Do you ever have great intentions about doing something special with your kids, and then don’t plan properly, and end up just wanting to call the whole thing off?
I had that this weekend.
The liturgical calendar — the calendar of the church year — is commonly known for the seasons of Advent and Lent. Some might recognize other days such as Epiphany, Pentecost, and All Saints Day, but there are actually many others throughout the year. While I’m not attempting to celebrate every single holiday/holy day, I am trying to pick and choose the ones that I think are interesting and would be beneficial for teaching my kids.
Most people know that February 2 is Groundhog’s Day. But did you know it is also another holiday, called Candlemas? February 2 is special on the calendar for two reasons.
1. Candlemas is 40 days after Christmas.
In Bible times, after giving birth a woman was considered “unclean” (hello blood…). Forty days after a baby boy was born, the mother was to go to the temple and dedicate the child to God, and offer a sacrifice for her own purification.
(If you’ve given birth or known someone who has, think about how common it is for the doctor to schedule a 6-week checkup for you, giving you the go-ahead for moving on with regular life. That’s about 42 days after birth.)
When Mary came to the temple 40 days after Jesus was born, she met someone there.
At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying,
“Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace,
as you have promised.
I have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared for all people.
He is a light to reveal God to the nations,
and he is the glory of your people Israel!”
Did you catch that last line? He is a LIGHT to reveal God TO THE NATIONS, and he is the GLORY of Israel!
It reminds me of Epiphany, when Magi (non-Jews) followed a star (a light) to find the King.
2. Candlemas is half-way between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox.
As we celebrate light in the midst of darkness, we can take heart that winter is half over! I know many of you (myself included) experienced the “Polar Vortex” last week (we were off school the entire week!). Once we reach February 2, it’s all downhill from there. 🙂 If we’ve made it this far into winter, surely we can make it the rest of the way to spring.
With all of this in mind, Candlemas is meant to be a day of celebration and lots of LIGHT. Some people leave their Christmas decorations up until February 2 (not me — I move on at Epiphany). Food is often either bright and spicy (think tamales), or grain-based and golden (think pancakes and crepes) to remind us of growing grains and the sun.
We have pancakes after church every Sunday, and this year Candlemas was on a Saturday so we went with pizza for this dinner. It has a grain crust and is round like the sun too. And I even made one with ham and pineapple, since that seemed bright and sunny.
I read the Scripture above to the girls, and showed them how we’re halfway through winter. My daughter Eleanor’s name means “bringer of light”, so she was excited to learn she had this in common with Jesus!
Then we rolled up lots of fresh beeswax candles and burned them all during dinner.
Actually, we didn’t.
This is where my parenting and crafting fail happened.
(If I’d been on top of my planning, I would have just ordered a kit like this one.)
Earlier in the week, I’d remembered seeing some beeswax sheets in the free-for-all craft cupboard at church. We’d used some of them about 10 years ago in our girls’ club. So one day while I was at work, I grabbed the box and brought it home.
On Saturday afternoon, while the pizza dough was rising, I gathered my girls, ready to be the fun crafty mom. We opened the box, pulled out the beeswax… and didn’t have any string for the wicks.
I searched my box of my own craft supplies (I don’t have much), but thought sewing thread was too thin and polyester yarn would just melt when lit…
So we didn’t make any candles for Candlemas this year. How ironic is that??
I don’t know if my kids will remember this holiday. We had such a short conversation, with nothing hands-on to reinforce the message. And that’s okay. Celebrating the liturgical calendar doesn’t need to involve all-out parties at every turn. Most of the time, simple is best.
I DO know that I myself learned a few things about the holiday. So this was as much for me as for them! And next year I’ll *hopefully* be better prepared and order my candle-making kit early (maybe we’ll do homemade Advent candles too).
Funny thing, I’ve been working bit by bit on this post all week. Between my toddler waking up early, and having MORE SNOW DAYS off from school, my mornings (writing time) have been all messed up. It all culminated yesterday, when an ice storm came through and I couldn’t finish my post because we were without power.
I lit candles everywhere that morning.
Granted, they were all scented soy candles, so the house had a gross mixture of cinnamon, coconut pineapple, and eucalyptus spearmint, but I still looked around and was amazed by the amount of light they gave off.
Our outage only lasted a few hours (the power actually came back on before the kids were even awake), but it was enough for me to remember the message of Candlemas that I thought I’d messed up: Jesus is a light to the nations, and the glory of Israel.
Today is snow day #10 for our school. Other districts nearby are at #11-15. And it’s only February 7… But hey, winter is half over! Hurray!!!
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