This post is a reply to Amanda's blog entries regarding the First Communion Days of her Uncle. Amanda is a family genealogy blogger. The lady's post about Father reminded me of the day of my First Communion. I was curious whether the gift traditions related to the sacrament day celebrations were the same in the US as they were in Poland. That is why I asked Amanda about that.
Inspired by Amanda, I looked at the old photos thinking about the past.
It started raining during the church ceremony on my First Communion Day. It was June and still not very warm. After the morning church celebrations, my godmother (and my aunt) took me home in her car. She simply did not want me to get wet. It caused a bit of confusion as my mom did not know about that and kept looking for me in front of the church. It all ended well though, as we found each other at our home. The aunt and her family had come from another city to our place a day before.
Why I asked Amanda about the gifts. Besides the items related to the religious ceremony which were provided by parents before the day (prayer book, rosary, the candle, candle collar, and decorative cloth/wrap), there was one big (then) thing awaited by every child. The first-ever wristwatch. I got mine from the godmother. Another traditional present was a sterling silver holy medal on a chain. Mom bought me a lovely heart-shaped medal with a picture of Holy Mary on it. Unfortunately, looking at the old photographs, I realized I have no idea what had happened to the medal and how it got lost.
As for the watches - usually they were presented to the children on the Communion morning or earlier, before the church. The result of that was that many kids were more focused on showing their watch to their peers than thinking about the ceremony. That is why my mom did not let me wear mine to the church. I think she was right.
In the afternoon, we came back to the church again for the kids' group photo with our priest and the bishop, and to collect our First Communion certificates. The latter was quite unusual as it was a wooden picture made ready to be hung on the wall. There were so many children who received the First Communion on the day that we had photos taken in two groups - girls only and then, boys only. I counted the girls in the photo I have - there were 39 girls including me.
Another tradition was that, on a day after the First Communion, parents took their kids to a photographer for a photo session. Of course, it was not mandatory and more personal as it was not a group event. However, it was one more gift provided by parents. Filming on the big day was very rare at that time as hardly anybody owned such equipment.
PS
I forgot to write about the myrtle wreath (you can see it in the photos). It was another traditional part of the girl's First Communion look in those days. The wreath was made by my mom who had bought a pot of myrtle plant and grown it for some time. By the church sacrament day, the plant was big enough to make a wreath out of it. The little white flowers were daisies. Mom added them to make it all look less plain-green.
