Instead, Francis will mark the feast day with "an act of private devotion, entrusting the city of Rome, its inhabitants and the many sick people in every part of the world to Our Lady," Holy See press office director Matteo Bruni said.

It will be the first time since 1953 that the pope has not offered the traditional veneration of the statue of the Immaculate Conception on the Dec. 8 feast. Bruni said that Francis would not go to the square in order to avoid people gathering and transmitting the virus.

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In 1855 Wellington experienced a severe earthquake that rocked the southern part of the North Island. At magnitude 8.2 it was the most powerful ever recorded in New Zealand.

The earthquake was caused by movement along a fault in Palliser Bay and lasted nearly a minute.

Wellington was worst affected and up to nine people died. It altered the landscape of the region and affected its subsequent urban development, although many new wooden buildings survived.

Bishop Viard (who had arrived in Wellington in 1850 as Vicar Apostolic of the Southern diocese, headquartered in Wellington, and was appointed Bishop in 1860) was overseas at the time.

He decided on his return to consecrate the Archdiocese of Wellington to the patronage of Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception. Every year since then, on 8 December Wellington Catholics pray to Mary to protect the city from further earthquakes.

According to ‘local legend', during World War II Archbishop O'Shea forgot to say the prayer and in 1942 Wellington experienced another severe earthquake. Continue reading

It celebrates plenty of major feasts with lots of customs, traditions, and even special foods during the month of December.

St. Nicholas

Early in the Advent season, Dec. 6, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Nicholas, a 4th-century bishop from the region of modern-day Turkey well known for his generosity. The day has customs similar to Christmas, but with variations: Instead of gifts placed in stockings or under the tree, they are placed in children's shoes left outside their bedroom door the previous night.

The day is celebrated differently around the world and particularly emphasized in Eastern Europe, but in the United States, it is primarily focused on the shoe custom with an added emphasis on doing good things for others.

The St. Nicholas Center in Holland, Michigan, sponsors a traveling St. Nicholas exhibit and also has lots of information on its website on the history of the feast day, ways to celebrate, and the distinction between Santa Claus and St. Nicholas.

Immaculate Conception

Two days after the feast of St. Nicholas, the Church celebrates the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the patroness of the United States. The feast is a holy day of obligation celebrating the belief that Mary was without sin from the moment she was conceived.

The day itself does not have anything to do with Advent, but was chosen as the date nine months from the date the Church celebrates Mary's birth, Sept. 8.

Our Lady of Guadalupe

The other Marian feast in December is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Dec. 12, which commemorates Mary's appearance to St. Juan Diego in 1531 at Tepayac, a hill northwest of modern-day Mexico City. Continue reading

Source and Image

• Crux, from an article by Carol Zimmermann.