Interfaith Days: February 2, Imbolc, Candlemas, Presentation of Christ

Today is the Gaelic holiday of Imbolc, the halfway point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. This site gives a lot of background about the day, once honoring the goddess Brighid, which became Christianized to St. Brigid's Day. The Brigid cross (shown here from the Wikipedia site) is a common symbol. The holiday is celebrated by Neopagans as well as Celtic Reconstructionists, and for Wiccans, the day is one of their eight "Sabbats," also associated with Brigid.

In Christian churches, today is Candlemas, also called the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, or the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, or the Meeting of the Lord. It is the fortieth day following Christmas, a halfway point between Christmas and the spring equinox. In the Gospel lesson for the day, Luke 2:22-40, Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the Temple forty days after his birth, to complete Mary’s purification and to perform pidyon haben, “the redemption of the first born” (Exodus 13:12-15, Leviticus 12). Because Simeon calls Jesus a light to the Gentiles (Luke 2:32), the festival became known as “candle mass.”

Today is also Groundhog Day, a festival originating from Pennsylvania Germans, who expected that groundhogs would pop out of their holes on Candlemas and see their shadows (or not). The day is also related to Imbolc, which included weather prognostication. So Groundhog Day is not a religious festival per se but it is related to these other days when, at the halfway point between winter and spring, the quality of spring's weather was anticipated.