Catholic Activity: Candlemas Day

Celebrate Candlemas Day at home with the family in this traditional way.

DIRECTIONS

The whole family looks forward to Candlemas day. Each member takes with himself a candle to be blessed before Holy Mass to burn as the Christ-candle in the center of the meal table on Sundays and the greater feasts of the year, to be lighted in days of sorrow, in storms and sickness, and to be placed on the family shrine, especially on the family "May-Altar," for the evening prayers.

If a new member is expected in the family, or if one expects to be chosen for a godparent, an extra large candle is presented for the blessing. This candle is to become the baptismal, first Communion, bridal and death candle of the child expected.

On the evening of this blessed "day of light" every member of the family lights his new candle for the recitation of the joyful mysteries of the Rosary before the Crib.

After the Rosary, and when the candles of the Christmas tree are burnt out, the father cuts the branches from the Christmas tree, one for each child, and now the children can enjoy the candy, nuts and fruits of that lovely tree that brought so much happiness and charm during the forty days of Peace and Joy. Needless to say, these good things taste so much better because they come from the tree which the Christchild had brought to them. [Editor's Note: This feast used to mark the end of the Christmas season. With the reform of the calendar, Candlemas now falls during the season of Ordinary Time.]

Activity Source: Your Home, A Church in Miniature by Compiled by The Family Life Bureau in the early 1950s, The Neumann Press, Long Prairie, Minnesota, 1994