Forty days after his birth, Joseph and Mary carried Jesus in the Temple to present it to the Lord according to the law of Moses. On 2 February the Church celebrates the feast that ends the solemnities of the Incarnation. This festival is also the consecrated life.
The feast of this day remember a double event, the Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple under the law of Moses. This law set the time when mothers were present with their newborns before the altars, and it required a sacrifice for the redemption of male children. Neither Mary, all pure in her motherhood, nor Jesus, Son of God, were required for this ceremony. But in humility, and to give men a shining example of obedience to divine law, Mary, accompanied by Joseph and Jesus on his arm, went to the Temple of Jerusalem.
The Christian holiday that we keep the memory of this ceremony is, in popular parlance, the name of Candlemas, because of the procession which takes place that day in our church with lighted candles.
The candles symbolize our Lord Jesus Christ, Light of the world, the procession represents the passage of the Holy Family in the Temple and the meeting of two old Simeon and Anna. Saint Anselm, developing this mystery, says there are three things to consider in the candle: wax, wick and flame. Wax, bee's virginal book, is the flesh of Christ, the wick which is interior, is his soul flame that shines in the upper part is his divinity.
The procession of Candlemas appears to us as Christian people walking in the light of Christ, represented by the candles carried by the clergy, the selected portion of the Church, as Jesus himself was carried in the arms of Mary between those of St. Simeon and the pontiff, who offered to the Lord.
Sources: http://www.catholique.org/ and www.catholique-paris.cef.fr (I even posted this little article there are 2 years on my old blog Orange and I realize that I had already posted last year: "bis repetita place")
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