At the risk of upsetting my good friend Gary Potter, who does not care much for Twitter, I’m going to quote a couple of “tweets.”
Fear not, it is to a good purpose.
Yesterday, in advance of today’s sublime Festival, I tweeted this:
March 25, Feast of the Annunciation: This is the Greatest of All Days in the History of the World http://t.co/VIqQPA2uEG via @SBC_Catholic
— Brother André Marie, M.I.C.M. (@Brother_Andre) March 24, 2015
A friend named David Smith, whom I know from the FNE program, made this reply:
https://twitter.com/peregrinator1/status/580541978741501953
David knows, I think, that I’m a Tolkien fan. His reference was not lost on me. March 25, 3019 is the day the Ring is destroyed on Mount Doom, thus vanquishing Sauron, the Satan figure of Middle Earth. For Tolkien, this was a deliberate choice, March 25 being received by tradition as not only Annunciation day (“Lady Day” in England), but also the anniversary of the Crucifixion itself. (Hence it is also the feast of Saint Dismas, who died the same day Our Lord did.)
On the day of this Incarnation and Crucifixion, Jesus destroyed the power of the real “Dark Lord.”
But Tolkien the Catholic Englishman surely must have known that, at one time, March 25 was New Years Day in his own nation. Indeed, we are told by Wikipedia that “In Annunciation Style or Lady Day Style dating the new year started on 25 March, the feast of the Annunciation (traditionally nicknamed Lady Day). This date was used in many parts of Europe during the Middle Ages and beyond.”
This reckoning of the new year even made it over to the New England colonies.
So there it is. Happy New Year, Frodo. And Happy Feast Day to all redeemed by the Virgin’s Son.
