Presentation of Christ (AKA Candlemas AKA Groundhog Day) - Part 3: So, What’s Up With All The Candles?

As with most things pertaining to the Church we have only to look at the texts of the services to understand why candles are important on the Feast of the Presentation. First, there is the Gospel wherein St. Simeon says:

“Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, According to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel."

Additionaly there is the Troparion of the Feast which says:
“Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos, full of grace!
From you shone the Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God.
Enlightening those who sat in darkness!
Rejoice, and be glad, O righteous elder;
You accepted in your arms the Redeemer of our souls,
Who grants us the Resurrection.”

Jesus is not just any old light, he is the shining Sun of Righteousness, and his radiance doesn’t just bring attention to himself but brings light to those lost in darkness.

Then thn of course, there are other texts, historical texts to consider. The first reference to this feast is in the account of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the early years of the fourth century. The pilgrim was a nun named Egeria (or maybe Silvia) and she saw the procession and heard a sermon on the event of the Presentation as recorded in St. Luke’s Gospel. (Interestingly, because the Nativity of Christ was celebrated on January 6th in Jerusalem at that time, the feast of the Presentation was celebrated on February 14. Egeria is an invaluable source for information on the liturgical practices of the early Church.)

As Archbishop Jacobus de Voragine of Genoa wrote in 1275, “Jesu Christ is called peace, health, light and joy. Peace, because that he is our moyen and our advocate; health, for he is our redeemer; light, for he is our informer; and glory, for he is our governor. This feast is called Candlemas, and is made in remembrance of the offering (e.g. Jesus) that our Lady offered in the temple as said is, and every each beareth this day a candle of wax burning, which representeth our Lord Jesu Christ. Like as the candle burning hath three things in it, that is to wit, the wax, the wick, and the fire, right so be three things in Jesu Christ, that is the body, the soul and the godhead.”

So that answers part of the question about candles; the “why do we light candles on this day?” question. But it doesn’t answer the “Why do we bless all the candles for the year on this day?” question. Well, to the best of my knowledge there is nothing written down that tells us why. But I think a little deduction might be helpful. In the northern hemisphere, when are bees most active? In the warm months. Spring summer, and autumn is when the bees are out gathering nectar, making homey, and expanding their hives. It makes sense that after Christmas, in the coldest part of winter, when the hives population is much reduced, and the bees are lethargic and have completed their wax making for the year, that this is when beekeepers would melt the wax and make candles. So, what better time to bring hundreds and thousands of pounds of candles into churches to bless them than the time when the beekeepers have finished most of their candlemaking and when everyone in the church is going to be holding lit candles?

By the way, the name of this feast in French is the very gorgeous and sensuous Chandeleur.

I promise, I will get to the groundhogs and weather before the end of the Fest on Sunday. Its just that there is so much information and I haven’t been able to separate the facts from opinions and guesses.

In case you are wondering about the photos in this post, the top one is from an Orthodox Church in Baghdad. The lower one is of the candlemaker at Holy Trinity in Nashville, Tennessee.