|
Seasons
The foundation of the
Christian year is the regular celebration of Jesus' resurrection by
the earliest Christian every Sunday, the 'first day of the week',
this was also known as 'the Lord's Day'. Key times that were also
marked in the early Christian calendar were Easter, Pentecost and
Epiphany. The Seasons of
the Church's year run from the First Sunday of Advent,
through to the Festival of Christ the King, which rounds off the
year; including and in between these the calendar is as follows:
Advent
Christmas
Epiphany
Sundays before Lent
Lent
Eastertide
Ordinary Time (Sunday after Trinity)
Candlemas
The name and focus of the
feast that we celebrate has changed over the centuries. The one
thing that hasn't changed is that it has popularly been known as
Candlemas. The Book of Common Prayer calls this the 'Feast of the
Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary'. In this it was keeping to
the western tradition which saw this as one of the feasts of Mary
the mother of Jesus. In the east it was celebrated as the 'Hypapante'
- the 'meeting' and in some ancient traditions and most modern
practice it is called the Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the
Temple - a feast of Our Lord. As with many situations of ambiguity
each of these contains an element of truth about this wonderful
celebration.
For both East and West Candlemas marked the end of the Christmas
celebrations, for the reading for this feast is the final portion of
the nativity narrative that we find in St Luke's Gospel. It was the
practice to make this feast a turning point in the church's year -
dramatically changing the focus of our attention from the nativity
of the Lord to his passion - in some churches the use of both white
and purple vestments within the same service are used to emphasise
this. Nowadays it is in the final Candlemas ceremony that this
particular change of emphasis is made clear. The Minister speaks of
the way in which we now turn to the death and resurrection of Jesus.
In his poem 'A Song for Simeon' T S Eliot highlights this point when
he calls it 'the birth season of decease'.
The bitter-sweet feel to the feast is also emphasised in the
statement made by Simeon to Mary - that a sword would pierce her
soul. This has been interpreted as a reference to the suffering that
Mary experienced as she watched her son die on the cross.
The popular name for the feast of course refers to the fact that
this was the day on which the candles used in the church's liturgy
were blessed. Again, it is from the words of old Simeon that the
tradition is derived. He spoke of Jesus as, 'a light to lighten the
Gentiles' and the candles used in church speak to us of Jesus the
Light of the World. The day following Candlemas (3 February) is the
Feast of St Blaise. He is
known as the Patron Saint of Throats and the custom was that during
the Eucharist on his Feast Day the throats of the members of the
congregation were blessed to ward off sore throats! Candles blessed
during Candlemas were tied with red ribbon in the shape of the cross
and held in front of each person's throat. The priest then prayed
that that person be 'kept free from all harm to your throat and all
other harm
besides'. In the height of the flu season perhaps a very appropriate
tradition! |
