Candlemas (Ground Hog Day)

My family has always celebrated Candlemas, the original version of Groundhog Day. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this holiday, I'll give you a little background: 

February 2nd is Candlemas, a centuries old custom. Traditionally, this is believed to be the day that Mary and Joseph took the Christ child to present him at the Temple in Jerusalem. In those days, Jewish custom held that a woman would take her newborn child to the Temple on the fortieth day after giving birth (when she was thought to be sufficiently clean) and offer up a sacrifice of two young pigeons or a pair of doves. 

Luke 2: 22-40  tells of the prophet Simeon, a High Priest in the Temple,  who was told that he would see the Messiah before he died. He had waited his whole life for that moment, and when Joseph and Mary arrived at the Temple on that day, Simeon recognized Christ immediately. Tenderly taking him in his arms, he proclaimed Christ to be "a LIGHT to the lighten the [world.] "

Simeon's Moment, by Ron DiCianni. LOVE this painting! Especially how it illustrates the idea of Christ being the Light of the World. Gives me chills! No wonder I was an art history major :)

In honor of this tradition, Catholics take their candles to Mass on this day to be blessed. Thus, the name Candle-Mass (Candlemas). 

In the Victorian Era it also became custom on this day to take an inventory of one's candle supply to make sure there were enough to last the rest of the winter. 

So how did Groundhog day get mixed up in all this?  Well, the weather on Candlemas (February 2) was believed to predict the length of winter. The old english song says: 

"If Candlemas be fair and bright,

Come, Winter, have another flight!

If Candlemas bring clouds and rains, 

Go, Winter, and come not again."

Since Candlemas was thought to predict the length of winter, in the Middle Ages, Europeans believed that the groundhogs (or hedgehogs) decided to end or prolong their winter's hibernation based on the weather on Candlemas.  For some reason this idea stuck, and today in the United States, people still look to the groundhog's "weather report" on February 2nd to see if winter is sticking around or not. 

Some other cool facts: 

The largest Groundhog Day celebration is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. (You've probably all seen the movie Groundhog Day!)

In Mexico, this day is known as Candelaria, and is the day when whomever found the baby in their piece of cake on Three Kings Day, must throw a party!

So...

In my family, the tradition has always been to have a candlelit dinner on February 2nd to honor the traditional reason Candlemas came about, which is to remember Christ, the Light of the World. 

And since the weather is warming up very nicely where we live, I decided to have our candlelit dinner outside on our back patio and use my new solar lanterns (aren't they cute?!) instead of candles.  

Not that this has anything to do with Candlemas or February, but my husband and I like to have breakfast for dinner occasionally, so I made my homemade breakfast taquitos for our lantern-lit dinner. (Country sausage, cheese, jalapenos and scrambled egg rolled up in fresh tortillas, brushed with olive oil and broiled for 8-10 min.) 

And to make it a little more festive, I made pink Veggie smoothies (from Weelicious Cookbook) to go along with our taquitos.  I feel like smoothies are a great way to get my toddler (and myself!) to eat more raw vegetables! This one has beets, carrots, and apples blended up with a little apple juice.  The beets give it the *bright* pink color! I also added some strawberries and a banana to tone down the beet flavor and make it a little sweeter  :)

(To make this smoothie, peel and cut up 1 raw beet and 1 large carrot into 1" pieces.  Steam for about 8 min. Then add chopped apples and steam for about 2 min. longer. Let them cool completely, and then blend them in a blender with 1 C cold 100% apple juice, 4-5 frozen strawberries, and 1/2 fresh banana.) 

• • •

While we lounged on our patio sipping our healthy smoothies, I shared with my family the story of how Candlemas and Groundhog Day came to be and we read aloud the story of Simeon from the New Testament.

There are also fun books to share with your kids about Groundhog Day. Here are just a few:

What traditions do you guys have for Groundhog Day? Leave a comment, I'd love to hear about them!