The Feast of the
Presentation, also known as Candlemas, celebrated February 2, forty days after
Christmas Day, marks the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, as told in Luke,
2:23-24 : “When the time came for their purification according to the law of
Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is
written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male shall be designated as
holy to the Lord’), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in
the law of the Lord, ‘a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.’” (NRSV)
Under Mosaic law
(Leviticus 12:2-8), women were considered unclean for forty days after giving birth
to a male child and sixty-six days after bearing a female child. Once the period
of purification was complete the woman would bring to the priest a lamb for a burnt
offering and a pigeon or dove for a sin offering. But “If she cannot afford a
sheep, she shall take two turtledoves or two pigeons, one for a burnt offering
and the other for a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement on her
behalf, and she shall be clean.”
Luke doesn’t
mention that Joseph and Mary could not afford a sheep, but his audience would
have been aware of it. But Luke’s focus isn’t on the ceremony, but on two
elderly people in the temple. The first, Simeon, had received a revelation from
the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he had seen the Lord’s
Messiah. Guided by the Holy Spirit, he enters the Temple, and when Joseph and
Mary bring Jesus to be presented, he takes the infant in his arms and utters
one of the most beautiful short prayers in the New Testament, which is best rendered
in the poetry of the King James Version:
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in
peace,
according to thy word;
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
which thou hast prepared
before the face of all people,
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles,
and to be the glory of
thy people Israel.
Simeon blesses the child, but gives a prophetic warning:
“This child is destined for the falling and the rising of
many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner
thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
Luke follows with the story of the prophet Anna, “the
daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher,” and “a widow of about fourscore
and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with
fastings and prayers night and day.” (KJV) She recognizes the infant Messiah as
soon as his family enters the temple.
While Luke’s aim is to convince his readers that that Jesus
is the Messiah, the solemn feast of the Presentation has since become comingled
with Roman, Celtic, and Germanic traditions. In ancient Rome, the festival of
Februa, the Etruscan god of purification and the underworld, took place on the February
1. February 2, falling midway between the winter solstice and the spring
equinox, is the first Cross Quarter Day, when the Celts celebrated Imbolic,
which marked the lactation of ewes and the anticipation of the spring lambing
season.
Christians celebrated the feast with candlelight processions
and the blessing of candles, reminding us of Simeon’s prophecy that Christ will
be “a light to lighten the Gentiles,” and the day became known as Candlemas. It
marked the end of the Christmas-Epiphany season. And as English folklore tells
us,
“If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Come winter, have another flight.
If Candlemas bring clouds and rain,
Go winter, and come not again.”
But it’s the German version of this European belief that we
know best. According to German legend, if a badger poked its head out of its
den and saw its shadow on February 2, winter would continue for weeks. A cloudy
day, when it could not see its shadow, meant the end of winter. When the
Germans came to Pennsylvania, the groundhog replaced the badger, and the
tradition caught on. Happy Groundhog Day, and a blessed Candlemas!
Image: Jacopo Tintoretto, "Presentation of Jesus in the Temple," circa 1590.
