August, the month of the Virgin Marytranslated

August can be characterized as the month of Panagia. The first fortnight begins with the liturgies of the Small and Great Prayer Rule, where they are chanted every afternoon alternately, in the middle of the month the Dormition of the Virgin Mary is solemnly celebrated, and at the end the Deposition of the Holy Belt of the Blessed Virgin Mary is celebrated. The face of the Virgin Mary holds a special place in the collective consciousness as she is either our mediator to God, or she appears as the pained Mother who mourned her Son, or the patroness of a local community, or even in literature she is presented to us as the embodiment of summer on some chapel dedicated to her grace.

On the other hand, the Feast of the Fifteenth of August itself, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, presents a dual nature. In the summer season, with the rhythms being calmer, with many having returned to their birthplace, the climate and atmosphere seems cheerful. The same in the Church. The litanies, the services with their solemn hymnology, with the Mother of God who moved to life, compose the framework of a celebration. And yet what is being celebrated is…