Today is Candlemas

Bit late! Old Scottish poem courtesy of Theseus (who could only remember the first line...) and Google.

Candlemas Day

If Candlemas Day be dry and fair,
Half the winter's to come and mair.
If Candlemas Day be wet and foul,
Half o' winter's gane at Yule.

Candlemas candles blown out for another year.

I shall have to tootle off to find out what candlemass is all about. My noncomformist upbringing didn't instill that festival into my consiousness.

via Twitter. There is a hashtag for "Candlemas Sunday" and several vicars have tweeted.

That's lovely! Where did you find it?

Just seen this for Candlemas Sunday:

They came, as called, according to the Law.

Though they were poor and had to keep things simple,

They moved in grace, in quietness, in awe,

For God was coming with them to His temple.

Amidst the outer court’s commercial bustle

They’d waited hours, enduring shouts and shoves,

Buyers and sellers, sensing one more hustle,

Had made a killing on the two young doves.

They come at last with us to Candlemas

And keep the day the prophecies came true

We glimpse with them, amidst our busyness,

The peace that Simeon and Anna knew.

For Candlemas still keeps His kindled light,

Against the dark our Saviour’s face is bright.

It's also the day when the groundhog gets frightened of his own shadow.

Durham cathedral lit with 2000 candles this evening. So beautiful and a dazzling red evening sky.all together what a wonderful world.

I hope!

It makes for a more peaceful life.

Done!
(Always do what jingle tells me to)

They make me sleepy.

Cheers for the weather forecast, jingle

Any excuse to light candles. DH thinks they're a waste of space money but I love 'em.

So it's just....winter weather then?

I made up the really bad bit.

If the sun shines today (and it is) we get six more weeks of really bad winter weather.