Does the Anglican Community know name days?

What I wonder:
We all have names, haven't we?
Why then this strange indifference concerning name days?

 

I guess it’s just something i had not heard before; it is interesting to be sure, but there’s also so much else to keep track of.. your birthday (not name day), and others.. the regular feasts one after the other.. the secular holidays.. the Sunday and midweek services.. the daily office

 

I think it's precisely because we all have names. My parents didn't name me after the father of John the Baptist, nor Pope Zachary, so neither of my name days have any real relationship with the name I have by coincidence. My parents called me Zachary, presumably, because they thought it sounded good, neither of my parents are Christian. It seems odd to force some significance to some arbitrary date of when someone who shared my name died. I'm sure most people would consider it strange for me to force some significance to the day US President Zachary Taylor died because we happen to share a name - I doubt my parents know he existed so he's certainly not my namesake. I see feast days for Saints in the same way.

I think it's an interesting piece of trivia though. We'll have to see if I happen to remember it come November.

 

.... force?

 

trivia?

My heart is hurting from this kind of mis-understanding.

 

Do Anglicans really all laugh at this stupid nonsense called "name days"?

And have never heard of them?

Are they not interested in age-old European history and culture and tradition?

 

That reminds me of an old saying:

"Every cow has a birthday. Human beings have name days".

 

Well, I guess many Anglicans living outside of Europe are not very aware of European culture and tradition.

As a grandson of immigrants from Poland and Slovakia (all of whom died before I was born), I can say that very little European culture and tradition was handed down to me from my parents. Most of what I did learn is culinary: a few of the traditional family recipes.

Obviously a person who grows up surrounded by European culture and traditions will naturally find significance and comfort in them. People who grow up in other lands absorb their local culture and traditions.

But please don't think that we are laughing at 'name days.' We are glad you enjoy your regional customs. (However, if you were to tell us that there's a local tradition of drinking beer while standing on one's head, we would laugh at that one!)

 

From what I know:
In these countries the name days are a lot more important than the birthdays.

 

I don't think it's Anglicans that are disregarding namedays, it's at least the entire Anglosphere regardless of denomination, and I suspect much more than that. I've never heard of a Catholic celebrating a name day in Australia - and Australia has more Catholics than Anglicans. I'm sort of confused by the premise of your thinking - why should people outside Europe care about an age-old European tradition? We all have our own traditions.

If there's a place in Germany where everyone celebrates name days I'm sure the Anglicans there do as well - we have no qualms with Saints feast days.

 

From where did the Australians come?
Did they come from the moon?

I rest my case.

 

I could ask why Europeans don't celebrate and have an odd disregard for Canadian Thanksgiving, but, like ZachT said, there is context to our traditions.

 

Name days in Poland:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_day#Poland

Name days in Slovakia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_day#Poland

 

Now I really give it up.

I thought it might be an interesting question.

But now the tone gets more and more aggressive.

I give it up.

 

From where did the Canadians come?
Did they come from the moon?

And have the Europeans all immigrated there from Canada?

As I said, I give it up.

 

It's not aggression- Namedays as described just aren't a common thing anymore outside of Europe and some families or insular subcultures in North America.

Most North Americans have not heard of them- I first heard of the concept from reading Redwall as a child, but I wasn't specifically named after a saint or shown his feast day, my Pentecostal parents would have actively rejected such a thing.

RexLion gave a fair answer above already- noone is attacking you or the concept of namedays. IS the loss of traditions such as these to be mourned? Perhaps, but you seem to be presuming that we *ought to be* celebrating these and are definitely and actively rejecting them.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_day#Poland

Is it so really stupid to think it possible that this tradition has been passed on?
I was only asking.

Now I get told off.

And I get told, that we stupid continental Europeans should have taken over some Canadian tradition.
From the many Canadians, that have emigrated from Canada to Europe.
Whereas no Europeans have ever emigrated to Canada.
Is that so?

 

I have not come here to seek any conflict.
But slowly I get the impression of a two-class-system here.

First Class: English, Americans, and citizens of the former Empire.
Second Class: those from the "Continent" - that is: Europeans that are not English.

 

That's not what I said, at all.

 

You said EXACTLY that - in other words.
I just repeated it in my own words, to make it clearer.