Sunday, February 2, 2014
Candlemas Day
Disclaimer: Yes, you've seen this post (or much of it) before -- if you've been following my blog for 5 years! The following first ran on 2/2/09; I thought I'd blow the dust off and give it another go.
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Today, February 2, is Candlemas Day, the day upon which the season of Winter in the northern hemisphere is half over. The end can't come soon enough for a lot of folks.
An old English folk song declares:
If Candlemas be fair and bright
Come, Winter, have another flight.
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Go Winter, and come not again.
This day is also known as Groundhog Day (lots of information), and here in the U.S. we direct our attention to Punxsutawney Phil. He popped his head up to bright sunshine this morning, and left us with a dread of six weeks more of Winter to come. For more information on Phil, go here. (Current note: The information about Punxsutawney Phil is still true. I just checked. Brrr!)
In addition, February 2nd is celebrated as the Pagan Festival of Lights, St. Brigit's Day (Ireland) and in the Roman Catholic church, the Purification of the Blessed Virgin and The Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.
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New Stuff: The photo above is a new addition, courtesy of The Daily Office East, a devotional service to which I subscribe. From this post I learned that Candlemas Day used to be the day upon which all the beeswax candles in the church were blessed.
As the weatherman projected, the balmy temperatures of yesterday have fled. The thermometer currently reads just above the freezing point. Skies are heavy, leaden and primed to dump some winter mix upon us before the day is out.
Stay warm and dry!
Tomorrow is also a day.
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5 comments:
Love your Candlemas post ... Imbolc! I don't think I knew about the blessing of the candles ... wonderful!
Stay warm. We have another *storm* blowing through and on your way.
How comforting the warm light of a candle is, and en masse like that they are glorious! I suspect that the love of candle light is "hard wired" into human DNA, probably going back to our ancestors who lived in caves and made simple lamps.
Quite a thought!
Hi, I'm watching the Big Super Bowl game AND the commercials with one eye --and blogging with the other. The lady who sang the National Anthem was AWESOME, best I've heard that song sung in YEARS... Wow!!!!
I had forgotten about Candlemas --even though I knew about it. Thanks for the reminder.. Think I remember when you did this post before.
Have a good week.
Hugs,
Betsy
I was about to say Happy 5 Years of Blogging but then I realized that you never did say that the above was your first post and as I look at your blog archive I see that you've been blogging for closer to six years. I'm happy you are out here in the blogosphere and hope there are many more Groundhog and other Days in your blogging future.
Didn't see this post until February 10th but enjoyed it nonetheless. Very informative. General Beauregard Lee, Atlanta's counterpart to Punxsutawney Phil, did NOT see his shadow. However, another snowstorm is predicted for tomorrow morning.
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