CANDLEMAS
The Light Returns
by
Mike Nichols
It seems quite impossible
that the holiday of Candlemas should be considered the beginning of Spring. Here
in the Heartland, February 2nd may see a blanket of snow mantling the Mother.
Or, if the snows have gone, you may be sure the days are filled with drizzle,
slush, and steel-grey skies -- the dreariest weather of the year. In short, the
perfect time for a Pagan Festival of Lights. And as for Spring, although this
may seem a tenuous beginning, all the little buds, flowers and leaves will have
arrived on schedule before Spring runs its course to Beltane.
'Candlemas' is the
Christianized name for the holiday, of course. The older Pagan names were Imbolc
and Oimelc. 'Imbolc' means, literally, 'in the belly' (of the Mother). For in
the womb of Mother Earth, hidden from our mundane sight but sensed by a keener
vision, there are stirrings. The seed that was planted in her womb at the
solstice is quickening and the new year grows. 'Oimelc' means 'milk of ewes',
for it is also lambing season.
The holiday is also called
'Brigit's Day', in honor of the great Irish Goddess Brigit. At her shrine, the
ancient Irish capitol of Kildare, a group of 19 priestesses (no men allowed)
kept a perpetual flame burning in her honor. She was considered a goddess of
fire, patroness of smithcraft, poetry and healing (especially the healing touch
of midwifery). This tripartite symbolism was occasionally expressed by saying
that Brigit had two sisters, also named Brigit. (Incidentally, another form of
the name Brigit is Bride, and it is thus She bestows her special patronage on
any woman about to be married or handfasted, the woman being called 'bride' in
her honor.)
The Roman Catholic Church
could not very easily call the Great Goddess of Ireland a demon, so they
canonized her instead. Henceforth, she would be 'Saint' Brigit, patron saint
of smithcraft, poetry, and healing. They 'explained' this by telling the Irish
peasants that Brigit was 'really' an early Christian missionary sent to the
Emerald Isle, and that the miracles she performed there 'misled' the common
people into believing that she was a goddess. For some reason, the Irish
swallowed this. (There is no limit to what the Irish imagination can convince
itself of. For example, they also came to believe that Brigit was the
'foster-mother' of Jesus, giving no thought to the implausibility of Jesus
having spent his boyhood in Ireland!)
Brigit's holiday was chiefly
marked by the kindling of sacred fires, since she symbolized the fire of birth
and healing, the fire of the forge, and the fire of poetic inspiration. Bonfires
were lighted on the beacon tors, and chandlers celebrated their special holiday.
The Roman Church was quick to confiscate this symbolism as well, using
'Candlemas' as the day to bless all the church candles that would be used for
the coming liturgical year. (Catholics will be reminded that the following day,
St. Blaise's Day, is remembered for using the newly-blessed candles to bless the
throats of parishioners, keeping them from colds, flu, sore throats, etc.)
The Catholic Church, never
one to refrain from piling holiday upon holiday, also called it the Feast of the
Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (It is surprising how many of the old
Pagan holidays were converted to Maryan Feasts.) The symbol of the Purification
may seem a little obscure to modern readers, but it has to do with the old
custom of 'churching women'. It was believed that women were impure for six
weeks after giving birth. And since Mary gave birth at the winter solstice, she
wouldn't be purified until February 2nd. In Pagan symbolism, this might be
re-translated as when the Great Mother once again becomes the Young Maiden
Goddess.
Today, this holiday is
chiefly connected to weather lore. Even our American folk-calendar keeps the
tradition of 'Groundhog's Day', a day to predict the coming weather, telling us
that if the Groundhog sees his shadow, there will be 'six more weeks' of bad
weather (i.e., until the next old holiday, Lady Day). This custom is ancient. An
old British rhyme tells us that 'If Candlemas Day be bright and clear, there'll
be two winters in the year.' Actually, all of the cross-quarter days can be used
as 'inverse' weather predictors, whereas the quarter-days are used as 'direct'
weather predictors.
Like the other High Holidays
or Great Sabbats of the Witches' year, Candlemas is sometimes celebrated on it's
alternate date, astrologically determined by the sun's reaching 15-degrees
Aquarius, or Candlemas Old Style. Incidentally, some modern Pagan groups have
recently begun calling the holiday itself 'Brigit', presumably as a shorthand
for 'Brigit's Day'. This lexical laziness is lamentable since it confuses a
deity-name for the proper name of the holiday. The same disconcerting trend can
be seen in the recent practice of referring to the autumnal equinox as 'Mabon',
which is more properly the name of a Welsh god-form.
Another holiday that gets
mixed up in this is Valentine's Day. Ozark folklorist Vance Randolf makes this
quite clear by noting that the old-timers used to celebrate Groundhog's Day on
February 14th. This same displacement is evident in Eastern Orthodox
Christianity as well. Their habit of celebrating the birth of Jesus on January
6th, with a similar post-dated shift in the six-week period that follows it,
puts the Feast of the Purification of Mary on February 14th. It is amazing to
think that the same confusion and lateral displacement of one of the old folk
holidays can be seen from the Russian steppes to the Ozark hills, but such seems
to be the case!
Incidentally, there is
speculation among linguistic scholars that the vary name of 'Valentine' has
Pagan origins. It seems that it was customary for French peasants of the Middle
Ages to pronounce a 'g' as a 'v'. Consequently, the original term may have been
the French 'galantine', which yields the English word 'gallant'. The word
originally refers to a dashing young man known for his 'affaires d'amour', a
true galaunt. The usual associations of V(G)alantine's Day make much more sense
in this light than their vague connection to a legendary 'St. Valentine' can
produce. Indeed, the Church has always found it rather difficult to explain this
nebulous saint's connection to the secular pleasures of flirtation and courtly
love.
For modern Witches,
Candlemas O.S. may then be seen as the Pagan version of Valentine's Day, with a
de-emphasis of 'hearts and flowers' and an appropriate re-emphasis of Pagan
carnal frivolity. This also re-aligns the holiday with the ancient Roman
Lupercalia, a fertility festival held at this time, in which the priests of Pan
ran through the streets of Rome whacking young women with goatskin thongs to
make them fertile. The women seemed to enjoy the attention and often stripped in
order to afford better targets.
One of the nicest
folk-customs still practiced in many countries, and especially by Witches in the
British Isles and parts of the U.S., is to place a lighted candle in each and
every window of the house (or at least the windows that faced the street),
beginning at sundown on Candlemas Eve (February 1st), allowing them to continue
burning until sunrise. Make sure that such candles are well seated against
tipping and guarded from nearby curtains, etc. What a cheery sight it is on this
cold, bleak and dreary night to see house after house with candle-lit windows!
And, of course, if you are your Coven's chandler, or if you just happen to like
making candles, Candlemas Day is the day for doing it. Some Covens hold
candle-making parties and try to make and bless all the candles they'll be using
for the whole year on this day.
Document Copyright © 1986,
2000 by Mike Nichols
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