Venite Prandete

  CANDLEMAS – LA CANDELARIA LA CHANDELEUR 2nd FEBRUARY Candlemas is celebrated throughout the Catholic world in a wide variety of local customs: SPAIN: In Málaga, there is a procession with a re-enactment of the presentation of Jesus at the Temple. In Menasalbas, Toledo, there is a parade in which 11 riders and their 22 serfs carry torches through the town. In Almonacid del Marquesado, Cuenca, is the scene of a ‘devil’ parade, with hundreds of gaily clad devils cavorting around the streets. In A Pobra de Trives, Ourense, chorizo sausages are cooked on huge bonfires. MEXICO: The Mexican custom is that the person who finds the feve (or the figurine representing baby Jesus), in the Epiphany cake (the Rosca de Reyes), feeds the same group of people on Candlemas Day (Dia de la Candelaria). As 2nd February marks the end of the Christmas period, all decorations are taken down and the nativity set is put away. The Mexican custom is, however, that the baby Jesus from the Nativity set, or al...

  CANDLEMAS; 2nd FEBRUARY      Hans Memling, "The Presentation in the Temple", (1470), Prado, Madrid. The Missal provides as to today’s feast day, which is a second class feast day of Our Lord (the Presentation of the Lord Jesus in the Temple): The Feast of Candlemas, which derives its origins from the local observance of Jerusalem, marks the end of the feasts included in the Christmas cycle of the Liturgy. It is perhaps the most ancient festival of Our Lady. It commemorates not only the obedience of the Blessed Virgin to the Mosaic Law in going to Jerusalem 40 days after the birth of her Child and making the accustomed offerings, but also the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple, and the meeting of the Infant Jesus with the old man Simeon-the Occursus Domini, as the feast was anciently termed. This is the principle theme of the liturgy on this day: Jesus is taken to the Temple ‘to present Him to the Lord’. So the Lord comes to His Temple and is met by the aged Sim...