Do you celebrate Candlemas?

[luxiii]

We are just beginning to celebrate such festivals and I was wondering what you all are doing today to celebrate Candlemas?

[henny penny]

We are just beginning to celebrate Candlemas too. Last year we dipped beeswax candles at our Parent/child class and used those for our dinner candles that night. This year we started the morning with pancakes with pumpkin mixed in to symbolize the warmth and color of the sun. I'm telling a puppet play this afternoon about hibernating animals emerging to meet the coming Spring and we'll sort through our garden seeds and perhaps leave them out on the porch for St Brigid to bless. I'm hoping to refill our bird feeders today too. Rolling candles may or may not happen.  If I didn't have a babe in a sling I would till our garden plot and clean the henhouse to spread the bedding on for compost. But that's a lot for one day. I''m trying to find the right amount of festive activities all about candles, light, seeds, emerging warmth. I'd like to make earth candles next year to wake the seeds- love that idea.

[LuxPerpetua]

I just posted a pretty detailed account of what we did in my blog: http://canticlesbycandlelight.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/candlemas/  .  We're Christian so we pretty much play up the Christ part of Candlemas while still honoring the tradition of "bringing back the sun."  All in all it was a good day, much better than Candlemas last year.  Thinking about that still makes me have a headache!

[SimpleGrace]

we had a lovely candlemas, full of ice and snow...

this is a lovely festival, and it doesn't have to be overdone with lots of props, toys, gadgets. For the little ones, just explaining how we give thanks and love to the light is beautiful and just enough. Enjoy a relaxing and peaceful dinner by candlelight...create an earth candle....be thankful for each other and (if this applies to you), your faith in Jesus Christ.

http://bendingbirches2010.blogspot.com/2011/02/candlemas.html

[henny penny]

Oh, lovely SimpleGrace! The simple, "spare", beauty of your Candlemas really speaks to me. It's full of anticipation!  I think we'll try to pare down our celebration for next year.

[mamavegan]

We had a nice Candlemas.  Most of our activities were before the actual day in preparation.  Here's the post from actual Candlemas, but the two preceding it are about Candlemas as well:  http://yarnyoga.com/blog/?p=857

I love reading and seeing pics of everyone's activities!

[luxiii]

Thank you to those of you who have shared.  My thoughts on Candlemas can be found here http://howthesunrose-lalagirl.blogspot.com/2011/02/light-candlemas.html 

We also kept it simple and it is nice  to see what other familys have done.  Anyone else?

[MammaG]

Ours was a little more hectic that I had wanted.....my Dad came for a visit with very little notice, which was a huge blessing, but it did upset our routine a bit. We did ice lanterns, and, as we had soooooo much snow, we also went out in the yard and put tea lights in the snow. Pretty! We had crepes for dinner, both savory and sweet, to represent the sun. I told the kids the story of the Presentation and we listened to several settings of the Nunc Dimittis (I sing in an Evensong choir and most of the recordings were ours). It was my Dad's last evening with us before flying home, so that added to the solemnity of dinner. We lit a beeswax candle shaped like a bee hive and gave thanks to the bees for the years' coming candles (because I am certainly not organized enough to get a year's supply to bless all at once!).

The next day we celebrated Lunar New Year...more pared down than our usual big feast, but it still made for a long two days. Oh, and we had a 5th birthday that week, too. Phew! I sort of wish I'd delayed New Year, as it lasts a couple of weeks anyway. Live and learn.

I would have liked to incorporate more of St Brigid into our celebration. Maybe that can wait until my oldest is doing Saints and Heroes...I suspect that we will find a few saints that year who will work their way into our yearly cycle.

ETA, I also put away our crèche and our kings. We intended to do chalk tracings of our shadows, but didn't get to that...too much snow!