Candlemas - The Lost End to Christmas
Dear reader it is assumed that by now you have long ago packed up the tree, swept up the remaining glitter and have begun stocking up on Valentines and maybe even some Peeps for Easter. But, did you know Christmas is still going? The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord—commonly known as Candlemas—is celebrated on February 2, forty days after the Nativity of Christ. Rooted simultaneously in Mosaic Law, Christological revelation, and the Church’s ancient liturgical instinct, Candlemas represents not an afterthought to Christmas, but its theological completion. This lost tradition is rich in history and is a Feast that deserves our attention.
I. Biblical and Jewish Foundations
Candlemas commemorates two distinct but inseparable acts prescribed by the Law of Moses:
(1) the purification of the mother forty days after childbirth (Lev 12), and
(2) the presentation (or redemption) of the firstborn son to the Lord (Exod 13:2, Num 18:15–16).
Faithful to the Law He Himself authored, Christ is brought to the Temple by the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph—not because either required purification or redemption, but because Christ submits freely to the Law to fulfill it (cf. Matt 5:17). In this moment, Christ enters the Temple not as a petitioner, but as its Lord, silently inaugurating the transition from figure to fulfillment.
II. Christ Revealed as Light to the Nations
The heart of Candlemas is found in the prophetic words of Simeon, who receives the Infant Christ and proclaims Him:
“A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.” (Luke 2:32)
Here, the Church recognizes Candlemas as the public manifestation of Christ as universal Savior—not yet through preaching or miracles, but through sacrificial offering. The Light first revealed privately to shepherds and Magi is now solemnly proclaimed within the Temple, the heart of Israel’s worship.
This is why the Church blesses and processes with candles on this feast: the liturgical sign flows directly from the Gospel’s theological content. Christ is not symbolically light; He is Light incarnate (John 1:9).
III. Early Christian Observance and Liturgical Development
Candlemas is among the most ancient feasts of the Church. By the fourth century, it was universally celebrated in Jerusalem, complete with a solemn procession described by the pilgrim Egeria. By the seventh century, Rome had adopted the feast with the blessing of candles and penitential processions, particularly as a Christian response to lingering pagan midwinter rites.
The feast acquired the name Candlemas precisely because Christological doctrine shaped liturgical action: the faithful quite literally carried light into a darkened world, confessing by movement and matter what the Creed affirms by words.
IV. Why Candlemas Is the True End of Christmas
While modern custom ends Christmas on January 6 (or worse, December 26), the Church’s traditional instinct is far more theologically coherent. Christmas does not culminate at the manger, but at the altar.
Candlemas completes the arc:
Incarnation (Nativity),
Manifestation (Epiphany),
Offering (Presentation).
At Candlemas, Christ is first formally offered to the Father, foreshadowing Calvary and anticipating the Eucharist. The Child who lay in the crib is now placed in the arms of Israel—and through Simeon, offered to the nations. Christmas ends not with sentiment, but with sacrifice.
V. Why Catholics Must Reclaim Candlemas Today
In an age that truncates mystery and abandons liturgical logic, Candlemas restores:
reverence for Christ as objective Light, not emotional warmth,
continuity between Old Covenant worship and New Covenant fulfillment,
and a corrective to the reduction of Christmas into mere nostalgia.
To celebrate Candlemas is to insist that Christianity is not seasonal décor, but cosmic reality—that Christ enters history not to decorate it, but to judge, redeem, and sanctify it.
When the Church extinguishes the lights of Christmas at Candlemas, she does not dim the Light of Christ. She proclaims instead that the Light has entered the Temple, and the world will never be the same.
Endnotes
Sacred Scripture, Leviticus 12; Exodus 13:2; Numbers 18:15–16.
Sacred Scripture, Luke 2:22–32.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, on Christ as fulfillment of the Law.
Egeria, Itinerarium Egeriae, ch. 26 (late 4th century).
Josef A. Jungmann, The Mass of the Roman Rite, Vol. I (Westminster: Christian Classics, 1986).
Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger), The Spirit of the Liturgy, ch. 3.
Roman Missal (1962), Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§529, 583–586.