December 18th is the second day of the great antiphons and has been in old Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula, Spain and Portugal) and in the old Spanish and Portuguese colonies around the world the day of the Expectation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, more commonly known as Nuestra Señora de la O (Our Lady of O) or as Nuestra Señora de la Expectación del Parto (Our Lady of the Expectation of Birth).
The O, of course, refers to the long interjection particle which begins each of the Greater Antiphons for the Magnificat of Vespers of each day between December 17th and December 23rd. The Virgin of the O has her own antiphon, O Virgo Virginum:
O Virgo virginum,quomodo fiet istud? Quia nec primam similem visa est nec habere sequentem. Filiae Ierusalem, quid me admiramini? Divinum est mysterium hoc quod cernitis. (O Virgin of virgins,how shall this be?For neither before was any like thee,nor shall there be after.Daughters of Jerusalem,why marvel ye at me?That which ye behold is a divine mystery.)
