Celebrating Feasts & Saints

Hi friends! How do you celebrate feast days and Saints? My husband and I were just having this discussion last week when planning how to commemorate St. Nectarios, my father’s patron Saint. To be honest, this is one area we feel we need to improve as we’ve typically never done anything special aside from attending vespers or liturgy. We decided it’s important to honor our patron Saints by coming up with some special traditions.

The first thing I did was place the icon of St. Nectarios on display for our household to easily view so that throughout our day we could remember to ask for intercessions. Then, I prepared one of my dad’s favorite meals. After dinner, we found some content on Youtube that discussed the life & miracles of St. Nectarios. It was truly meaningful to recall the incredible life of St. Nectarios and to be reminded of why he is special to our family. So in light of my husband’s name day today, we plan on enjoying a festal dinner (within the perameters of the fast), reviewing the life of St. Matthew as a family and incorporating the Apolytikion and Kontakion in our prayers.

While there are certainly many other beautiful traditions to include on feast day celebrations, these are some practical traditions that work for our family. Ultimately, prayer is central on these special days. God appreciates the effort we put forth to honor His Saints, whatever that may be to each family. Sometimes that could mean simply adding a special prayer to a Saint or it could be as elaborate as planning a day full of festivities. God knows what is in each of our hearts. May we do all things with grace and intention.