Candlemas

Our first year to celebrate Candlemas!  First I had to do a bit of research and found this website helpful.  Here's a quote and a link to Parenting Passageways, one of my favorite educational websites:

 “All Year Round” says in regards to Candlemas ...(Authors Ann Druitt, Christine Fynes-Clinton and Marije Rowling write: ) “At the beginning of February, when the infant light of spring is greeted thankfully by the hoary winter earth, it seems fitting that we should celebrate a candle Festival to remember that moment when the Light of the World was received into the Temple, when the old yielded to the new.”

February 2nd is Candlemas, and this is traditionally the day that celebrates the ritual cleansing of Mary after the birth of Jesus and also when Mary presented the infant Jesus in the temple as according to Jewish tradition.   Simeon called Jesus a light, thus tying Him to this day.

http://theparentingpassageway.com/2011/02/02/the-quiet-beauty-of-candlemas/ 

Candlemas is a traditional holiday that is celebrated many different ways.  Some of the most common ways involve making candles (in rememberance of Jesus, our Light) and also planting bulbs, as the season of winter is gently moving toward spring.

Candlemas is traditionally celebrated on February 2nd.  That happened to be a Saturday and a day we were chalk-ful of other events, so I postponed our celebrations to Monday.  Works for us!

I had this lovely presentation on the table for the kids when it was time to begin Kitchen School.  

We lit a lantern and began our Bible reading.  And in case you want to know what REALLY goes on in kitchen school, here is Little Man eating the lighter.  :)  And these bulbs...I went to my favorite plant store--Plants for All Seasons.  I asked one of the workers to help me find bulbs.  He was very concerned that it was way too late for me to try and force bulbs.  I told him it was fine, I wouldn't be upset if they didn't work our perfectly, my kids would just enjoy giving it a try.  Ends up he wouldn't even let me pay for the bulbs because he was so convinced it was too late in the year.  He gave me some great information on different bulbs and when to buy/refrigerate/plant them and he sent us home with these 4 paperwhite bulbs for free.  Don't ya just love people like that? 

 

 We read from Luke 2--the story of Mary and Joseph presenting Jesus at the temple and about Simeon calling him "the Light to the Gentiles" and Anna praying and fasting to see Jesus before she died.  I had printed off a painting from the internet for the kids to look at. 

 At this point Beck was done being at the table so he went off to play.  Quinn and I moved on to candles.  I had racked my brain to figure out what kind of candles we would do that would work for my kids at this age.  We've already rolled beeswax candles recently, and melting and dipping beeswax is still a bit of a reach for us.  I also didn't want to go with punching tin cans into lanterns because I am afraid Beck's too little to be careful holding them and might cut himself.  So...I found these little nest-shaped tealight holders my sister gave me a while back.  We got out some pretty yarn and had fun weaving it into the nests.  Then I crocheted a chain of yarn for a handle so they can be carried.  They can either hold real tealights on the table at meals or the LED kind when being played with.  They turned out so lovely!

Then we planted our bulbs--we filled the containers with rocks--great fine motor because we had to be sooo careful!  We put in the bulbs and Q poured water up to the edge of the roots.  Don't they look nice?!!  We will watch them to see what happens. 

 

We also made some wire crowns--I need to take a picture so I can show you!

And another tradition on Candlemas is making and eating crepes.  Daddy ended up being out for a birthday celebration with his guy friends, so I attempted this one by myself.  Yikes!  Q and I whipped up the batter, and then I cooked them.  It was fine, but it took a while and the kids were pretty much going crazy....mostly because I was doing dinner on my own and they smell my weakness.  :)  

But the crepes turned out delicious!  We topped them with cheese, preserves and pumpkin butter (individually...not all at once!) and the cheese ones won out in popularity.  Though Little Man liked the preserves pretty well!

We had a good time, learned some more from God's word, and tried a new food!  Candlemas #1 was a success!!