via our dear St. John Cantius parish
In some parts of Italy (Tuscany, for ex.) there is the interesting custom of catching crickets on this day. Families will have a picnic while the children look for crickets, which are said to bring blessings (as they are seen to do in the East, too)—especially if they still sing when taken home in little cricket cages. Back in the day, a man would adorn his beloved’s doors with flowers on this Feast, and give her a cricket cage, too. I have no idea as to how crickets came to be associated with the Ascension, but the Feast is also known in parts of Italy as “La Festa del Grillo” ("the Feast of the Cricket"). Now this custom usually takes place on the Sunday after Ascension Day, and caged crickets are sold so that children can release them—but crickets can be kept as singing pets, too!
Also on this day, a very old civic ritual is re-enacted in this city. The Ascension had always been an important Feast to the Venetians: in A.D. 1000, the Doge left on this Feast Day to aid the Dalmatians who were being threatened by the Slavs. This led to Venetian security and became celebrated annually with a blessing of the sea. Then, in A.D. 1177, the Doge helped bring about a peace between Barbarossa and the Papal States. Pope Alexander III was so grateful for the Doge’s service that he sent a blessed ring as a sign of the sovereignty that the Doge and his successors will have perpetually over the sea. The blessing of the sea turned into a “marriage with the sea,” and since that time, the Doge of Venice would board an ornate, gilded boat (the Bucintoro, or Bucentaur) and be rowed to the lagoon in front of the church of San Nicolo del Lido, accompanied by clergy and government types, and with a procession of other decorated boats following behind. There, the Doge would throw a ring into the waters while saying the words “Desponsamus te mare, in signum veri perpetuique dominii,” which mean, “We marry you, oh sea, as a symbol of perpetual dominion.” Now the mayor throws the ring, thereby uniting that beautiful city with the sea…
Okay I'll make this so long that no one reads it. Anyway, Fr. John Hardon
has an excellent piece of catechesis on this historical event. I haven't made a pitch for it for a while but probably the best formation I ever received was taking the Marian Catechist program. I didn't go through and become an official catechist, but the material is quite frankly something that should be part of every formation program.
