2nd February
Candlemas
The Presentation in the Temple by Luis de Morales (1562). Source: Public Domain/ National Catholic Register website
Today is Candlemas. Its origins lie in the Roman feast that celebrates the goddess Februa, who gave her name to the whole month. Candles were lit and torchlit processions took place as part of the festivities. The early Christians adopted the tradition (along with the candle lighting associated with Bride the previous day) and renamed the day the Purification of Mary, 40 days after the birth of Jesus and marked the presentation of the infant at the Temple in Jerusalem. Much candle lighting also accompanies the Christian ceremonies.
Candlemas became one of the Welsh Quarter Days and an occasion for rural trading fairs. ‘Silver’ John Lloyd was a staple at the fair at Radnor Forest in Powys, where, in the nineteenth century, he would set bones in return for payment in silver buttons which he sewed into his coat. One day Silver John went missing and it was not until the following Candlemas Fair that he was discovered by a skater, frozen in the ice covering a nearby lake. He could not be freed from his icy prison until the thaw and an unhappy John continues to haunt the area around Llyn Hilyn. His silver laden coat was missing so foul play was assumed which probably explains his restless spirit. No one was ever charged with his murder, but a local folk song about Silver John’s demise blamed ‘the Radnor Boys’ for his killing.
Today is also held traditionally to be the beginning of spring, which sounds curious to us nowadays, as we consider we have at least another six weeks of the cold dark season to go.
