swuklink: Candlemas

Candlemas, or Candlemas Day is February 2nd.

So called because fo the custom of requiring a mother to carry candles on her first visit to church after childbirth; the practice was banned by the Church of England in Edward VI's reign, but still survives in the Roman Catholic Church.

Dedicated by the church to the Purification of the Virgin Mary, Candlemas Day inheritted much from the Celtic Imbolc (February 1st) and Roman festivals.

Candlemas also marked a milestone in the sun's return.

In her 'The Folklore of the Cotswolds' (1974), Katharine Briggs says that candles were lit to strengthen the power of the sun. Candlemas also marked the extinguishing of certain lights for she quotes a writer in the `Annual Record of the Oxfordshire and District Folklore Society' (1950);-

On Candlemas day we always used to have tea without a light, as the days were supposed to have lengthened sufficiently by then to make this possible.

...this also held true for Wiltshire.

Flowering of the Snowdrop
According to folklore, the snowdrop flowers on Candlemas - but this is probably more to do with the percieved purity of the white flower than fact as the snowdrop flowers anywhere between mid-January and mid-March.

THE CALENDAR
THE CHRISTIAN CALENDAR

Recommend a Book for this Page

The Folklore of the Cotswolds
by Katharine Briggs, 1974

Recommend a Book for this Page

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The Snowdrop

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