Welcome Be Candlemas

Forty days after Christmas.

The Presentation of our Lord at the Temple.

The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The midpoint between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox.

There is much to celebrate on this day, February 2,

and much for which to give thanks.

Hyacinths, crocuses, and tulips are breaking soil in our garden.

I give thanks for these,

but most of all for Jesus,

"a light for revelation to the Gentiles,"

and for the mystery and blessing hidden in this phrase, also spoken in the Jewish temple by Simeon, following his song, the nunc dimittis:

"And a sword will pierce your own soul, too."

The Blessed Virgin Mary accepted this sword, sight unseen,

back at the Annunciation when she spoke these words to the angel Gabriel:

Ecce ancilla domini.

Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.

(I am the Lord's servant.

May it be to me according to your word.)

They found fulfilment thirty-three years later,

when she accompanied her beloved Son,

as He suffered and died on the Cross,

and brought true sunshine into our world.

Bits of charm for Candlemas:

Candlemas Bells

Snowdrops are known as Candlemas Bells because they often bloom early in the year, even before Candlemas.  Some varieties bloom all winter (in the northern hemisphere).  The superstitious used to believe that these flowers should not be brought into the house prior to Candlemas.  However, it is also believed in more recent times that these flowers purify a home.

According to folklore, an angel helped these Candlemas bells to bloom and pointed them as a sign of hope to Eve, who wept in repentance and in despair over the cold and death that entered the world.  Many Christians see the flower as a symbol of Jesus Christ being this hope for the world.  Candles that are lit during Candlemas also symbolize Jesus as the “light of the world.”

I love how one of Elizabeth Goudge's young characters, Colette in Island Magic (thank you, Sara), could hear the Canterbury bells ringing in the garden.

What a lot of bells all round her, and all of them beautiful, white bells of the lilies with gold dust inside, yellow bells of the crown imperials with bulging drops of honey inside, blue and pink and white Canterbury bells, hundreds and hundreds of them.  She gazed and gazed and quite suddenly all the bells began to ring.  She listened open-mouthed.  Yes, they really were.  They were swinging slowly from side to side, the lilies, the crown imperials, and the Canterbury bells, and chiming away like mad.

Why?  It wasn't Christmas night; it wasn't that moment at Mass when the heads are bowed....then something began to chime inside her and, looking up, she saw God walking down the garden path.

--Elizabeth Goudge, Island Magic. II. ii.

Can you imagine what a delicate, white sound snowdrops would make if they rang on Candlemas?

Celebrating Candlemas

Ideas for how to celebrate Candlemas:

http://www.fisheaters.com/customstimeafterepiphany3.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_10187_celebrate-candlemas.html

The Songs of This Day

'

The Nunc Dimittis

Palestrina (1526-1594)

Performed by The Tallis Scholars

Cambridge, England

Wolcum Yole

(mentions Candlemas as part of the Christmas season)

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)

Performed by Trinity College Choir

Cambridge, England

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Candlemas:  It's all about light...

and true love.