Liturgical Moment
Grandparents Day was founded by Marian McQuade in West Virginia to champion the cause of lonely elderly in nursing homes, and persuade grandchildren to tap the wisdom and heritage of their grandparents. The idea was spurred by the “Past 80 Parties” Mrs. McQuade organized. As part of the planning, she visited nursing homes and was moved by the residents’ loneliness. Inspired, she organized day visits called Grandparents Day to honor grandparents wherever they lived; and to give grandparents the opportunity to show love for, identify strengths of, share with, and guide one another.
In 1978, President Jimmy Carter proclaimed the first Sunday after Labor Day as National Grandparents Day. The proclamation declared grandparents as “our continuing tie to the near-past, to events and beliefs and experiences that so strongly affect our lives and the world around us. Whether they are our own or surrogate grandparents who fill some of the gaps in our mobile society, our senior generation also provides our society a link to our national heritage and traditions.
Mrs. McQuade was the grandmother of forty-three grandchildren and fifteen great-grandchildren. From 1970 until her death on September 26, 2008, she tirelessly advocated for senior citizen rights and to make every day Grandparents Day.
Incorporating a celebration of Grandparents, Seniors and Elders into liturgical life allows God’s people to celebrate the theology of legacy, the willing bequest of a predecessor’s most prized spiritual, historical, emotional, material, and physical divinely-bestowed possessions to a willing successor for the purposes of increasing God’s impact in the life of the predecessor and successor, and in the world.
National Grandparent´s Day |
