Candlemas and a Bad Forecast
Feb. 2nd, 2026 09:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ermingarden"Si sol splendescat Maria purificante / maior erit glacies post festum quam fuit ante."
Or, "If Candlemas is fair and clear / there'll be two winters in the year."
Or, if the groundhog sees his shadow...six more weeks of winter!
I am dismayed that not only Punxsutawney Phil (overall accuracy: a dismal 35%) but also our local groundhog, Staten Island Chuck (overall accuracy: an impressive 85%), is reported to have seen his shadow this morning. Furthermore, the weather today was the nicest it's been in weeks. More winter it is, apparently!
My choir sang Arvo Pärt's setting of the Beatitudes this past Sunday, and I may be a little bit obsessed with this piece now - it's haunting! Here's my favorite version I've seen on YouTube:
We also sang at a special service for Candlemas this evening - all in Latin, with the church lit only by candlelight. (We sang, among other things, William Byrd's "Senex puerum portabat"; I love Byrd, so that was a favorite for me!) It was lovely, and was one of those moments in which one feels strongly a degree of continuity with the past - for how many centuries have people been celebrating this day in more or less exactly the same way? Though, of course, it's only to the modern eye that the candlelit church is an unusual sight! (Perhaps we should add in a blessing of the lightbulbs as well as the candles?)
Or, "If Candlemas is fair and clear / there'll be two winters in the year."
Or, if the groundhog sees his shadow...six more weeks of winter!
I am dismayed that not only Punxsutawney Phil (overall accuracy: a dismal 35%) but also our local groundhog, Staten Island Chuck (overall accuracy: an impressive 85%), is reported to have seen his shadow this morning. Furthermore, the weather today was the nicest it's been in weeks. More winter it is, apparently!
My choir sang Arvo Pärt's setting of the Beatitudes this past Sunday, and I may be a little bit obsessed with this piece now - it's haunting! Here's my favorite version I've seen on YouTube:
We also sang at a special service for Candlemas this evening - all in Latin, with the church lit only by candlelight. (We sang, among other things, William Byrd's "Senex puerum portabat"; I love Byrd, so that was a favorite for me!) It was lovely, and was one of those moments in which one feels strongly a degree of continuity with the past - for how many centuries have people been celebrating this day in more or less exactly the same way? Though, of course, it's only to the modern eye that the candlelit church is an unusual sight! (Perhaps we should add in a blessing of the lightbulbs as well as the candles?)
