Question:

Does anyone know anything about Candlemas, or the Feast of the Presentation of Christ to the temple? I'm thinking of having the Sunday school make candles next Sunday and have them blessed during church. Has anyone celebrated this or does your church observe this day?

Answer:

We celebrate too, but our celebration is a little non-standard ... and that probably doesn't surprise you, either!!

The smells-and-bells high churches here are very conservative and anti-children; the more relaxed churches don't do Candlemas at all. So we had to come up with our own way of marking the festival. The last few years, what we've done is this:

We invited ptd, pts and their mother to dinner. When we were ready for our guests, we put as many unlit candles as will fit on the dining table, then we walked down the street to their house carrying candle-lanterns (including extras for our guests) and singing hymns: This Little Light of Mine; It is Better to Light Just One Little Candle; Shine, Jesus, Shine; and The Seven Joys of Mary. Then we all process back together.

When we get home, we light the candles on the dining table from the light we have brought into the house, naming someone we're praying for with each candle. We eat dinner together, and then watch Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.

I'm not to sure who we'll have for guests this year, or where we'll process, because my part-time family have moved out of the neighbourhood. But one of our Wiccan aunties has moved in to the neighbourhood; and if she's not at Circle that night I'm sure she'll celebrate with us.

This year, I'm going to introduce a special dessert, which I expect to become a family tradition. My mother used to make them at Christmas, but they are time-consuming to make, and get lost among all the other rich Christmas food, so I haven't made them in years. Many years. Since my wedding, in fact. 

  Virgin's Cakes
  --------------

As for making candles, we made a number of different types.

I hadn't made dips until this Candlemas. I was struggling to find some container deep enough to make a decent-sized taper, and final hit on the deep, narrow metal containers that florists use to store cut flowers for bouquets. They're galvanized steel, and about a foot deep. I have a friend-of-a-friend who is a florist, but I also found some at Michael's Crafts (I think that's an American chain -- do you have one?) I got a small galvanized pitcher, about 3-pint capacity, at the same time: as you dip the candles you use up wax and have to add a little to the dipping container. To keep my colours constant I found I had to melt more wx than I needed at the start, so that when I added wax at the end, I wasn't adding a different shade. The pitcher worked well for that.

I also made some poured candles. I used milk cartons for a "stained-glass" candle: I melted blue stubs and poured a layer of wax half an inch deep in one side of a 2-litre milk carton that I had cut in half lengthwise. I melted purple stubs and poured a layer of puple in the other half of the carton. (Purple and blue -- 14 years of Advent stubs!) When the wax was solid but still warm, I cut the wax into half-inch cubes. I mixed the blue and purple cubes together in a one-liter milk carton with a wick up the centre, and poured natural off-white wax around them.

My recent re-focussing on home-making has included sewing new curtains for my ancient bathroom, in shades of purple and blue and dark olive green chosen to match the toothbrush holder that was the *only* thing I liked about the bathroom decor prior to that! Since the counters are now clutter-free, the blue tapers and matching stained-glass pillar-candle joined the new curtains and vanity-skirt; and I've been luxuriating in nightly candle-light bubble baths.

Gloat, gloat <g>.

Does anyone know the rest of the second verse to this old poem, that I memorised in my childhood?... 

 A candle's just a little thing
 it starts with just a bit of string.
 but dipped, and trimmed with patient hand
 it gathers wax upon the strand
 until, complete and snowy white
 it gives at last a lovely light.
 Life seems so like that piece of string:
 Each deed we do, a simple thing...<brain fade occurs here>

The Christian year includes four festivals that roughly coincide with the solar solstices and equinoxes (the "quarter-days"), and four balanced in between (the cross-quarter days). By Celtic reckoning, the quarter-days are the middles of the seasons; whereas by Roman reckoning they are the beginning of the seasons. The conflict in perspective is reflected now adays everytime one hears some radio commentor state that June 22 (the Solstice) the "official first day of Summer" when Midsummer's Day is June 25. How can the first day of summer and Midsummer fall at essentially the same time, unless two different reckonings are being used?

Another manifestation of the two reckonings is Groundhog Day (which is Candlemas). If the Groundhog sees his shadow, then spring begins on Lady Day -- the equinox, and the first day of spring by Roman reckoning. If the Groundhog doesn't see his shadow, then spring begins on Candlemas, the first day of spring by Celtic reckoning.

The four quarter-days are Christmas, Lady-Day, St Jean Baptiste Day (Midsummer's Day) and Michaelmas. The cross-quarter days are Candlemas, St Walpurgas Day (Roodmas or May Day), Lammas Day and All Hallows Day. Because these days are so important in the Celtic culture -- even when; as with Midsummer's day, May Day and Lammas; they don't have much religious significance -- many historians and most Wiccans believe they reflect an adoption of the church of ancient pre-Christian holy-days (which witches call Sabbats). You can either argue that the evil, nasty church "stole" "their" holidays; or you can argue that the nice, tolerant church preserved the best of the ancient culture; or you can acknowledge that there's only one Sun, and -- at least in the North -- the Sun's affect on the rhythms of the year is going to be significant whether you are Christian, Druid, or something else. I like the "nice, tolerant Church" argument myself.