Happy Candlemas!

February 2, of course, is an important day in Pennsylvania. It's the one day when the nation turns its attention to the small town of Punxsutawney and waits to see if the groundhog sees his shadow or not. The origin of Groundhog Day seems to date back centuries and centuries to a belief held by the Romans that if the sun shined on Candlemas Day - February 2 - and the hedgehog saw his shadow, that meant there would be another six weeks of cold winter weather. And as the Romans extended their empire throughout Europe, they eventually passed that belief on to the Germans.

So when the Germans started migrating to North America in the 1700s and 1800s, and began settling mainly in Pennsylvania, they brought that tradition with them. The only problem was that since Pennsylvania doesn't have hedgehogs, they figured that groundhogs could serve the same purpose. And now since 1886, every year on Candlemas, February 2, the world focuses in on Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to see what the groundhog's prediction is going to be.

But that still leave the question: What is Candlemas? Well, Candlemas is the fortieth day after Christmas, and the holiday, if you want to call it that, is based on a passage in the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke. According to the religious law in Jesus' day, after a woman gave birth, she was not allowed to worship in the temple until after forty days had gone by. And so, on the fortieth day after the celebration of Jesus' birth, we remember the first time that Mary brought Jesus into the temple.

And when Mary came into the temple with Jesus, there was an elderly man there named Simeon. Apparently Simeon was a very faithful man, constantly in prayer to God, and God had told Simeon that he would not die until he had had the chance to see the Savior. So when Mary walked into the temple with Jesus in her arms, Simeon's eyes lit up, and he looked up to God and said, "My eyes have seen your salvation....[He is] a light of revelation" (Luke 2:30,32).

And so dating all the way back to at least the fourth century Candlemas has been celebrated on the fortieth day after Jesus' birth. The day is called Candlemas because it was on that day the priests would bless people's candles. That act was done to remember what Simeon said when he first saw Jesus, "He is a light of revelation." Thus, the blessing of candles on Candlemas was a way of reminding people of how Jesus is the light that shines amid the darkness of our world. And you thought that February 2 was just Groundhog Day!

Ed Bowen