How to Celebrate Candlemas

While celebrating Groundhog Day on February 2, don't forget about Candlemas, which occurs on the same day. Falling between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, it represents the first dawning of spring, when animals start to venture from their dens.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Beeswax Beeswax Sheets
• Candle Wax
• Candleholders
• Candles
• Paperwhite Narcissus Bulbs
• Seeds

1. Light all the candles you can get your hands on. Candlemas, like other winter holidays, is a festival of light. In fact, the day takes its name from the early Christian custom of blessing candles on February 2.

2. Make beeswax candles. It's a great project for a bleak winter day. The process is easy enough for children - you simply roll a sheet of beeswax around a wick - and the results are sophisticated enough to please the pickiest adult decorator.

3. Take down your Christmas greens if you haven't already. Burn them in the fireplace, compost them or use them as mulch.

4. Plant seeds outdoors, if it's warm enough; otherwise start some indoors for transplanting later. Or force a big bowl of paperwhite narcissus - their brightness and their sweet scent will help the rest of the winter go faster.

5. Hold a Candlemas party and serve the day's traditional grain-based foods, including crepes and pancakes.

6. Start something. Candlemas is a time of new beginnings, so this is the day to launch those piano lessons you've been meaning to take, to welcome a new puppy to the family, or to make those New Year's resolutions you didn't get to on January 1.

Tips & Warnings

• Candlemas grew out of the ancient pagan celebration of Imbolc. It's a day for planting seeds, for lighting sacred fires, and for awakening the spirit.