Our guest Preacher tonight is the Rev. Canon Alissa Newton, Canon to the Ordinary of the Diocese of New York.
We gather to celebrate the Presentation of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple, also known as Candlemas. The Presentation is narrated by Saint Luke and details the Jewish ritual of presenting the first born male child in the Temple forty days after his birth, thus our feast today takes place forty days after Christmas. The child was redeemed, a ritual buying back, from the Temple with a money offering. The Book of Leviticus also details a rite for the “Purifcation of the Mother” that took place in the same visit, and for centuries this Holy Day was called The Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The offering prescribed for this rite was a lamb. Families that were unable to afford a lamb could substitute two turtle doves.
Like the rites of Holy Week, the Feast of the Presentation and its candle lighting rite seem to have evolved in the fourth century Church in Jerusalem, when it first became legal in the Roman Empire for the Church to be public in its witness. The lit candles carried by the people at the start of this service reference to the “Light for revelation to the Gentile” that Simeon identifies Jesus as. Elaborate processions – often moving from church to church in the dark night – were once a hallmark of this celebration and are likely the basis of the informal but still popular title Candlemas. The service tonight begins with a candlelight procession.
In the United States, Candlemas coincides with Groundhog Day, the earliest American reference to which can be found at the Pennsylvania Dutch Folklore Center at Franklin and Marshall College. The reference implies that Groundhog Day may have come from a German-American Candlemas tradition: “Last Tuesday, the 2nd, was Candlemas day, the day on which, according to the Germans, the Groundhog peeps out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he pops back for another six weeks nap, but if the day be cloudy he remains out, as the weather is to be moderate.” — 4 February 1841—from Morgantown, Berks County (Pennsylvania) storekeeper James Morris' diary.
It is not at all clear if the groundhog’s shadow has anything to do with candlelight processions passing by burrows filled with inquisitive groundhogs, but it seems unlikely since it would be difficult to see a groundhog at night.