Candlemas and Other Mid-Winter Holidays that Celebrate the Return of Light

We are at the halfway point of winter--halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox.   It's also a morning where I'm scrolling through beautiful pictures of snow from a wide variety of places--a huge winter swarm has swirled its way across the country and up the Eastern seaboard.

And here we are at Groundhog's Day, when we long to know if we will have 6 more weeks of winter or if spring will come slipping in.  We're also almost a year into this pandemic; although the pandemic was on our radar screen if we were paying attention, many of us weren't personally affected until March, so that's why I say almost a year, not over a year.

We're at a crossroads of  holidays:  St. Brigid's Day yesterday, and today is Candlemas, also known as the Feast of the Presentation.  We also have some holidays associated with pre-Christian times:   Imbolc and Oimelc.  All of them show the human yearning for fire and light and warmth in these deeper days of winter.

Today, Candlemas, some churches and monasteries will bless the year's supply of candles. I love this tradition. Today would be a good day to light a candle and to think about our own lights. Are we dimly burning wicks? Take heart--the Bible promises that we can still be useful. Does our light burn pure and true? Take care to protect that flame.

Candlemas celebrates the presentation of Jesus at the temple. It's the last feast holiday that references Christmas. We could see it as the final festival of Christmas, even though most of us have had the decorations packed away since even before Epiphany.

For those of us who feel like it’s been too long since we saw sunlight, be of good cheer. The holidays of early February (Groundhog Day, Candlemas, St. Brigid's Day, Imbolc and Oimelc) remind us that the light hasn't really left us. Spring will be here soon.