Lo, the Bishop Cometh

[xifeng]

Because if the bishop is coming all the way out here to confirm ninth-grade kids, ninth-grade kids ARE BY GOD GOING TO BE CONFIRMED. At least, such is the opinion of most parents around here. I guess mine were fairly progressive, since I was never confirmed and subsequently served as a Bad Example for several years of m0mmy's confirmation class. (If you don't believe in God when you're sixteen, you probably are not a good candidate for Confirmation.)

Anyway, what this means is that teh m0mmy is spazzing out, because Confirmation is TOMORROW OMG and the hall has to be decorated, the kids have to be drilled, the cake has to be ordered (I'm almost hoping for a repeat of the O COME HOLY SPIRT incident), the scrapbook pages have to be put together, the programs have to be printed, etc. etc. etc. At such times one thinks longingly of tranquilizer guns, but with my luck m0mmy would develop an allergic reaction to the tranquilizer and die, which would suck because I would then be parentless. Also, funerals blow.

I hope she won't be too horribly frazzled when I get home from work tomorrow.

As for me: not much is going on. Not sure if I'm supposed to go back to Hendo tomorrow or not (Mark was supposed to call and didn't, probably due to the tornado warning), but we'll find out soon enough. Wheeling and dealing, as ever, but at present the wheels and deals must remain under wraps. Ph33r not, all will be revealed in the fullness of time, if everyone eats their vegetables or sommat.

Comments

[forgottensanity.livejournal.com]

You people get confirmed at 16? I think over here it's more like 13 or 14. I'm not entirely sure since I was never confirmed myself, nor baptized. The kids who were to be confirmed had classes with the local priest every Tuesday from 8 to 10, which I was happy about since I could then sleep in late. Woot. I don't know what they talked about there, but I imagine it to be lacking in interest. I don't know about the actual confirmation ceremony either, but afterwards everyone has a party where the family and friends are invited and gifts are given, etc, and all the kids get a new set of clothing in white. It's rather secular, I suppose, but of course I don't know what everyone else did. Despite my not being confirmed I still got the party and the gifts and the white dress, which I wore ONCE. Me and white don't mix well. Of course Denmark is a Christian country, and I am not entirely aware of how much Christians and Catholics differ in that aspect.

[ziggy-prime.livejournal.com]

the kids have to be drilled

Images of little catholics and powertools dance in my head...

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

Surrealism is my #1 priority.

[ziggy-prime.livejournal.com]

Hold still, Timmy. Salvation requires Stanley.

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

Actually, Catholics ARE Christian; we're the oldest denomination of Christianity, and we changed and were changed by Rome. ^_- Luther could hardly have reformed Christendom if there weren't any Christendom to reform, and before Luther, if you were Christian, you were a.) Catholic, b.) Orthodox, or c.) a member of some heretical sect and one day you woke up to find that you had not been expecting the Spanish Inquisition. But then, nobody does.

The age range depends, actually, on the diocese. When Mom was growing up, you were confirmed at 9 or 10; by the time my sister and I were old enough, the age had been upped to high school. Usually between 14-16 is the norm. I can't fill you in on the details, as I've never been to confirmation classes or the actual ceremony.

(I could still be confirmed now, if I wanted to, but it would be different and I'd have to go through the whole RCIA hullaballoo. For the record, I was baptized and received the sacraments of Penance and Communion, but not Confirmation.)

Parties are pretty common over here, too, and there is cake (not Othello cake, alas, but still pretty tasty). Confirmation cake is special, because it welcomes the Holy Spirt. ^_^ I don't know about the white clothes, though.

[forgottensanity.livejournal.com]

Heh, well, I've never said I was knowledgeable in the ways of religion. =P I guess I see Christians and Catholics as two separate - but somewhat alike - religions and don't give much thought to what they started out as.

I don't know if adults or the like can get confirmed later over here. I mean, they probably can and all that, since the churches all go, "OMG LEIK M0ER MEBEMBERZ!!!11!" But I can't say I've ever heard of any who did. On the other hand, I don't hang out with religious crowds, so what do I know? My knowledge comes mostly from hearsay anyway.

I also imagine that if only confirmation cake = Othello cake, I could have been persuaded to go. ^_^ Mmmm. Cake.

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

I figured. It's just a very common misconception--especially in my area, which is the northernmost reach of the Bible Belt--and it's one that pisses me off in general, especially because some of the people who espouse it (not you, since you're not religious) are being deliberately ignorant.

Yeah, but you would have showed up for the cake and left immediately after you someone ate it all. Bit like my birthday cake that one year. ^_-

[forgottensanity.livejournal.com]

Huff. I resent that remark. You make it sound as though I ate your birthday cake, and I certainly never did. I keep telling you that I prepared a tasty feast for you beyond your wildest dreams, and then I turned my back on it for a second, and when I turned back it was all gone. But if this is how you're going to be, I might just not bake you a cake at all this year. Humph.

And anyway, you try and send a cake through the postal service and see how it turns out. It was probably a mail carrier who ate the cake in the first place, anyway. So take it out on them. Or on society. That's fun, too.

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

Society probably drove that poor mail carrier to eat the cake. He didn't mean to do it, but society handed him the cake and said, "Here you go, Bob, go to town," and well, how was poor Bob to resist? I'm sure it was as delicious a cake as you have always maintained.

Although perhaps in future you should try turning your back on things you make for only a nanosecond, if possible. I am sure, however, that my life is infinitely poorer for having been unable to experience the magnificent feast.