Candlemas

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English candelmasse,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English candelmæsse,^[5][6][7][4] formed from Old English candel (“candle”) + mæsse (“mass, feast”),^[5][3][8] after the candles blessed and carried in procession at the feast.^[8][4] Compare Icelandic kyndilmessa, Medieval Latin candelaria, French chandeleur and German Lichtmesse.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary, with its candles, and also its date: Old English, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.^[5] Bosworth–Toller quotes the annal for 1014, in which Sweyn ended his days to Candelmæssan, at Candlemas.^[7] Dictionary.com dates the word to before 1050,^[9] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to before the 12th century.^[8]

Semantic evolution

According to Simpson and Roud, the festival began in Byzantium in the 4th century and was established in Rome by the 7th, falling on 2 February, the fortieth day after 25 December.^[10] In the medieval calendar each parishioner joined a procession and brought a candle as an offering, and blessed candles were kept at home against thunderstorms, demons and sickness; these rites were suppressed after the Reformation.^[10] Johnson (1755) accordingly wrote that the feast was "formerly celebrated with many lights in churches".^[11] Middle English had compounds such as Candelmasse day and Candelmasse even, the evening of 1 February.^[2] The day also became a fixed point of the farming and legal year: it is one of the Scottish quarter days,^[12][13][14] now set at 28 February,^[15] and dialect rhymes across Britain used it for weather and stock, as in Shropshire's "At Candlemas Day A good goose should lay" and the Scottish saying that a dry and fair Candlemas Day means half the winter is still to come.^[14] Etymonline equates the feast with the Celtic pagan Imbolc,^[6] but Simpson and Roud deny any connection with the Irish feast of 1 February.^[10]

Timeline

• Old English – the feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary.^[5][7]
• Old English – the date of this feast, 2 February, in the annal for 1101 of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.^[5]
• before 1121 – the Middle English form, in the Peterborough Chronicle.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A Christian feast on 2 February marking the purification of the Virgin Mary and the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, when church candles are blessed.^{[12][4][8][5]}
2. The date of this feast, which is one of the Scottish quarter days: The rent fell due at Candlemas.^{[12][5][13][14]}
3. Also Candlemas Day: Groundhog Day.^[8]

Related words

• candle
• mass
• Christmas
• Michaelmas

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c Simpson, Jacqueline; Roud, Steve (2000), A Dictionary of English Folklore, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b c Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
15. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers