Today is St Patrick’s Day - at least liturgically. The unusually early Easter date resulted in the anticipation of St Patrick’s feast day in Australia this year. Otherwise it would have fallen in Holy Week, which would have been a definite liturgical no-no. But we still got the same hordes of people along to the patronal mass and festivities this morning. No doubt they’ll all front up for a second (secular) go next week.
That’s what I like about the Catlicks…they’re open to suggestion and change. No fear of them cancelling St Pat’s day under the circumstances…just move it down the line a little.
Actually, it’s a wonder they just didn’t change Easter to fit in with the jolly green saint’s birthday… 
He gets moved in Australia because our Irish heritage means that here his feast day is very important (in technical church-speak, a solemnity). In other places where he’s not so important he’d just get cancelled this year.
C’mon Cunctator, it’s not really the ‘solemnity’. In Australia, it’s all about the beer. 
Cunctator, I was wondering what your parish was going to do. I remember from other posts that your congregation was St. Patrick’s.
I know of one other Doper who attends a St. Patrick’s(Episcopal). He said they celebrated the saint’s day on the third Sunday in Lent, and will have the party tomorrow, on Saturday the 15th.
I’m also Episcopal, and in our Book of Common Prayer there is a list, from 1900 to 2089, of the dates Easter falls on in each year. Only one other time has Easter fallen so early, it was in 1913 I think, and it won’t again in our lifetime.
For some here in EnZed, this is the second change to the Catholic calendar to accomodate events. The first day of Lent was shifted so as not to clash with Waitangi Day for those in South Auckland.
It wasn’t just our parish. St Patrick’s Day is a solemnity throughout Australia, so it was anticipated in all Catholic churches throughout the country. It had to be moved back to the Friday because today (Saturday) the solemnity of Saint Joseph is being anticipated.
That’s pretty bizarre and certainly didn’t happen in Wellington, where I was on Ash Wednesday.
It certainly caused a bit of controversy. You being in Wellington, you’d have been well clear of it. Like I said – only in South Auckland.