Next: 15 Aug 2027
Assumption herb blessing
On the feast of the Assumption, central Europe takes bunches of herbs, flowers and grain to be blessed.
What happens
In Poland 15 August is the feast of Our Lady of the Herbs. People carry to church a bouquet of garden flowers, wild herbs and ears of the new grain, and the priest blesses it. The same custom is kept in Lithuania, where the day is called Žolinė, and in Bavaria and Austria, where the bunch is built around a tall stem of mullein. A legend says that when the tomb of Mary was opened it held only flowers. The blessed bunch is dried and kept in the house.
The flowers
Also part of it, and being written: Hypericum perforatum (St John's wort, a healing herb in almost every bouquet.).
More flowers and customs of Assumption herb blessing
DecorationOriginal text by the Phool desk, written with AI assistance. Background: "Assumption of Mary" on Wikipedia. Customs differ from family to family and place to place. If we have something wrong, tell us.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Common sunflower: Jon Sullivan, Public domain, source
- Yarrow: Thayne Tuason, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Dożynki: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Mullein: Magnus Manske, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Assumption Herb Blessing: Titian, Public domain, source