Celebrated every year on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary commemorates the death of Mary and her bodily assumption into Heaven, before her body could begin to decay – a foretaste of the Christian belief of our own bodily resurrection at the end of time.

As it signifies the Blessed Virgin’s passing into eternal life, it is the most important of all Marian feasts and a Holy Day of Obligation. The feast is a very old one, celebrated universally by the sixth century and originally in the East, where it is known as the Feast of the Dormition, a word which means ‘the falling asleep’. In fact, Eastern Christians, both Catholic and Orthodox, continue to refer to the Feast of the Assumption as the Dormition of the Theotokos.

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her earthly life is a defined dogma of the Catholic Church. As a dogma, the Assumption is a required belief of all Catholics. The Eastern Orthodox, on the other hand, object to the papal definition of the dogma, seeing it as unnecessary, since belief in Mary’s bodily assumption, tradition holds, goes back to apostolic times.

Those wishing to participate in the feast today are spoilt for choice since it will be celebrated across the islands. In fact, the localities celebrating today are Attard, Birkirkara, Gudja, Għaxaq, Mosta, Mqabba, Qrendi, and Victoria. Certain vantage points, such as Rabat and Mdina, can also offer one a bird’s eye view of several of the festivities at one go.