ASSUMPTION. While for many it is primarily a holiday, for Christians the Assumption represents the ascension of Mary, mother of Jesus, into heaven. Explanations.
[Mis à jour le 14 août 2024 à 7h10] For many French people, August 15 is synonymous with a public holiday. But what do we celebrate on August 15? And why is it a public holiday? On this date, the French celebrate the Assumption, which has great significance for Christians. It commemorates the belief that the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, was assumed into heaven with her body and soul after her earthly death. The origin of the Assumption festival dates back to ancient Christianity, although the precise details of her appearance are not clearly established. The idea that Mary was assumed into heaven is based on the veneration and devotion to Mary as the mother of Jesus and an important spiritual figure for Christians.
This belief developed gradually during the first centuries of Christianity. The dogma of the Assumption was officially proclaimed by the Roman Catholic Church in 1950, by Pope Pius XII. According to Catholic doctrine, Mary was taken from earthly life and assumed into heaven by God. The Assumption is considered a sign of the promise of resurrection and eternal life for all believers. In the Orthodox Church, belief in the Assumption is also widespread, although the theological details may vary slightly from tradition to tradition. In some Orthodox Churches, the event is called the “Dormition of the Mother of God” and emphasizes that Mary fell asleep peacefully before being assumed into heaven.
Many events are organized, mostly religious. In Paris, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre hosts an early Assumption Mass the evening before D-Day. The next day, On the day of the Assumption, a “solemn” mass is traditionally held. Vespers also follow. Other Assumption Masses are planned throughout the day. Also in Paris, a procession has been taking place for several years on a boat on the Seine. The Virgin Mary is brought out as a silver statue, usually kept at Notre-Dame. Processions followed by festivities are also organized throughout France (Biarritz, Chartres, etc.). As for the sanctuary of Lourdes, it is on August 15 that it sees the most visitors.
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In the sense that we are interested in it in this file, “Assumption”, not to be confused with “Ascension”, designates a very particular Christian festival. The latter celebrates a “rapture”, and not just any “abduction”: that of the Virgin Mary. Thus, the term “assumption”, from the Latin “assumere”, means “to take, to remove”. In the case of the “Assumption”, it refers to the “rapture into heaven” of Mary. In other words, the transfer into heaven of her body and soul. Every August 15, the Assumption celebrates at once the death and resurrection of the mother of Jesus Christ, but also her entry into paradise and her coronation. A religious dogma based on theological writings dating from Antiquity, legends and apocrypha (writings of unestablished authenticity), but not on writings specific to the Gospel.
Have you ever stumbled upon “Ascension” and said “Assumption” and vice versa? Or, quite simply, confused the two events? If the two terms are similar and both point to the same action, they designate two different “events” for Christians.
When the Ascension represents the ascension of Jesus into heaven, the term Assumption (the word was invented by Christians themselves), refers to the ascension of Mary, mother of Jesus, into heaven. For believers, it took place after her earthly life and prevented the degradation of Mary’s body in a tomb to offer her a new, heavenly life. Date of celebration? August 15. In 1950, the Church officially proclaimed the existence of this reality in the Catholic faith, further anchoring the “dogma” of the Assumption in Christianity. The Assumption gives rise to many Catholic processions. Protestants do not celebrate this event. To remember this distinction, you can use a mnemonic device: in “Assomption”, there is an “m”, like in Marie.
The date of the Assumption gives rise to a public holiday each year, which therefore falls on Thursday, August 15, 2024. This Assumption public holiday is one of the 11 days legally defined as such by the Labor Code in most of the France. 11 days including religious holidays (Easter Monday, Ascension Thursday, Whit Monday, All Saints’ Day, Christmas) as well as civil holidays (New Year’s Day, Labor Day, Victory Day of May 8, 1945, July 14 and November 11). The feast of Saint Mary (simply) also falls on January 1. Note that unlike the date of the Ascension, which varies from year to year, but is always 40 days after Easter Sunday, that of the Assumption does not change. It falls every year on August 15.
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The fixed religious feast of the Assumption has been celebrated on August 15 since the 6th century.with the establishment by the Byzantine emperor Maurice, in his empire, of a feast of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary on this date. The objective, it seems, was at the time to commemorate the inauguration of the Sepulchre of Mary, a church built especially for the Virgin who had ascended into heaven. Since becoming a liturgical feast in the Catholic Church, the Assumption is the occasion for numerous processions in the parishes of this confession. In France, since the consecration of France to the Holy Virgin by Louis XIII On February 10, 1638, the processions were traditionally followed by festivities.
The monarch is said to have first consecrated his person and his Kingdom to the Virgin Mary “in the secret of his heart”, before imploring her to give him an heir, who had been awaited for 22 years. A pregnancy soon follows for Anne of Austria, after the “apparition” of Mary and the performance of novenas (prayers focused on a wish and repeated nine days in a row), but also processions organized in the parishes on August 15. As soon as the pregnancy was confirmed, Louis XIII published the Official Edict which this time solemnly dedicated France to Mary*. Louis XIV was born the following year. Read the biography of Louis XIV.