Candlemas

Giovanni Bellini, 1460-1464, Galleria Querini Stampalia, Venice

February has been the month of purification since Roman times;  Februalia was the Roman festival of ritual purification . The festival, which is basically one of Spring washing or cleaning (associated also with the raininess of this time of year) is old, and possibly of Sabine origin. According to Ovid, Februare as a Latin word which refers to means of purification derives from an earlier Etruscan word referring to purging.

The Roman month Februarius ("of Februa," whence the English February) is named for the Februa/Februatio festival.  (Excerpts from Wikipedia)

February was also the month when the housewife traditionally started her ‘spring cleaning’ of home and hearth;  the days lengthened and showed up dust and grime which remained invisible during the dark months. German folk wisdom  claims that: come New Year the day has grown by a rooster’s step, at Three Kings (Epiphany) by the leap of a deer and a whole hour by Candlemas. 

On the 2nd of February the Catholic church celebrates ‘St Mary’s Feast of the Candles’, officially the Feast of the Purification and the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.  The aged Simeon prophesied that Jesus would be ‘a light to lighten the Gentiles’; on this day, therefore, lights and candles are blessed at a candle lit service. There are records which show that the custom of blessing the year’s supply of candles was already in existence in the tenth century in the area of the Lower Rhine. A normally dark church was transformed into a sea of light, surely an awe inspiring sight for the peasants of the time. After the service the candles were carried around the church in procession; great care was taken that the flames remained alight, because that meant the year would be a good one for bees.

Sacred and household candles were blessed alike; the beekeeper took his burning candle to his hives to thank the bees for providing him with the necessary wax and ask them for a good harvest of honey for the coming year;  the husband, as head of the household, took his candle and dribbled three drops, in the shape of a triangle, into the clothes of each member of the household, making the sign of the cross. This was to protect them from all evil, particularly witchcraft and magic. Another custom was for the father to dribble three drops on to a piece of bread, which he would give his children to eat and show to the animals in the stables.

The candlemas candle continued to be of great importance throughout the year; it was lit whenever danger to life and limb, the home, animals and property threatened. It was lit at the birth of new life and at the end of a life, both of which were natural events happening within the family home in those days.

Candlemas, like many saints' days, also provided the countryman with weather adages; farmers and shepherds preferred the day to be cold and rough:

If Candlemas Day bring snow and rain

Winter is gone, and won’t come again.

If Candlemas Day be clear and bright

Winter will have another flight.

Around 1700 a shepherd on the Lower Rhine was said to watch the weather on Candlemas morning with particular attention;  a proverb said that he’d rather see the wolf than the sun in the sheep pen. 

At least as early as the 1840s, German immigrants in Pennsylvania had introduced the tradition of weather prediction that was associated with the hedgehog (der Igel) in their homeland. Since there were no hedgehogs in the region, the Pennsylvania Germans adopted the indigenous woodchuck (a name derived from an Indian word), aka the groundhog. The town of Punxsutawney, some 80 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, has played up the custom over the years and managed to turn itself into the center of the annual Groundhog Day, particularly after the 1993 movie starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. Each year, people gather to see if a groundhog dubbed "Punxsutawney Phil" will see his shadow after he emerges from his burrow. If he does, the tradition says there will be six more weeks of winter. (Phil has a rather dismal 39% rate of accuracy for his predictions.)