Confirmation / communion

[Eamonnca1]

Help me out here. My social media feed is full of youngsters going for confirmation and communion, and the comments include "good luck" beforehand, and  "congratulations," and "well done" afterwards.

Why?

Is it a skilled job to go through those rituals? Is it an achievement to utter the things you've been trained to utter? To stand, kneel and sit at the right time when everyone else is doing it?

I'm genuinely curious. I remember going through them and thought they were overrated.

[trueblue1234]

I think your over analysing it. People just acknowledging an occasion. Standard social media practice.

[GiveItToTheShooters]

Help me out here. My social media feed is full of youngsters going for confirmation and communion, and the comments include "good luck" beforehand, and  "congratulations," and "well done" afterwards.

Why?

Is it a skilled job to go through those rituals? Is it an achievement to utter the things you've been trained to utter? To stand, kneel and sit at the right time when everyone else is doing it?

I'm genuinely curious. I remember going through them and thought they were overrated.

Agreed. Makes no sense.

[Jell 0 Biafra]

Why wouldn't you say nice stuff to a kid on what is, after all, a big day for them?

[Dougal Maguire]

Help me out here. My social media feed is full of youngsters going for confirmation and communion, and the comments include "good luck" beforehand, and  "congratulations," and "well done" afterwards.

Why?

Is it a skilled job to go through those rituals? Is it an achievement to utter the things you've been trained to utter? To stand, kneel and sit at the right time when everyone else is doing it?

I'm genuinely curious. I remember going through them and thought they were overrated.

This is like something Olly would post.

[JimStynes]

Help me out here. My social media feed is full of youngsters going for confirmation and communion, and the comments include "good luck" beforehand, and  "congratulations," and "well done" afterwards.

Why?

Is it a skilled job to go through those rituals? Is it an achievement to utter the things you've been trained to utter? To stand, kneel and sit at the right time when everyone else is doing it?

I'm genuinely curious. I remember going through them and thought they were overrated.

It's all a pile of balls really but it's seen as a bit of a milestone in a child's life just before they head to big school. Some children will be nervous as they  have to get up and read in front of a chapel and they'll have been practising for it flat out in school. The child gets made a big deal of and they get a pile of money etc off their family members. I would say 99.9% aren't celebrating it because the religious aspect of it. I'd love to know if it was taken out of the schools and left up to the parents to prepare for it, would there be as many making confirmation.

[Tony Baloney]

What do they wear nowadays? I recall a few years ago there was a drive to keep spending down as people were turning up in gear that wouldn't look out of place at a wedding?

Back in my day the leather tie was an essential part of the outfit.

[Taylor]

Imagine evening posting this 

So someone congratulates a child on making their communion/confirmation - so what?

f**k me.

Its a milestone in a childs life - kids have enough pressures and challenges nowadays without someone feeling the need to question why they are being congratulated.

[Milltown Row2]

What do they wear nowadays? I recall a few years ago there was a drive to keep spending down as people were turning up in gear that wouldn't look out of place at a wedding?

Back in my day the leather tie was an essential part of the outfit.

School uniform?

My kids are always raging when these things come up! All their cousins got money and we never had ours baptised communion or confirmation!

[Eamonnca1]

Help me out here. My social media feed is full of youngsters going for confirmation and communion, and the comments include "good luck" beforehand, and  "congratulations," and "well done" afterwards.

Why?

Is it a skilled job to go through those rituals? Is it an achievement to utter the things you've been trained to utter? To stand, kneel and sit at the right time when everyone else is doing it?

I'm genuinely curious. I remember going through them and thought they were overrated.

It's all a pile of balls really but it's seen as a bit of a milestone in a child's life just before they head to big school. Some children will be nervous as they  have to get up and read in front of a chapel and they'll have been practising for it flat out in school. The child gets made a big deal of and they get a pile of money etc off their family members. I would say 99.9% aren't celebrating it because the religious aspect of it. I'd love to know if it was taken out of the schools and left up to the parents to prepare for it, would there be as many making confirmation.

I'd say peer pressure is the only reason the majority of parents keep doing it now. I once asked a friend, a mother of two, why she put her kids through communion and confirmation even though they hardly ever go to mass. She said "If I didn't, my ma would kill me!"

I have another friend who reckons another generation will probably wrap it up.

[BennyCake]

I can sort of see that first communion is a bit of a deal. Well, used to be anyway. But how many children go regularly to mass to get communion?

But confirmation, what does that mean to a child really? Receive the Holy Spirit? It means frig all to an adult, never mind a child.

Seems parents go madder with these things, clothes, makeup, bbq, bouncy castle, meals out, days drinking etc, while at the same time more parents don't go to mass or are in any way religious, yet they go mad for these events.

Both should be done Friday morning, the kids in their uniforms, back to school/work. No fuss. No expense. No palaver. That's that.

[GiveItToTheShooters]

What do they wear nowadays? I recall a few years ago there was a drive to keep spending down as people were turning up in gear that wouldn't look out of place at a wedding?

Back in my day the leather tie was an essential part of the outfit.

School uniform?

My kids are always raging when these things come up! All their cousins got money and we never had ours baptised communion or confirmation!

Are you for real 

[Olly]

Disgusted at this thread.

For my confirmation I was so nervous that I pished myself just before we left the house and my brown cords were ruined. It was too late to change so my ma made me tie my aran jumper, knitted for the occasion by my granny, around my waist, leaving a stupid I Love Dallas tshirt on show. I ruined everyone's photos and my granny took a heart attack cos she spent a year knitting it and it was used to cover pish.

So well done to everyone making their confirmation this month. It's not easy.

[Milltown Row2]

What do they wear nowadays? I recall a few years ago there was a drive to keep spending down as people were turning up in gear that wouldn't look out of place at a wedding?

Back in my day the leather tie was an essential part of the outfit.

School uniform?

My kids are always raging when these things come up! All their cousins got money and we never had ours baptised communion or confirmation!

Are you for real 

Wouldn't be a churchgoer so decided to let them decide for themselves when they were older, they could choose themselves.

So we didn't push the sacraments on them.

Yes if they ain't baptised they'll hardly get the rest.

[Tony Baloney]

What do they wear nowadays? I recall a few years ago there was a drive to keep spending down as people were turning up in gear that wouldn't look out of place at a wedding?

Back in my day the leather tie was an essential part of the outfit.

School uniform?

My kids are always raging when these things come up! All their cousins got money and we never had ours baptised communion or confirmation!

Are you for real 

Wouldn't be a churchgoer so decided to let them decide for themselves when they were older, they could choose themselves.

So we didn't push the sacraments on them.

Yes if they ain't baptised they'll hardly get the rest.

Same here. I'm married to a Prod and neither of us are church goers nowadays so didn't bother with it. There is a lot of hypocrisy when it comes to this sort of stuff, especially around weddings where people who don't attend Mass etc. still want the church wedding with a religious service.