a partner church in the WOLDSBURN benefice
CHURCH AT KIRKBURN
will be six more weeks of bad weather. If the day is cloudy and, therefore, shadowless, the hedgehog takes it as a sign of spring and stays above ground.
Candlemas is the feast day of Saint Brigid, celebrated on February 1st and going through to sunset on Candlemas day She was originally a pagan goddess, but as so very often happened the Church took her to itself, and at Kildare in Ireland vestal virgins tended an eternal fire in her honour in her temple there. February 2nd falls 39 days after Christmas. According to Jewish custom women underwent a ceremony of purification 40 days after giving birth to a male child or 80 days for a female (in the Anglican church there was a similar ceremony called the “churching” of women) ... On her feast day (Feb. 1st) her statue was washed in the sea , as a symbol of purification, and afterwards carried in procession through the fields and villages surrounded by candles. Thus there is a link between the two holy days. To celebrate St. Brigid’s day people put out a loaf of bread on their windowsills for the saint, and an ear of corn for her white cow. Wheat stalks were woven into X-shaped crosses as charms against fire and lightning. Candles are used and blessed to celebrate Simeon’s words in Luke (a “ light to lighten the Gentiles “ as sung in the Nunc Dimittis) and they are taken home as a talisman against all sorts of things - hence the name Candlemas. In fact this time has been used since ancient days, generally in celebration of cleansing fire especially in Armenia, and there are differing names in different countries, for example in Hungary it was called “The blessing of the candle of the happy woman” and in Poland “Mother of God who saves us from Thunder” . If you use Candlemas as the day for taking down Christmas decorations be careful: if they are homemade they will be as dry as a bone and susceptible to fire. Better to put them on the compost heap and they will return to the earth from whence they came.
Brigid is the goddess of creative inspiration as well as fertility. Use her time to plan your
garden, to make resolutions, to share your ideas with others. You can check how well you have succeeded when Lammas comes (August 2nd)
Candlemas is the feast day of Saint Brigid, celebrated on February 1st and going through to sunset on Candlemas day She was originally a pagan goddess, but as so very often happened the Church took her to itself, and at Kildare in Ireland vestal virgins tended an eternal fire in her honour in her temple there. February 2nd falls 39 days after Christmas. According to Jewish custom women underwent a ceremony of purification 40 days after giving birth to a male child or 80 days for a female (in the Anglican church there was a similar ceremony called the “churching” of women) ... On her feast day (Feb. 1st) her statue was washed in the sea , as a symbol of purification, and afterwards carried in procession through the fields and villages surrounded by candles. Thus there is a link between the two holy days. To celebrate St. Brigid’s day people put out a loaf of bread on their windowsills for the saint, and an ear of corn for her white cow. Wheat stalks were woven into X-
Brigid is the goddess of creative inspiration as well as fertility. Use her time to plan your
garden, to make resolutions, to share your ideas with others. You can check how well you have succeeded when Lammas comes (August 2nd)
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www.churchatkirkburn.org,uk page 115 CANDLEMAS 2 FEB 2007 29/11/10
CANDLEMAS continued