“And when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought [Jesus] up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord’)”
(Luke 2:22-23).
St. Luke narrates how, while at the Temple, the Holy Family encountered an old man named Simeon and what he said next constitutes the basis for why the feast is called Candlemas. (Luke 2:29-32)
Simeon declared that Jesus would be a “light,” and the Church developed a custom of lighting and blessing candles on this day. Historically the priest would bless all the candles used during Mass for the entire year. The congregation also received candles and the words of Simeon were repeated in
song.
Though not a holy day of obligation, it is a beautiful day in the Church’s calendar, one that signals the end of the “Christmas-Cycle” and looks forward to the light that will shatter all darkness at the Easter Vigil — when another candlelight service is performed in recognition that, “the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death light has arisen” (Matthew 4:16).
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