What do Groundhog Day, Candlemas and Imbolc have in common?~~

Hello Everyone,

Well that's a question that I'm putting to you, what do Groundhog Day, Candlemas, Imbolc and even St. Blaise Day have in common?

They are in essence celebrated on the same or with in a day or two of each other for the same reason, the pre-welcoming of Spring.

 Today Feb 2 is a 4 times important day for anyone who does ‘the work”.

In its more mundane aspect it’s “Groundhog Day”, that’s where Punxsutawney Phil, the famous Pennsylvania groundhog that can supposedly forecast when the North American winter will end.

As legend has it, if this not so little rodent sees his shadow on Groundhog Day, Feb. 2, frigid and blustery weather will continue for six weeks. If it is cloudy and no shadow appears, the onset of spring is near.

However this year Phil dashed everyone’s hopes for an early spring on when he emerged from his tree stump and saw his shadow. And that is according to the Reuters news-feed.

Spiritually this is also known as St. Blaise (pronounced Blaze) Day Although it’s actually celebrated on Feb 3^rd. According to the Acts, while Blaise was being taken into custody, a distraught mother, whose only child was choking on a fishbone, threw herself at his feet and implored his intercession. Touched at her grief, he offered up his prayers, and the child was cured. Consequently, Saint Blaise is invoked for protection against injuries and illnesses of the throat.

In many places on the day of his feast the blessing of St. Blaise is given: two burning candles, blessed on the feast of the Presentation of the Lord ("candlemas"), are held in a crossed position by a priest over the heads of the faithful or the people are touched on the throat with them. At the same time the following blessing is given: "May Almighty God at the intercession of St. Blaise, Bishop and Martyr, preserve you from infections of the throat and from all other afflictions". Then the priest makes the sign of the cross over the faithful.

Candlemas in the Catholic Church, is also known as the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Feast of the Presentation of our Lord Jesus, is a Christian holiday commemorating the presentation of Jesus at the Temple. It falls on February 2, which is traditionally the 40th day of the Christmas-Epiphany season. While it is customary for Christians in some countries to remove their Christmas decorations on Twelfth Night (Epiphany Eve), those in other Christian countries historically remove them on Candlemas. On Candlemas, many Christians (especially Anglicans, Methodists, Lutherans, Orthodox and Roman Catholics) also bring their candles to their local church, where they are blessed and then used for the rest of the year.

Special candles are brought along to the blessing by the worshippers. These are often very elaborate and are highly treasured. Afterwards they are taken home and kept to be lighted at times of stress – during storms, in sickrooms and at the bedside of the dying.  According to some sources, Christians began Candlemas in Jerusalem as early as the fourth century, the candle lighting procession started in the fifth century.

Friedrich Justus  Knecht,  in his book  A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture (Published 1910)  states. "We keep a feast on the 2nd of February, forty days after Christmas, in memory of our Lord's Presentation in the Temple. This feast has several names. First, it is known as the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord Jesus. Secondly, it is called the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. But the usual and popular name for this Feast is Candlemas-day, because on this day candles are blessed before Mass, and there takes place a procession with lighted candles. Candles are blessed and lighted on this particular feast."

  Niall Edworthy, in his book The Curious World of Christmas.  Stated "The time-honored epoch for taking down Christmas decorations from Church and house on Candlemas Day, February 2nd. Terribly withered they are by that time. Candlemas in old times represented the end of the Christmas holidays, which, when "fine old leisure" reigned, were far longer than they are now."

Steve Roud, in his book, The English Year, confirmed this tradition "….. in the mid seventeenth century Christmas decorations were expected to stay in place until Candlemas (2 February), and this remained the norm until the nineteenth century."      

But although we’d have all of the Christmas decorations taken down well before Feb. 2, Granny insisted that the Manger Scene be left up until Feb. 2 and then taken down and packed away after we came back from church.    Even I do it now although it sometimes frustrates my Niece but I tell her that it’s easy to pack away so relax.

Most folks try to have their decorations down by Martin Luther King, jr. Day,  by that time they will have recovered from the Holiday Season, in time to enjoy the Super Bowl Football game.

But these Feasts and celebrations are far older than the 4^th century.

The ancient Romans celebrated the Lupercalia in mid-February, in honor of Lupercus, the god of fertility and shepherds. The celebration of Feralia occurred at the same time.  It was the custom of the Vestal Virgins during Lupercalia, to be offering cakes made with wheat from the old crop so that the following crop would be good.

The custom of making pancakes or crepes is similar to the Vestal virgin cakes in the celebration of Imbolc which is on the first of February. This was in honor of the goddess Brigid and was associated with purification and fertility at the end of winter. Peasants would carry torches and cross the fields in procession, praying to the goddess to purify the ground before planting.  Crêpes or Pancakes with their round form and their golden color are reminiscent of the sun, an appropriate symbol during Candlemas, as this is the time of the year when the days get longer. It is also the time of year when the winter seeds begin to grow. The people therefore used left-over flour to make these crêpes, symbolizing prosperity for the coming year.

This is carried over into countries such as France and Belgium.

I could go on and on about this as there are many “Fire” or Candle or torch legends especially surrounding the Month of February such as the Demeter hunting and finding her daughter Persephone and with that the return of warmth to the earth and spring.

The word February comes from the Latin verb februare which means "purification". Christianity has therefore placed the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin at this time. The purification in question is the departure of the "winter darkness". The myths of Sleeping Beauty or Theseus and Ariadne (for example) relate to the release or liberation of the light (Dawn of the year) by the "solar knight"

In Puerto Rico this festivity officially finalizes the end of Christmas for Catholics, the festivities include a procession where the statue of the "Virgen de la Candelaria" is carried on the shoulders. Others follow with lit candles until they reach a church where a Mass is celebrated. In the evening the festivities continue with a giant bonfire and singing.

In Mexico it is traditional to celebrate the presentation of the Christ child in the temple on February 2. The dressing and adoration of the child Jesus and family meals with tamales are an important Mexican tradition.

But in the United States and Canada it has mostly been replaced by Groundhog Day.

No matter what it is called it is a festival of light or a fire festival, and a Festival of Purification.

Granny and her Ladies would go to church for the blessing of the throats, but they’d also would lay in a huge supply of candles for their spiritual use but all of them would take one candle (when the churches use to do it) and have it blessed by a priest, and from that candle they would light their own sanctuary “lamps” or Candles for their altars to make sure that whatever energy (mostly positive ) was sent out it would always remain.

Also and I remember this as a child and I still do it today as an adult, we would bathe in a purifying bath or shower, with hyssop herbs in a muslin bag and pray Psalm 51 lines 7 to 12:

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

After that we would start an early Spring Cleaning of the house, the garage, the shed anything that could be done inside out of the rain, and I mean cleaning, things that haven’t be used or worn in ages but still usable were donated, closets emptied and clothing sorted, (it was hard to get some of the men to surrender their favorite old T-shirts) bed’s striped, mattresses flipped, furniture pulled away from walls and dusted and vacuumed, base boards (if painted) washed down.

And then all the wards and shields would be reactivated and renewed.  

Now I’m not saying the Granny was a Wiccan, she wasn’t, it just made very good sense to do all of that because then the house became lighter in energy, cleaner in spirit and more protected than before.

Now this could not be done in one day, no, but February 2^nd  Candlemas, St. Blaise, Imbolc, Groundhog Day whatever you wanted to call it, it signaled to clean things from Attic to basement and that was also squeezing in doing the income taxes and paying the property taxes as well.

So we started by cleansing our bodies and souls, and then our living environment.   And all to welcome Spring and the earth warming up as well as re-setting our protections.  

If more folks got back into that habit they would clear out a lot of clutter in their lives, and find a lot of weight lifted from their shoulders.

Bright Blessings,

Ms. Q