Blessing of the Animals

Yesterday was October 4th. That makes it a special day. Do you know why?

No, it's not because it's the date when Sweden beat Ferdinand III at the Battle at Wittstock. No, it's not because on this date in 1873 Toronto Argonaut Football Club formed. Those are important milestones of course but what I want to talk about is the fact that October 4th is the feast of St Francis of Assisi, which means it's a time of year when many churches invite people's pets to come to mass for special "blessing of the animals" celebrations. 

Funnily enough, I first heard about this event on a British TV comedy called the Vicar of Dibley (yay British comedies!) I thought the whole thing was made up for TV until I realized that my church, All Saints Westboro, holds an annual blessing of the animal celebration. This is the same church that I discussed years ago on my old blog. I still take Margot once a month and the same jolly old priest is still in charge.

The blessing of the animals ceremony

Margot was super excited to go to this year's blessing of the animals because we have a new cat, Marshmallow, whose birthday is on October 2nd - the same day our church was celebrating the blessing of the animals. Margot goes to church school and brought Marshmallow with her. Most of the other kids in church school left their pets with their parents in church so Marshmallow really stood out. That meant Margot got to be the centre of attention and tell the other kids all the interesting facts about him. Many of the kids mentioned how soft and cute Marshmallow was. Margot was literally BEAMING with pride.

Later, after Margot told some random woman that it was Marshmallow's birthday, the entire church sang happy birthday to him (I kid you not!). 

Singing Happy Birthday

The birthday crew

These sorts of celebrations are really memorable and fun. There are a couple of closer churches to our new home in Hintonburg than All Saints Westboro but I'm inclined to stay put for now. Going to this church has been part of the routine of our lives for the last six years and I'm not ready to change it just yet.

It was all worth it

Especially when one of those things involves over a hundred people singing to your pet!