Local Catholic Aiden Foghart has scheduled a business trip during the week of Ascension just to avoid the liturgical festival altogether.
The Solemnity of the Ascension is traditionally celebrated on the Thursday forty days after Easter, but in most parts of America has been transferred to the following Sunday to cut out a holy day of obligation during the busy work week. But some parts of the nation still celebrate Ascension on it’s original Thursday, leading to a complicated situation for those traveling.
“It’s all so confusing,” Foghart said. “To be honest I thought it would be easier to just skip the holy day completely this year. So I sat down and calculated when I would need to leave on a work trip and where so that I could spend Ascension Thursday in a diocese that celebrates it on Sunday, and Ascension Sunday in a diocese that celebrates it on Thursday.”
“Much easier!” he added.
Mr. Foghart lives in the Diocese of New York, which celebrates Ascension on Thursday. He booked a plane ticket departing Tuesday night to Boise, Idaho, which celebrates Ascension on Sunday. He says he plans to work remotely from the hotel in Boise until Friday morning, when he’ll fly back to New York for Sunday Mass.
Foghart says this is the first year he’s doing this, but depending on how it goes he would consider doing it in the future.
“If this goes well, I won’t ever have to celebrate the Ascension again!”
