On January 14th, according to Medieval Tradition, was The Feast of the Ass or Festum Asinorum. The Feast commemorates The Flight to Egypt of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. The idea comes from apparently some donkey and animal parables, but the concept is when Jesus was only a Baby, Herod The Great sough to kill him, “ Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord *appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him.”
So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod; this happened so that what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled: “Out of Egypt I called My Son. Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent men and killed all the boys who were in Bethlehem and all its vicinity who were two years old or under, according to the time which he had determined from the magi.” (Matthew 2:13-14, 16).
The reason it falls on January 14th could possibly have to do with that January 7th is Christmas Day for Eastern Christians. The reason the date differ from us Westerners is that we use The Gregorian Calendar, which is solar or sun base for counting days, and the Eastern Orthodox Christians use the Julian Calendar, which is lunar or follows the cycles of the Moon.
The idea of celebrating The Donkey that bore the Holy Family and our Lord Incarnate to Egypt had gotten some resurgence with the film The Star (2017) which followed Bo, The Donkey chosen to carry Mary and The Christ child. There was an older film, Nestor, The Long Eared Christmas Donkey (1977) that used the Animagic Japanese stop motion style used in Rudolph The Rednose Reindeer and Santa Claus is Coming To Town. It is intriguing both those films came out in sevens, 1977 and 2017.
The Feast of The Ass is not celebrated by many Christians these days. Those who still do, often have procession of a little girl playing Mary and Boy playing Joseph with s Baby Jesus riding on a live donkey, Latin Hymns are sang, and most unusual of all is “Hez, Sir Azne!” (hey sir ass/donkey) and the whole congregation braying like donkeys instead of Deo Gratia and Amens. I confess this veneration is the most unusual I have heard of and no doubt could garner rebuked of idolatry and animal worship that violates The Epistle of Rome, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,[g] in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” (Romans 1:19-23). This is probably a factor in why it fell out of favor, and having to muster a donkey for the feast is no small feat in a cosmopolitan location. And most likely of all is the abuse and snickering of kids over “The Feast of the Ass” ass not being a donkey or burrow only, but also part of the anatomy of humans.
I find quirky feasts intriguing. While I agree there is a danger of animal worship, making note of the donkey who did bear The Holy Family to Egypt I think would be a great way to include and encourage kids to be interested in The Nativity at Christmas. It is merely a matter of how it is done. I would advise against braying like burrows, for that is not the Tongues of Angels the Apostle speaks of. Amen.
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