Celebrate Name Days and Baptism Anniverseries

When each of my children was born, I fully intended to celebrate their name days and baptism anniversaries yearly.  I imagined our children becoming familiar with the stories of all of our patron saints and building anticipated traditions around these.  I envisioned simple, yet powerful celebrations to honor the promise of their baptisms.  I longed to create memories tied strongly to rejoicing in the gift each individual child is as well as the blessing that our communal faith is.

What I did not foretell was six years and counting of letting distraction override intention.

Our family has yet to celebrate a name day ,and I can count on one hand the number of baptism anniversaries that we have commemorated.  In fact, I am ashamed to admit that this morning I could not even recall the dates on which Jack, Nina and Luke were baptized and just spent hours trolling through recovered computer files trying to jog my memory.

Why all the effort?  Because this (school) year is the year I am committed to making my initial dream a reality.  I am fully intent on getting both Name Days and Baptism Anniversaries on the calendar so we will be more apt to prepare for and celebrate them.  I am absolving myself of past neglect and focusing myself on yearly rhythms of fun with faith and family to come.

So, tell me, does your family celebrate Name Days?  How about Baptism Anniversaries?  What favorite traditions have you developed around these?  And, how about St. Anne’s day?  Do you have favorite ideas for observing her (and Joachim’s) feast day?  It happens to be a Name Day here and I’ve got but four days to prepare for it...

Traditions are unfolding...