Missalpass

Missalpass is a coming of age tradition among Urceans and specifically Urcean Catholics. In this practice, parents convey unto their children hand missals, which are handheld guides including the instructions and texts of the Catholic Mass. Most missals manufactured in Urcea are designed with Missalpass practices in mind. Nearly all missals manufactured in the country have three pages at the beginning of the missal with fields for names and relation to the prior holder. A large number of missals are kept in circulation within Urcean families at any given time, as missals are passed from parent to children but also between childless members of the family and their closest living nephew, niece, or cousin as the situation presents. Missals in this way are preserved meticulously as one of the most cherished heirlooms within a family, and accomodations are often made within Urceans' last wills providing for the granting of missals to their descendants. Most Urcean boys and girls are given a missal at age fourteen. The oldest child is typically given the missal of their father, with the second oldest being given the missal belonging to their mother. The parents may opt to purchase missals for their own use, which are then often passed on to younger children as they come of age. Younger children are also often given missals from other family members, either new missals as a gift or receiving them from childless family members.

For most Urceans, Missalpass is more of a rite of passage and statement of the importance of faith rather than the passage of a practical liturgical guide. Most Urceans, especially since the Second Vatican Council, are highly literate in the intricacies of liturgy and do not need their missal. Accordingly, most parents do not acquire new missals for personal use once they are passed on. In many cases, missals are not used at all and are kept primarily as a treasured family item.

Historians have concluded the practice of handing down missals to young adults began in Urcea likely in the 17th century, as such a practice would not have been feasible before both the Council of Trent and the invention of the Printing Press. The introduction of the new mass in the 1960s caused significant disruption as many families protested the sudden irrelevance of missals handed down to them, in some cases, by dozens of ancestors previously. Some Urcean manufacturers have since begun to design modern mass "slide in" pages, which present a truncated version of the current Mass which fits within the old missals.