- When it is kept
- February 2
- Where it fits in the year
- The last day of the season
Candlemas falls on February 2, forty days after Christmas. It remembers Mary and Joseph bringing the baby Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem, a story told in Luke 2. An old man named Simeon takes the child in his arms and calls him a light for the nations. That is why candles are used. The link between the words and the candles is the church’s explanation.1
The earliest report of the feast comes from Egeria, a woman pilgrim of the 380s who wrote about Jerusalem. She describes a procession and sermons about Simeon and Anna on the fortieth day after Epiphany.2,3,4 After Christmas settled on December 25, the feast moved to February 2 over time.2,1 In the 540s the Emperor Justinian made it official across the Eastern Roman Empire, in thanks for the end of a plague in Constantinople.2,1 Blessing candles in church became common only around the 1000s.2
In many places Candlemas ended the Christmas season, and the greenery was taken down. The English poet Robert Herrick wrote a poem telling people to take down rosemary, bay, mistletoe and holly on Candlemas Eve, February 1.1,5,6
Weather lore
An old weather saying says that if Candlemas is bright and clear, winter will go on. In Germany a badger that sees its shadow meant more winter. German settlers in Pennsylvania carried this over, and it became Groundhog Day.7
In the Bible
Behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. He came in the Spirit into the temple. When the parents brought in the child, Jesus, that they might do concerning him according to the custom of the law, then he received him into his arms and blessed God, and said, “Now you are releasing your servant, Master, according to your word, in peace; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples; a light for revelation to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel.”
Luke 2:25-32
This is the Gospel story behind the feast. Simeon’s words about a light are in verse 32.