, too. (It's actually in February.) I have vague memories of being told it was my name day when I was a child, but not of any celebration for it. And as for my actual birthday, it came two days before my father's, so we usually had one cake on the Sunday closest to either day. Way to confuse a kid! I never knew when my birthday was until I was about 10.
But I'm prattling now... If you want to know more about St. Barbara, go to: http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintb01.htm
Do you have a name day, and do you know when it is?
1 person likes this
3 responses
@BarBaraPrz (28555)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
4 Dec 07
The Church used to put out calendars with all the saints' days marked, but I think they did away with that sometime around Vatican II? They delisted a bunch of saints, too, like Valentine and Christopher, and yes, Barbara. My youngest sister's name is Patricia, and I always used St Patrick's Day as her name day. As for 'Mary', hardly a week goes by without some special mention of her...
@sumofalltears (4008)
• United States
4 Dec 07
Happy name day to you, I was not aware of a name day custom, but it is interesting. We can only celebrate 365 names a year though.
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