Your Other Birthday

A Feast Day is when the saint you were named for (or at least share a name with) has their special day.  As a child, it meant I got to pick my favorite meal to have for dinner, hence the name Feast happy feast dayDay.  Luckily, my parents manage to assign us saint names that were far away from our actual birthdays.  So while my sister’s birthday was in August, St. Catherine’s day is in April.  I am a Libra, but St. Joseph has his day in March.  Having the Feast Day arrive months before your birthday just gave you a taste of what it felt like to be “The Birthday Boy”, minus the gifts.

Here is SMA it called “Dia de tu Santo” or “Day of your Saint”.  For the waiter at your favorite watering hole, saying “Feliz dia de tu santo” suffices though for pals you’ll want to do a bit more.  MARIA CAKE 2For instance, here is a photo of a Barbie doll cake modeled after the Virgin of Guadalupe that was a gift for one of my many dance partners named Lupita.

I really enjoyed my feast day even in college when my sisters would send me home baked cookies making me, by far, the most popular boy on the coed dorm floor.

However, choosing names like Glennon, Greyden and Trevyn for my children eliminated the continuation of the tradition (no St. Glennon, yet) until I moved here and found Feast Days were popular in my life once again.

Here are the most widely celebrated local feast days:

Lupita – December 12th

Patricio – March 17th

Miguel –September 29th

Jose – March 19th

Martha – July 29th

Manuel – Corpus Christi in June

cookie flutesYou easily can learn saint days, and what they are patron of, on-line for other names you encounter.  Tying a small gift to the saint’s patronage shows your appreciation and good manners.  For example, for a pal named Cecilia, patroness of musicians, a CD is a nice gift.  Though, for the record, on my feast day I’d prefer some more homemade chocolate chip cookies and Veuve Clicquot to wash them down with to properly appreciate being named Joseph!