How many Catholics here pretended the white Necco wafers were Communion hosts when they were kids?
Sorry, didn’t happen in my neighborhood.
I was born in 1956, btw, and had my first Communion in 1963, IIRC. Also, I went to Catholic schools, so no Saturday morning CCD classes for me. Also, not that many Catholics in the neighborhood. Cops-and-Robbers, Cowboys-and-Indians, and Army-and-Germans were our pretend-time subjects. Priest-and-Communicant? Not so much.
I guess what I’m saying is, did you do this, ThelmaLou? When, and in what kind of neighborhood?
ETA: As I recall, Necco wafers did play a part in our activities on the occasions when we did play pretend religion. We used them as penance after we played “Confession.”
Oh shoot, I was thinking the Nilla Wafers – I used those but not the Neccos. I grew up Lutheran, not Catholic, so close enough for anyone except many Lutherans or Catholics.
No but I love Necco Wafers and I’m so happy they went back to the original artificial flavors.
Not a Catholic, but I’d rather eat a bowl of communion wafers than 1 Necco candy.
Not me, but I’ve fantasized about replacing my church’s hosts with Necco wafers. I’ll bet they’re good dipped in wine.
We did. And may have used them when practicing for First Communion, I seem to remember.
StG
I answered on behalf of my mother, who used to do it all the time, judging from her stories. She was born in 1951, very Catholic Irish family, living in Ossining, NY.
My experience with them is chiefly as roof slates on ginger bread houses.
Both of my older brothers were altar boys (“altar servers” in today’s politically correct, gender-neutral world) and I remember playing “mass” with them. Other than Halloween & Easter, there wasn’t much candy around my childhood home, though. My big brothers were more **realistic **with their play communion wafers – circles cut out of a slice of (white, probably Wonder) bread with a juice glass, then flattened with a weight, and *sometimes *even baked.
I think there was a TV tray covered with a tablecloth as an altar, some sort of pseudo priestly vestments, etc.
We all went to Catholic school through 8th grade, and it seemed we were much more religious back then. I even remember a large crucifix my mother had that stored “emergency” Extreme Unction* supplies. The flat back slid off & it contained a candle, vial of holy water, and other priestly-blessed articles. I wonder whatever happened to that? It was a fixture of my childhood.
- annointing of the sick / final rites
I did indeed, and so did my office mate who helped me compose this question and survey. I was born in 1948, she in 1951.
I also did the “cut out a circle of Wonder Bread and flatten it” trick. We girls optimistically played Mass, thinking that someday in our lifetime the Catholic Church would let women be priests.
Back then not only could girls not be “servers” at Mass (even though we knew all the Latin responses, and I still do, although I probably could not tell you what I had for lunch yesterday… what do you call that kind of mental deterioration…), neither girls nor women were allowed inside the communion railing during Mass. I guess their female juju would cancel out Transubstantiation or something. If nuns “served” at Mass in a convent where there were no boys or men available to serve, they did not go inside the communion railing to do so, but said the responses from a window into the sacristy, rang the bells from there, handed the priest water and wine from there, etc.
I’ll bet Necco wafers WOULD be good dipped in wine…
A couple of games we did play:
Shooting a hunting arrow straight up in a yardful of kids, everyone bashed skulls scrambling to get clear.
Cutting open golf balls and stretching the rubber band across the street like wire in the ubiquitous WWII movies of the time. Some motorist actuall stopped and chased us.
Toilet disassembly
None of these carried the element of terror that dissuaded us from playing mass. If we’d been caught doing that…(shudders)
I don’t know what a Necco wafer is, but we certainly played “mass at home” with the local variety of wafer.
Mrs. Quercus, the family ex-Catholic, confirms that she did this as well–until their sacrilege was found out by an elder sister.
We Protestant kids could only dream of such games…:rolleyes:
Maybe.
I’d be more willing to put money on the wine being ruined, though. 
Ah, happy, unsupervised times. Kids these days don’t know what they are missing because we remember what we did and won’t let them. OTOH, I’m disappointed that my own kids lacked the initiative to get around that.
Really? My parents got me a full-dress toy altar and I happily said Mass (in Latin) for my kid brother and our dogs every Sunday before the real thing. Water in the chalice and Neccos when I had 'em, though I probably went through some theological gymnastics to get around breaking the fast. Maybe it was because Neccos aren’t really food, 'cause if they were they’d taste better.
I can’t even imagine pretending that the hosts were anything than hosts. Not only would anyone I knew consider such a thing blasphemous, but hosts don’t even remotely taste like Necco wafers. They’re dry with none of the chalky taste of Necco wafers.
Necco wafers are white discs, well, the white ones are. Close enough.
Not Necco wafers, but we used to play “hosts” with those white goldfish wafer fish food things. They really had no taste at all.
Thinking back–YEECCHH
I didn’t see the Catholic requirement when I posted, but we used all sorts of cookies when playing church as kids. Sure, unlike Catholics, we don’t have communion every Sunday, but it was our favorite part, so we always played it.
I notice someone above saying they are white disks. Not the ones I remember. They’re always rectangular, come in pairs, with cream between them.