Guestling Bradshaw CE Primary School

The feast day of the Assumption of Mary, also known as Assumption Day, celebrates the day that the Virgin Mary ascended into Heaven following her death. It is celebrated annually on or around August 15th in many countries, particularly in Europe and South America, where there are large Catholic populations.

Assumption Day commemorates the belief that when Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, died, her body was not subjected to the usual process of physical decay but was “assumed” into heaven and reunited there with her soul. 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 honour 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.

Like the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption was not always an official dogma of the Roman Catholic Church – until Pope Pius XII made it so in 1950. It is, however, a belief held by some Orthodox Christians and Anglicans. It is regarded as the principal feast day of the Virgin Mother.

Assumption Day is a public holiday in many European countries. Colourful processions through the streets and firework displays mark the celebration of the Feast of the Assumption in Italy, as they do in Italian-American communities throughout the United States. In Sicily and rural areas outside Rome, a bowing procession is the day’s main event. A statue of the Virgin Mary is carried through the town to a ceremonial arch of flowers, where a group of people holding a statue of Christ awaits her arrival. Both statues are inclined toward each other three times, and then the Christ figure precedes the figure of Mary back to the parish church for a special benediction.

In Sao Paulo and other parts of southern Brazil, the feast is called Nosa Senhora dos Navegantes, or “Our Lady of the Navigators”. Pageants are held on decorated canoes, each carrying a captain, a purser, three musicians, and two rowers. They travel to small villages to entertain and feast. Towns may have small church processions with musicians whose costumes depict the “Three Wise Men” who are mentioned in the Bible.

Assumption Day is also an important holiday in France where the Virgin Mary has been the patron saint since 1638.