The reader wrote to us that she is curious about the customs followed in other parishes.
I wonder whether this is some new trend or whether the world has completely gone mad. My daughter’s Communion anniversary is on Sunday, 26 May. The parents of the children who had their First Communion on 19 May demanded that we contribute to the flowers, because otherwise they would take everything away before our anniversary on 26 May.
We refused and took the risk that they would remove the flowers. As long as we can remember, there has never been such a practice. Previously, those celebrating an anniversary never contributed to the flowers bought by the First Communion group, nor the other way around.
And just imagine that on Friday, 24 May, after Mass, the parents of the First Communion children stripped the altar of its flowers—for there is no other way to describe it. It was left empty, and the decorations ended up in the rubbish. The flowers were taken to the sacristy in a bucket. I wonder whether such a practice exists anywhere else. To me, it is unimaginable. Perhaps it is a trivial matter, but it has been troubling me terribly. We decorated the altar with our own flowers, perhaps more modestly, but with God in our hearts; theirs may have been more lavish, but with the devil on their backs. This is not how things are done! People are disgusted and outraged by the situation.”
Do you jointly contribute in your parishes to the flowers decorating the altar?