May Crowning: The Catholic Juggernaut of sorts

 Showing that there's nothing new under the sun of religious practice?

Earlier this week, the local Catholic school had a procession Wednesday afternoon. It looked to be a purely religious event, what with seeing some girls wearing what looked like First Communion dresses. A statue of Mary was in a cart. We're in Texas, not on the border, and the statue was blue, so it couldn't be a Cinco de Mayo Black Madonna deal.

So, on Thursday I did a Google. I didn't think it was Corpus Christi; this good Lutheran knows that that's normally further after Easter (it's in June this year) and that this would have been a church, not school, processional, and I have not heard of the local church doing a Corpus Christi procession. (That said, since then, both churches in my news area have gotten new priests.)

Well, my Googling, or Duck Duck Go-ing, quickly led me to "What is May crowning for kids?" And here's a description from a Catholic church.

And, with the statue of Mary in what was essentially a large flower cart or a small Mormon handcart, and, knowing the Hindu roots of the English word "juggernaut," I was reminded of that. The article notes that, in fact, Franciscan missionaries of the thirteenth century were the first Westerners to record the event. That, in turn, is part of the larger Indian phenomenon of temple car.

Now, no Catholic throws themselves under the Mary cart, which unlike the temple cars for Jagannath, the namesake of the English word, aren't big enough to crush people. (That said, the idea that the faithful threw themselves under the cart wheels seems to be mainly if not entirely a European visitors' religious urban legend.) Well, maybe some Penitentes types do? I don't know. I'm thinking of the secret flagellationists, many of whom still carry a cross on Good Friday and a few of whom, in secret events, actually will be hung from one. (Side note: the veneration of Jagganath appears strongest in portions of Eastern India with the highest percentage of Dalits and Scheduled Classes for most of the country outside Kashmir. And, the fact that Kashmir is high on Scheduled Tribes is a further "interesting" item vis-a-vis the post-1947 history of Kashmir.)

For something less severe than that, maybe some Catholics throw written Lenten vows in the cart or something?

Finally, is there some explicit syncretism involved? May Crowning recognizes Mary as "queen of heaven," and Jagannath comes from two Sanskrit words meaning "lord of the universe." That said, Wiki says that before the rise of Hairy Fishnuts (thanks, Opus), aka Hare Krishnas, aka, International Society for Krishna Consciousness, Jagannath was little known in the west.

And, Wiki also has a piece about May festivals for Mary. It says the May crowning didn't start until the 1700s CE and its roots are unknown. For American Catholics, it's gotten tied to Mother's Day. Also per that, I blame John Paul II for its revival. Eastern European Catholic and Marian devotee.

To wrap up? Mary as "Queen of Heaven" comes from the official declaration of her as Theotokos at the First Council of Ephesus. And, THAT in turn is another sign that old Martin Luther himself didn't go far enough, vis-a-vis his Reformed counterparts, in rejecting Marianism.