Banner Night
Tomorrow is First Communion Day. You can imagine the flurry of activity DIH has been immersed in lately: dress-shopping, veil-shopping, counting up the paper plates and cheap wineglasses.
First Communion preparation at Sophia's school is very thorough. Their are tests and interviews to make sure the kid knows, insofar as a kid can, what the Eucharist is and what it means to receive it. Really, DIH is impressed. I don't recall anything like it when I was a kid.
There is one relatively new custom, though, that I'm not so sure about. On Thursday night-or maybe it was Wednesday, it's been a blurry week- all the First Communion kids and their parents had to assemble in the church hall to make felt banners.
I know, I know. "What is this, 1973? Felt banners? Come on! Where's the guy with the guitar and the crappy songbook?" But it was a requirement. So off we went.
You should have seen the set-up in the church hall. Henry Ford would have been proud. A long, long table with little trays of every arts and cratfs supply you could think of- pop-poms, do-dads, pipe cleaners, gooey sparkly stuff, a host of things DIH could not identify. Scattered through the rest of the hall were round tables with two banners and two names apiece. We found ours. We collected do-dads. We got to work.
The "we" part of it fell apart pretty quickly. The kids lost interest and decided their time would be better spent playing. The moms, for the most part, got stuck with finishing the banners.
DIH is not really one for arts and crafts. She does not like pom-poms. She does not like do-dads. She does not care for glue and she really hates that sparkly sticky stuff. One glance around the room told her this was not the case with all the ther moms. Some of them were really going to town.
I was sharing a table with a woman who'd already had three first communicants in her family. You should have seen her work. Man, she was all over those pipe cleaners. She used them for flower stems. She made a three-dimensional bouquet. Yes, THREE-DIMENSIONAL. Not to be outdone, naturally DIH attempted to steal her idea. It did not go well. I settels for gluing on some ribbon. Thank God there was plenty of ribbon to go around.
I was glad when it was over and we at least had a banner we're to hang on the end of our pew tomorrow morning. Look for the one that says "Sophia Vigilante" and has no pipe cleaners.
First Communion preparation at Sophia's school is very thorough. Their are tests and interviews to make sure the kid knows, insofar as a kid can, what the Eucharist is and what it means to receive it. Really, DIH is impressed. I don't recall anything like it when I was a kid.
There is one relatively new custom, though, that I'm not so sure about. On Thursday night-or maybe it was Wednesday, it's been a blurry week- all the First Communion kids and their parents had to assemble in the church hall to make felt banners.
I know, I know. "What is this, 1973? Felt banners? Come on! Where's the guy with the guitar and the crappy songbook?" But it was a requirement. So off we went.
You should have seen the set-up in the church hall. Henry Ford would have been proud. A long, long table with little trays of every arts and cratfs supply you could think of- pop-poms, do-dads, pipe cleaners, gooey sparkly stuff, a host of things DIH could not identify. Scattered through the rest of the hall were round tables with two banners and two names apiece. We found ours. We collected do-dads. We got to work.
The "we" part of it fell apart pretty quickly. The kids lost interest and decided their time would be better spent playing. The moms, for the most part, got stuck with finishing the banners.
DIH is not really one for arts and crafts. She does not like pom-poms. She does not like do-dads. She does not care for glue and she really hates that sparkly sticky stuff. One glance around the room told her this was not the case with all the ther moms. Some of them were really going to town.
I was sharing a table with a woman who'd already had three first communicants in her family. You should have seen her work. Man, she was all over those pipe cleaners. She used them for flower stems. She made a three-dimensional bouquet. Yes, THREE-DIMENSIONAL. Not to be outdone, naturally DIH attempted to steal her idea. It did not go well. I settels for gluing on some ribbon. Thank God there was plenty of ribbon to go around.
I was glad when it was over and we at least had a banner we're to hang on the end of our pew tomorrow morning. Look for the one that says "Sophia Vigilante" and has no pipe cleaners.
Lady, I CAN NOT believe that you survived Catholic school without being crafty!!
ReplyDeleteThat just does not compute!!
You're a better person than I. Had someone told us that banners were a requirement for NTS's 1st Communion I would have walked up to him or her and said:
ReplyDelete"What is this, 1973? Felt banners? Come on! Where's the guy with the guitar and the crappy songbook?"
If pressed we would have done something in Latin from I Cor. 11:27-29 and with loads of that "Church Militant" stuff.
Don't get me started.
-J.
"First Communion preparation at Sophia's school is very thorough. Their are tests and interviews to make sure the kid knows, insofar as a kid can, what the Eucharist is and what it means to receive it. Really, DIH is impressed. I don't recall anything like it when I was a kid."
ReplyDeleteBut why dwell on the positive when you can complain.
Wow, you really had to spend time working on a banner with your 8 year old daughter? You poor thing. I can't believe they don't do things perfectly at your parish, if only Father Sue were running that place.
Hmmmm.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous can't remember his/her name.
Can't identify humor unless it is followed by the word "ha ha".
Tough to be anonymous.
DIH spouse.
I am glad I read your blog today. I remember doing this project with Megan. It probably won't go as well for the Healy’s with Jack next year. Maybe I will send Dad. That would be entertaining. Blessings to your beautiful daughter, and your family on such a special day. You must have had a big party for her. She is in for one happy life!!!!
ReplyDeleteHelen