A long white train on her dress, the girl stands not even four foot tall in her new, kitten-heeled shoes.
Her hair is tied back and a veil that’s so white it’s almost blue falls down her back. Her horse-drawn carriage awaits and she totters towards it, balancing white umbrella, white purse and white Bible in her hands. She sits into the carriage, clasping her gloved-hands, also white, together with glee.
It’s her First Holy Communion day and this standard of over-the-top fanfare was not a rare sight in any town across the country for years.
A personal memory sees me sitting in 4th class, primary school as the recent Holy Communion receivers paraded around the classrooms to show off their outfits. One girl had a frilly umbrella and she stood out a mile for having it. None of us had ever had an umbrella like it.
That umbrella wouldn’t have stood a chance in the crowds of seven and eight-year-olds that have paraded into the churches around the country in recent years.
What is meant to be a religious sacrament and a day for your family and friends to get together turned into a white-veil themed, Big Fat Gypsy Wedding-like circus somewhere in the midst of the Celtic Tiger.
Keeping up with the Jones’s meant parents were no longer debating if their little girl could hold a frilly umbrella in the church, but instead were finding themselves googling limousine transport “just to see the price”.
Do the children understand what their First Holy Communion day is about?
Those splashing-the-cash days are gone for most now but the peer pressure is there. Nobody wants their little girl looking simply dressed in front of her classmates.
Now, one religious figure has come out pleading with parents not to fall victim to the financial pressures of the day this coming year.
The extravagance surrounding a child’s First Holy Communion is wrong, the Archbishop of Dublin has said.
Dr Diarmuid Martin said families should not get into debt for what should be a simple day.
A recent survey found that Irish parents are forking out an estimated €550 on communion clothes, parties and presents. There has to be a simpler way to celebrate the day your child first receives Holy Communion.
“I believe there is something wrong with extravagance,” Dr Martin said as he unveiled plans to get parents in the Dunlin area more involved with the sacrament.
“First Communion has to be something simple and I think we have to try and keep that.
“It’s up to every parish to decide what way they go about that so there isn’t that sort of expense.
“One should be very clearly looking at the amount of money spent on outfits and sometimes transport and partying.
“Parishes should encourage people to celebrate the sacrament with the simplicity and authenticity which will help the child to fully understand the mystery of the Eucharist.”
Keep costs low, the Church pleads with parents.
The very cynical in us wonders do many of the children understand that the day is about more than just dressing up.
The Archdiocese of Dunlin released a policy document yesterday that proposes changes in the way children prepare for the sacraments of First Communion and Reconciliation (confession).
Under the proposed plan, Dr Martin said that parents will have a greater role in their child’s First Holy Communion.
He is hoping preparations, prayers and teachings will happen in the home as well as in the classroom.
He also added that plans can be made for children whose parents decide against them making their First Holy Communion too.
It could be a wake-up call for a lot of parents preparing for their child’s First Holy Communion across the country this year.
Will these words assure parents that it is completely acceptable not to be forking out on once-worn luxury items for the day?
We will just have to wait and see.
