Awakening the Light
Each day the sun comes up earlier, I’m beginning to feel like the long dark winter is finally starting to ease it’s grip. I’m always happy when February 2nd arrives. In my family it is known as Candlemas. Today is exactly the half way point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Today is the celebration of the light returning. We are half way through winter!!! Though I must confess that I am a great lover of winter and snow and everything that those two things bring such as cross country skiing and snow shoeing as well as long saunters in the fresh snow filled air. So while many celebrate that winter is nearly over, I have a little twinge in my heart that it is nearly gone for another year.
If Candlemas day be fair and bright,
Winter will take another flight.
If Candlemas day be cloud and rain,
Winter is gone and will not come again.
For those of us who live in the far north or have our culture and traditions there, the winter has been mostly dark. Each day gets a little longer. Candlemas, Feb 2nd, is the day that the light returns for real and we can begin to see shadows.
Without light there is no shadow. For the second winter now, I have been spending time during these dark months of really slowing down, taking the deep descendent into the depths of myself and my soul. As the light returns, I can feel myself gently ascending into what will soon be Spring.
Before that happens though I will continue to enjoy my days of winter with reading, knitting, recording sound meditations, and truly looking forward to the end of this pandemic so I can be reunited with my children once again. It has been over a year since I’ve seen them. I know many friends of adult children who have the same story to tell and are greatly looking forward to the reunions with their families and loved ones.
Candlemas is traditionally a Christian celebration based on pagan roots. Candlemas in the Christian tradition is 40 days since Christmas or the birth of Christ. It would be referred to as the Festival of Lights because everyone would bring the candles they made at Christmas time to the church to be blessed. In the pagan or earth based traditions have to do with farming societies. The fallow time in nearly at an end and the planting seed season and rejuvenation is nearly here. Meaning that food and income can start its cycle once again.
Wishing you a beautiful return and awakening of the Sun!!!
