Candlemas is Coming
So what’s the problem?
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Candlemas is coming! It falls on 2nd Feb, forty days after Christmas Day. We are celebrating the Christ child who, being a firstborn son, had to be presented at the Temple, in accordance with the Mosaic Law. There, Joseph, Mary and Jesus met Anna the Prophetess and Simeon, who declared:
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.
Those drilled in Latin might know that ‘now lettest’ would be ‘Nunc Dimittis’ in the Vulgate, hence the name of the prayer. In short, Simeon is saying “This child is the light for the world. Now I’ve seen everything. I can die.” This is the story at the heart of Candlemas.
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According to records from 1389, members of the Guild of St Mary in Beverley in Yorkshire would dress up as Mary, Joseph and Simeon and parade around the town along with two angels holding candlesticks containing twenty four candles. The festival attracted attention since Mary was very popular in the 14thcentury, and this was another special day in her calendar.
But the day was also a glimmer of hope in the middle of the dark season of winter when precious candles were made, burned and then blessed at Candlemas. Most candles were tallow and probably didn’t smell like bacon or roast beef, sadly. But for church use, candles were made from beeswax but that’s a long story for another time.
The Return of the Christian Calendar
Candlemas also marks a half way point between Christmas Day and Lady Day, which are Quarter Days. This makes Candlemas a ‘Cross Quarter Day’. If you start googling that, it all gets quite pagan quite fast. Over the last hundred years or so, many Christians have abandoned this Christian way of thinking about the time, surrendering the natural world to druids and wiccans, or the secular scientists.
However, Christian feasts are making a bit of a comeback – hence Cary’s Almanac. Rootless people are searching for authenticity and meaning. The Christian year seems preferable to basing our calendar around school terms, the Premiership and a new series of Strictly.
Like Michaelmas, Candlemas is not widely celebrated in England, but this year it falls on a Sunday so it may attract more attention. But why might Candlemas make some Christians uncomfortable? Two reasons: the word ‘candle’ and the word ‘mass’.
The word ‘mass’ is always a problem for low-church evangelicals since the word has historically been used in Roman Catholic worship, implying the doctrine of transubstantiation. That means the bread and wine literally become the body and blood of Christ. The Reformers and the Church of England rejected this view which, some argue, had been an innovation, but let’s not get into that. Through the Reformation, the doctrine was changed and the Eucharist became more – but not entirely – commemorative. It is not a mass, although some Anglo-Catholics continue to call it that.
The word ‘candle’ also is associated with Catholic worship, including those higher forms of Anglicanism. This can make lower church-types a little queasy, since the use of candles feels like ritualism. Reformers would have said it bore “the stench of Romish popery” or something. (And we think hot takes on Twitter are recent invention…)
Personally, I have always been dubious about the practice of lighting a candle for a loved one, living or deceased, in a church, putting 50p in a box, saying a prayer and wandering off. To me it feels like prayer has been outsourced to a wax candle, and might give unbelievers false assurance. I still think that. But I’m not against candles in toto.
Easy on the Candles
The Reformation, then, drastically reduced the use of candles in worship in England. Non-conformist denominations barely use them at all. But changes in uses of candles is also down to Michael Faraday and Thomas Edison. Now churches are lit by electric light bulbs. This changes everything in ways we have not yet fully appreciated. You could says “The electric light shines in the darkness, and we comprendeth it not.”
I’ve written about this in my forthcoming book based on John 1, the first in a series of devotionals called Wondrous Things (available later this year). This chapter, and John’s gospel in general, has plenty to say about light. And since we’re in a KJV mood, let’s stick with that:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Here are some words from Wondrous Things on this:
Groping Around in the Dark
Most churches built in the medieval period now have rows and rows of light switches in some hidden corner. There are often labels for the switches like “back right chancel” leaving you none the wiser, so you normally ending it up switching it on and off anyway to figure out which light it is referring to. This cryptic panel of switches is often yards away from the entrance. If you are first in at night, or last out, you can easily find yourself groping around in the dark, blinded by gloom. We are so accustomed to light switches being by the door of any given room that we do not cope well in the dark.
After the creation of the heavens and the earth in verse 1 of Genesis 1, what is the first thing to happen? God switches the lights on. But light did not exist independently of creation. God did not stumble on the relevant panel and flick the switch. No, God invented the concept of light, and spoke it into existence with his powerful word saying “Let there be light.”
John embeds the theme of light in his gospel. He wants us to know that Jesus is the Light, using the word ‘light’ or ‘enlighten’ seven times in the first eight verses, before returning to the word again in John 3 during Jesus’ conversation to Nicodemus. Then ‘light’ appears a dozen more times in chapters 8-12 in which Jesus twice says “I am the light of the world”. (8:12, 9:5)
Jesus is light. Without him, we are groping around in the dark, blindly bumping into obstacles. Without Christ, the one through whom all things were spoken into being, nothing makes sense. If we’re Christians, we might think that Jesus is the capstone of human knowledge, but he is not. He is the foundation and the fabric.
Bring the Light into the Corners
As human knowledge has increased, we have created compartments in our thinking. Jesus is brought to bear on very few of these siloes. Theses and doctorates are written on ever more obscure topics. Shining the light of God’s word into the furthest reaches of our understanding would seem bizarre, backward and embarrassing. But if we have the courage to do that very thing, we will see that Christ has already gone ahead of us. He is there because he made everything and everyone in the beginning.
So why don’t we switch on the lights? Because we prefer the darkness. We do not want the light to expose our ignorance or our sins. The light lays us bare. John writes “For everyone who does evil hates the light and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.” I’ve never seen what happens when you turn on the lights in a nightclub at 5am once everyone has left. I can’t imagine it’s a pretty sight that gives you faith in human nature.
But here’s the encouragement from possibly the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
God loves this broken world of darkness, and he still wants to dwell with us. So he sent his Son so that we may have eternal life, rather than be judged by our deeds of darkness.
And if we are following Christ, we can be encouraged that hitherto unseen deeds of righteousness done in Christ’s name will be revealed. In the dark hours of the night, when we serve those who are too old and frail or small and helpless to notice and say thank you, we can be confident that Jesus, the light of the world, has seen. The act of kindness for a colleague who will never know what it cost you? It will be noticed by the one who gave himself up to death on a cross for our sake.
In the darkness, let our deeds be a light.
But you could also light a candle too if you want. Cranmer wouldn’t mind.
Happy Candlemas.
If you enjoyed that, why not share it with someone? That would be a blessing to them, and to me.
Wondrous Things will be available for pre-order in a few months, once I’ve finished writing my new live show, God, The Bible and Everything (in 60 minutes). Book tickets for that above. Or below. And find other dates HERE.
Watching the Life of Brian with my Teenagers
Over the Christmas holidays, I decided it was time to watch Monty Python’s Life of Brian with my teenagers. This was not just because I found it in a charity shop on DVD for a pound, although that may have had something to do with it. And so, what if I did wrap it up and put it under the Christmas tree along with Monty Python and the Holy Grail?
Let’s focus on the real question here: what was it like watching this much-loved but controversial movie from 1979 in early 2025? And what would my church-going, Bible reading, Gen Z teenagers make of it?
Find out what I wrote over at SeenandUnseen.com