Candlemas – 40 Days After Christmas
Candlemas falls on 2nd February, exactly forty days after Christmas Day on the Christian calendar.
This festival has different names and meanings to people all around the world. In pre-Christian times, it was celebrated as a festival of light. This ancient festival marked the halfway point between the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year) and the spring equinox.
Predicting Winter Weather?
There are many superstitions connected with this special day. Many people believed (and some still do) that the weather at Candlemas predicts the length of winter that is still to come…
‘If candlemas day is bright with sun
Then the winter’s but half begun
But if candlemas day is dark with rain
Then winter’s power is on the wane’
Earth Candles
Each year the children in Class 8 at Ringwood Waldorf school make a beautiful earth candle which they decorate and then, together with parents, sing songs to celebrate this special winter moment.
Here are some Earth Candle images from previous years:
