MANILA — President Rodrigo R. Duterte has declared September 8 of every year as a special working holiday in the country to commemorate the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Catholic Church celebrates the Virgin Mary’s birth on September 8, nine months after the December 8 celebration of her Immaculate Conception as the child of Saints Joachim and Anne.
The couple prayed for a child and in answer to their prayers, God granted them a daughter who was to be the Mother of Jesus Christ.
The Virgin Mary was born in Nazareth, Galilee.
The Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary originated in Jerusalem, Israel in the early 6th century. -PNA
