8th December is traditionally the day when country people headed to Dublin to start the Christmas shopping (aka #CulchieDay )
#Nostalgia from the #RTE Archives:
From 1975 https://www.rte.ie/archives/2015/1207/751897-8-december-in-dublin/
From 1986 https://www.rte.ie/archives/2016/1206/836917-dublin-city-christmas-shopping/
Why is today, 8th December traditionally the day country people headed to Dublin to shop? #CulchieDay
Because for many, the kids were off school.
Why were they off school?
Catholic schools were closed for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
https://www.rte.ie/archives/2016/1206/836917-dublin-city-christmas-shopping/
What's that, you ask?
It was a church holiday created in 1854, and relates to the conception of Mary, not Jesus.
It's old, though. The Feast of the Conception of Mary was celebrated in England in the early half of 11th century. It survived suppression by the Normans to spread to Ireland. The teacher of Duns Scotus had the "pious opinion” that Mary “did not contract original [sin]”.
And Duns Scotus is where the Irish connection comes in.
The feast had spread to Spain. The Spanish royals wanted it made official. They sent a delegate who brought Luke Wadding, educated in the Irish College in Salamanca, to act as theologian.
Wadding was a Franciscan and Irish. Duns Scotus was a Franciscan and many then thought he was Irish. A double reason to support the idea, on top of the royal support.
That delegation failed, but Wadding along with other Irish Franciscans kept arguing for it.
https://www.irishphilosophy.com/2016/12/08/pious-opinion/
A key problem was that other authorities disagreed with Duns Scotus. In Wadding's 1718 commentary on the long debate over the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, he tried to defuse the tension between the Thomists and the Scotists.
He argued that Aquinas’ authority would not be underminded if Scotus’ views on the Immaculate Conception were favoured. It wouldn't mean Aquinas was condemned, simply wrong on one point.
The Papacy finally accepted the concept in 1661 after Wadding's death.
So Wadding, was, in a way, responsible for the journey made for years to Dublin from surrounding country areas on 8th December to do Christmas shopping.
Appropriate really, since he was also responsible for the addition of St Patrick's Day to the church calendar.
So long, Luke Wadding, and thanks for all the days off school.
(Image: St Isidore's, Rome, via @jdmccafferty Wadding is on the right, unimpressed by my levity)
Irish Philosophy
Donncha Ó Caoimh
Alan Bell
Colm Donoghue
Damien Scully