Rogation days
Rogation days | |
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Ascension Thursday |
Rogation days are days of prayer and fasting in Western Christianity. They are observed with processions and the Litany of the Saints. The so-called major rogation is held on 25 April;[a] the minor rogations are held on Monday to Wednesday preceding Ascension Thursday.[1] The word rogation comes from the Latin verb rogare, meaning "to ask", which reflects the beseeching of God for the appeasement of his anger and for protection from calamities.[2][3]
Rogation Sunday is celebrated on the 5th Sunday after Easter (also known as the 6th Sunday of Easter) in the Anglican tradition.[4][5] This day is also known in the Lutheran tradition as Rogate Sunday.[6]
Christian beginnings
The Christian major rogation replaced a pagan Roman procession known as Robigalia, at which a dog was sacrificed to propitiate Robigus, the deity of agricultural disease.[7][2] The practitioners observing Robigalia asked Robigus for protection of their crops from wheat rust.[2]
The minor Rogation days were introduced around AD 470 by
The faithful typically observed the Rogation days by
A common feature of Rogation days in former times was the ceremony of beating the bounds, in which a procession of parishioners, led by the minister, churchwarden, and choirboys, would proceed around the boundary of their parish and pray for its protection in the forthcoming year. This was also known in the northern parts of England as 'Gang-day' or 'gan week', after the old English name for going or walking.[10] This was also a feature of the original Roman festival, when revellers would walk to a grove five miles from the city to perform their rites.[7] Thomas Johnson (1633), speaking of the birch tree, mentions another name: Cross-week: "It serveth well to the decking up of houses and banquetting-rooms, for places of pleasure, and for beautifying of streets in the Crosse or Gang Week, and such like."[11]
In the British Isles
The Rogation Day ceremonies are thought to have arrived in the British Isles in the 7th century.
The oldest known
Sarum texts from the 13th and 15th centuries show that the dragon was eventually moved to the rear of the procession on the vigil of the Ascension, with the lion taking the place at the front. Illustrations of the procession from the early 16th century show that the arrangements had been changed yet again, this time also showing bearers of reliquaries and incense.[12]
During the reign of
During the reign of
Rogation processions continued in the post-Reformation
The marches would follow prescribed routes, with York and Coventry being unique in their following
Any
For years after Rogation Days were recognized, the manner in which they were observed in reality was very different from the official decree. Even before religious sensibilities turned towards the puritanical, there were concerns about the lack of piety at such events.[17] While it was officially ordered that the entire congregation attend, bishops began urging their priests to invite only older and more pious men. This, they believed, would stop the drunken revelry. Royal Injunctions concerning the practice were reinterpreted to restrict and regulate participants of the festivities.[14] Robert Herrick penned a piece to capture the mood of the celebrations before their repression:
Dearest, bury me
Under that Holy-oak, or Gospel Tree
Where (though thou see'st not) thou may'st think upon
Me, when you yearly go'st Procession.[citation needed]
In London, Rogation Days, just like Easter or Hocktide, were times when begging was "legitimate" for the period of celebration.[18] Though not widely celebrated in the modern Church of England, the holiday is still observed in some areas.[19]
In the United States
Catholic
The reform of the Liturgical Calendar for Roman Catholics in 1969 delegated the establishment of Rogation Days, along with
Episcopal
The new, Protestant version of the Rogation days became such a fixture in Church life that the tradition was carried over to the Americas by British colonists in Jamaica, Barbados, and South Carolina.[22] Rogation days are an optional observance in the Episcopal Church.[23] Although early associated with rural life, agriculture and fishing, the Book of Common Prayer has been expanded to include propers for commerce and industry and the stewardship of creation, as well as a fruitful season.[24]
See also
Notes
- ^ In the rare circumstance of Easter Sunday falling on 25 April, the major rogation is transferred to the Tuesday after Easter (cf. Code of Rubrics of 1960, no. 80); this will next occur in 2038.
References
- ISBN 9781139442787.
- ^ ISBN 9780896225152.
Robigalia.
- ^ Mershman 1912.
- ^ Rogation Days: A Rookie Anglican Guide
- ^ A Table of the Movaeble Feasts, www.churchofengland.org
- ^ Sutton, J., What is Rogate Sunday?, Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church, Terre Haute, published 5 May 2018, accessed 24 September 2023
- ^ JSTOR 3289524.
- S2CID 162451684.
- ^ Shepherd, John (1801). A critical and practical elucidation of the Book of common prayer, and administration of the sacraments, and other rites and ceremonies of the Church. Oxford University.
- ^ JSTOR 3034156.
- ^ Brand, Ellis & Hazlitt 1905.
- ^ S2CID 161491639.
- JSTOR 3677891.
- ^ S2CID 162365937.
- JSTOR 947285.
- JSTOR 650830.
- S2CID 147330346.
- JSTOR 429704.
- ^ ISBN 9781598842050.
- ^ Pope Paul VI, General Norms for the Liturgical Year and Calendar (PDF), p. 11
- ^ "Liturgical Calendar". Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary. Retrieved 2021-05-12.
- S2CID 164181942.
- ^ Book of Common Prayer (Online), p.18
- ^ "Rogation Days", The Episcopal Church
Sources
- Brand, John; Ellis, Henry; Hazlitt, William Carew, eds. (1905). Brand's popular antiquities of Great Britain.
- Mershman, Francis (1912). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company. . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
Further reading
- (in Italian) Vito Pallabazzer: Lingua e cultura ladina, Belluno 1985, p. 502 (about the rogation days in Ladin tradition)
External links
- Rogation Days at liturgies.net
- Catholic Encyclopedia article