It’s Imbolc. Halfway between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. The Christian celebrations came later. Goddess Bridgid is the bearer of light. We celebrate the return of the light and the hope of the promise of spring. Simple garden tasks are sacred and divine — the wheel of the year, ever turning, ever changing yet constant is life giving. Creative force of the God and Goddess. Birds and the bees, and the flowers and the trees, and this thing called Love.

Candlemas is not in any way associated with paganism. Candlemas, or the Feast of the Purification, is 40 days after the Nativity of Christ (Christmas). Under the Mosaic Law, a woman who gave birth was to present herself to the priests at the Temple for purification. The Virgin Mother, despite not issuing any blood, presented herself out of obedience to the Law on the day prescribed, hence its inclusion as the end of Christmastide.

Many say that the date of the Nativity (and thus the date of the Purification) was chosen in relation to Satunalia or Nativitas Sol Invictus. These claims lack merit. First, the date of Christmas corresponds to the time when Zachary, the husband of Elizabeth, served in the Temple according to St. Luke’s Gospel (which he wrote after speaking to “eye witnesses”, like Mary). Following the cycle mentioned in said Gospel passage, Zachary would have returned to his home after serving at the Temple 9 months prior to June 25…which is 6 months from Dec 25…and the Gospel says that Elizabeth was already 6 months pregnant when Mary conceived through the Holy Ghost (which would thus be Maech 25: the Annunciation). This means that the date of the Nativity was arrived at using, not paganism, but Jewish law and custom.

Further, history shows us that the date of December 25 as the Nativity was celebrated in Rome AT LEAST 200 years before Julian the Apostate established Sol Invictus (to combat against the celebration of the Nativity of the Lord). Jerome argues that Rome celebrated the Nativity on Dec 25 because Rome had the official census documents, and thus would know. It was mentioned in contemporary sources as “an ancient Roman custom”, not celebrated in many places outside of Rome. Any association to pagan practices outside of Rome, then, cannot be considered causal, or even correlational, but merely coincidental.