Who is interested in name days?

[Red Gold]

About name days:

In Christianity, a name day is a tradition in some countries of Europe and the Americas, and Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox countries in general. It consists of celebrating a day of the year that is associated with one's given name. The celebration is similar to a birthday.

The custom originated with the Christian calendar of saints: believers named after a saint would celebrate that saint's feast day, or in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, the day of a saint's death. Name days have greater resonance in the Catholic and Orthodox parts of Europe; Protestant churches practice less veneration of saints. In many countries, however, name-day celebrations no longer have a connection to explicitly Christian traditions

Name day - Wikipedia

 

[Michie]

About name days:



Name day - Wikipedia

That’s interesting! Do you celebrate it?

 

[Red Gold]

That’s interesting! Do you celebrate it?

Yes.
I do celebrate my name day in a modest way.
And I con-gratulate others on their name days.

 

[Michie]

Yes.
I do celebrate my name day in a modest way.
And I con-gratulate others on their name days.

So who do you celebrate?

 

[Red Gold]

So who do you celebrate?

What do you mean by "who"?
Which special Saint?

 

[Michie]

What do you mean by "who"?
Which special Saint?

Yes.

 

[Red Gold]

Yes.

In my case it is one of the many Saint Bernards or Saint Bernhards or Saint Bernardos.

 

[Red Gold]

What do you mean by "who"?
Which special Saint?

Here now I can tell you exactly who my Patron Saint is:

Bernhard II of Baden (1428 or 1429 at Hohenbaden Castle in Baden-Baden – 15 July 1458 in Moncalieri, Turin), was the second son of Margrave Jacob of Baden and his wife, Catherine of Lorraine. He was born in the late 1420s at Hohenbaden Castle in Baden-Baden. His exact birth date is unknown. He was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church in 1769.

and:

Bernard II was sent to the European princely houses to promote this project. He died of the plague during one of these visits, on 15 July 1458 in Moncalieri in northern Italy. Bernardo, as they call him, is revered to this day by many people in this region.

Bernhard II, Margrave of Baden-Baden - Wikipedia

 

[prodromos]

I greatly appreciate the celebration of namedays. Unlike birthdays, which are ego-centric, name days are Christo-centric, because they celebrate the life of someone who had put on Christ to a large degree in their life. When celebrating your name day, the person celebrating provides refreshments for well wishers rather than being the recipient of gifts like on their birthday. It is a wonderful tradition.
I have several name days as my name Saint is St John the Forerunner, and there are several feast days honouring him. It is my baptismal name, but after becoming Orthodox it took on greater significance as my birthday is on the Feast day of his beheading, something my Anglican parents had no knowledge of.

 

[Red Gold]

I greatly appreciate the celebration of namedays. Unlike birthdays, which are ego-centric, name days are Christo-centric, because they celebrate the life of someone who had put on Christ to a large degree in their life. When celebrating your name day, the person celebrating provides refreshments for well wishers rather than being the recipient of gifts like on their birthday. It is a wonderful tradition.

Exactly!

And there is an age-old saying in Germany:
"Jede Kuh hat auch einen Geburtstag. Menschen haben Namenstage."

I translate:
"Every cow has got a birthday. Human beings have name days."

 

[BrAndreyu]

I've never heard of name days prior to this thread, so obviously I've never celebrated them. I do celebrate birthdays though, and they're particularly enjoyable because there is some sort of delicious cake and people pretend to care about me & my life for a day.

I don't even know my patron saint's feast day to be quite honest. I don't think that my CCD program really explained patron saints or why you would choose them well enough, because I chose mine based on his having a cool story & martyrdom, rather than what he was the patron of (athletes, I am not now nor have I ever been an athlete). I'm also pretty furious that homosexuals have appropriated my patron saint as a symbol of "tortured closet cases" sort of like how they appropriated the rainbow.

 

[Red Gold]

I don't even know my patron saint's feast day to be quite honest.

In case your name is Andrew, I could tell you.

 

[Red Gold]

I've never heard of name days prior to this thread, so obviously I've never celebrated them.

Maybe this old custom is better known in Europe than in the US?

 

[BrAndreyu]

In case your name is Andrew, I could tell you.

Andrew is my middle name, named after my grandfather (RIP). I use it on here because I don't want to give out too much personal information but my first name is (unfortunately) the same as my dad's. I've been wanting to change it for years but my mom keeps talking me out of it even though she didn't stop my sister from changing her last name to not be my father's last name.

My patron saint is St. Sebastian. Honestly no offense to him, but if I could do confirmation over again and had known about more saints than they originally gave us information about, I would have picked either St. Francis or St. Maximilian Kolbe. My CCD wasn't the best of CCDs that existed. The people tried but they didn't know as much as we thought they did.

 

[Red Gold]

Andrew is my middle name

Btw: Saint Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland.

 

[BrAndreyu]

I'm not going to give away my first name, but he's a pretty well-known saint who has one of the coolest legends ascribed to him. He was a knight, that's all I'll say.

 

[Red Gold]

Any more members here who are interested in their name days?

 

[Red Gold]

I'm not going to give away my first name, but he's a pretty well-known saint who has one of the coolest legends ascribed to him. He was a knight, that's all I'll say.

Maybe Saint George, who killed that dragon?

 

[Gnarwhal]

About name days:



Name day - Wikipedia

That's pretty cool! I mean I knew about Saint's feast days and such but just a general name day is cool. Looks like mine is November 30, and my fiancee's is July 4. Man she gets fireworks on her name day. That's dope.

Maybe this old custom is better known in Europe than in the US?

It sounds like it, I hadn't heard of it before now and just looking at the Wiki article it looks like it's mostly northern and eastern Europe who celebrate it historically? And maybe Latin America.

 

[Red Gold]

It sounds like it, I hadn't heard of it before now and just looking at the Wiki article it looks like it's mostly northern and eastern Europe who celebrate it historically? And maybe Latin America.

And everybody worldwide is free to celebrate these days!