Also on the 15th of August Catholics celebrate the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. This is different from the Ascension of Christ in that "ascension" is understood to mean "elevating oneself by one's own means" (Christ had the power to ascend to heaven), whereas "assumption" means someone is made to ascend by others (the Virgin Mary was "pulled" to heaven by Grace, or the Holy Spirit, or whatever). I find it interesting that in the context of Catholicism there are two terms for the same kind of phenomenon, with such a fine distinction between them.

We use both words in Spain as girls' names (my grandma was named Ascensión), and I've even heard of international postal services getting mixed up between Ascension Island somewhere in the Atlantic and Asunción, the capital city of Paraguay.