Margaret M

I have it somewhere in the back of my mind that 5th December is a special day here for some reason, and our local GS has a sign saying they will be open Sunday morning, which is very unusual for them. Is it a holiday, and will all the shops be closed Saturday?

LivingHere

The 8th is a holiday. Is the fifth when Santa goes to Holland?

Lorna at Vicenza

Shops all over Italy will be doing Sunday opening now for Christmas. Not all of them open all day though.

Margaret M

Not down here they don't - not usually anyway. So we should be ok going shopping on Saturday, but not Monday.

TestaRossa

Tuesday!!!! Monday should be okay, it is a ponte for the schools here, which even for our school is unusual, but the nuns regard it as one of the holiest being the immaculate conception of the virgin - by her mum that is! Took me a while to work that one out! Normally means Florence will be absolutely packed out.

Margaret M

Happy Birthday to your dad then.

LivingHere

I just realised that its my son's birthday too. I knew it was an important day.

TestaRossa

SpringLM deleted their post before I read it! Thank Margaret!

Happy birthday to your dad! Don't worry about going off topic! We'll all let you know if it's inappropriate and it's never inappropriate to wish someone a happy birthday!!

TestaRossa

That's just funny! My darling husband always mixes the date up of mine not the month - he always thinks its the same as his mother's.....

Happy birthday to your son too! You aren't called Mary by any chance are you....

LivingHere

Nope, I didn't have a 17 day pregnancy either.

TestaRossa

You're making the same mistake I did - it's the immaculate conception of Mary by HER mother! I always thought it was the other way around and that it was either really long or very short, but apparently she was conceived the same way as her son! Amazing isn't it?! Trouble is my daughter is learning all this as fact and that does concern me.....! Btw, no disrespect to anyone out there who also believes that all the above is fact, but I have to say I am a sceptic, to put it politely...

Lorna at Vicenza

Well I think 1.000s of people are making the same mistake, including Italians.

I also thought that the immaculate conception was that of Jesus.
Why is she called the Virgin Mary if she had sex with Joseph ???

Margaret M

And I bet there have been millions of teenage girls ever since who wished they could have thought of that one

LivingHere

I just always thought it was funny but put it down to the fact that Jesus was probably born in August.

TestaRossa

You mean after having given birth to all Jesus half brothers and sisters by Joseph? No idea!

I always thought she had a quick pregnancy too, then a Catholic friend put me right! Basically they brought this in cos Mary actually represents everything the church "made-up" in the middle ages or a bit earlier to control the masses. She wasn't an important figure until they needed a way to write doctrine that isn't in the Bible already..