Ways Christians celebrate
Celebration
To celebrate means to honour some person or to mark some occasion with appropriate public ceremony. This often has a festive flavour and always a particular purpose. But to limit our understanding to ‘partying’ is to overlook important dimensions of celebration. Thus, we celebrate the death of someone – we mark that occasion with appropriate rituals. Christians celebrate formally and informally. Informal celebrations include the usual secular celebrations that people celebrate within a particular context and culture e.g. birthdays, graduations, and anniversaries. Each of these celebrations includes appropriate rituals. Religious celebrations such as prayer reflections and meditations can be of a less formal nature. However, they should include elements of liturgical celebrations. The formal celebrations or liturgy of the Church include the Mass and other sacraments. By gathering together Christians celebrate God’s presence in their midst in both formal and informal celebrations.
Liturgical celebration
There are four core elements of a liturgical celebration. Liturgical celebration is of great variety, but it is built around a common framework. This is exemplified in the Mass and other sacraments. It provides a model for other celebrations.
Gather - The community gathers and makes ready to enter into communion with God.
Listen - The Word is then proclaimed, nourishing the faith of those present and inviting a response.
Respond - This brings us to the heart of the celebration where God's gift is thankfully acknowledged and shared. (This may be forgiveness in Reconciliation, new life in Baptism, Jesus' death and resurrection in Eucharist.)
Go Forth - Each celebration concludes with those present, spiritually enriched, being sent back into daily life to be a blessing to others.
The Church family celebrates in different ways. Faith is both personal and communal. Each person's understanding of and relationship with God is intensely personal. In the Catholic tradition, the community gathers each Sunday to celebrate Eucharist. The liturgical seasons reflect an ordered celebration of the great events of salvation history. As well, the community gathers to celebrate the birth and marriage and death of its members. Other celebrations mark the devotional life of Christians. Some examples of these celebrations included: Marian processions, Lenten stations honouring of patron saints.
Active participation of those present is required if a celebration is to achieve its purpose. This can include involvement of people in preparation, as readers and musicians and in other ministries required. Participants enter into the celebration by joining in common prayers and hymns and by attentive listening to the Word. They open themselves to the symbols through which God's presence and action is recognised.