Candlemas

I want to be more seasonal and part of this is to introduce more festivals into our family life. Candlemas is on the horizon so I thought to take a look at this celebration.

Candlemas is on the 2nd of February, there is also Imbolc with which it collides/derives from depending on your point of view; and not to forget St Brigid's day on the 1st Feb. There are many on-line references but this one particularly resonated with me from 'School of the Seasons'. For a festival to be worthwhile it has to be about something that everyone of us in the family can relate to, I don't think that the Christian custom of blessing candles will do. To me the themes of purification and planning ring out.

What could work for us?

Purification: spring cleaning. It's not yet spring but the longer hours of daylight means that I'm yearning to get outdoors but the weather is still pretty bad. This is the perfect opportunity to deep clean the house ready for spring. Certainly I am feeling the need for this at the moment probably due to a combination of both cabin fever and wanting to simplify things after the overabundance of Christmas.

Planning/pledges: What a minefield this could be! The web page mentioned above suggests sitting around a fire discussing hopes for the year and turning these into concrete plans, perhaps noting them in a journal. I like this approach, removed from the overly optimistic New Years resolutions into a more down to earth achievable goal format. From a practical point of view this is a great time for planning the garden, especially the vegetable patch. Seeds make a great symbol for this festival.

The actual celebration: I don't know. Probably just a nice meal with candles and lots of seed based goodies. We will see.