British Popular Customs, Present and Past. T. F. Thiselton-Dyer

p. 52.

      The following is from Herrick’s Hesperides, p. 337.

      “Down with the Rosemary and Bayes,

       Down with the Misleto;

       Instead of Holly, now up-raise

       The greener Box for show.

      The Holly hitherto did sway,

       Let Box now domineere,

       Until the dancing Easter Day,

       Or Easter’s Eve appeare.

      Then youthful Box, which now hath grace

       Your houses to renew,

       Grown old, surrender must his place

       Unto the crisped Yew.

      When Yew is out, then Birch comes in,

       And many flowers beside;

       Both of a fresh and fragrant kinne

       To honour Whitsontide.

      Green Rushes then, and sweetest Bents,

       With cooler Oaken boughs,

       Come in for comely ornaments

       To re-adorn the house.

      Thus times do shift; each thing his turne does hold;

       New things succeed, as former things grow old.”

Nottinghamshire.

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      It was at one time customary, in the villages bordering on the Trent, to decorate not only churches but houses with branches of box, and to light up a number of candles in the evening, as being the last day of Christmas rejoicings. “On Candlemas Day throw candles away” is a popular proverb for the following day.—Jour. Arch. Assoc. 1853, vol. viii. p. 231.

Feb. 2.] CANDLEMAS DAY.

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      Feb. 2.]

      CANDLEMAS DAY.

      This day, the festival of the “Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” is sometimes called Christ’s Presentation, the Holiday of St. Simeon, and The Wives’ Feast. The ceremony of candle-bearing (which continued in England till it was repealed for its Popish tendency by an order in council in the second year of King Edward VI.) is generally considered to refer to what Simeon said when he took the infant Jesus in his arms, and declared that he was a light to lighten the Gentiles.

      Pope Innocent, in a sermon on this festival quoted in Pagano Papismus, in reply to the question “Why do we (the Catholics) in this feast carry candles?” says, “Because the Gentiles dedicated the month of February to the infernal gods; and as at the beginning of it Pluto stole Proserpine, and her mother, Ceres, sought her in the night with lighted candles, so they in the beginning of this month, walked about the city with lighted candles. Because the holy fathers could not utterly extirpate this custom, they ordained that Christians should carry about candles in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary; and thus what was done before to the honour of Ceres is now done to the honour of the Virgin.”

      From whatever cause, however, the ceremony originated, it acquired many additional rites in the process of time, according to the manners and habits of those who adopted it. We are told in Dunstan’s Concord of Monastic Rules that “the monks went in surplices to the church for candles, which were to be consecrated, sprinkled with holy water, and incensed by the abbot. Every monk took a candle from the sacrist and lighted it. A procession was made, thirds and mass were celebrated, and the candles, after the offering, were presented to the priest. The monks’ candles signified the use of them in the parable of the wise virgins.”

      According to some authorities, there was on this day a general consecration of all the candles to be burnt in the Catholic churches throughout the whole year; and it should also be mentioned that from Candlemas the use of tapers at vespers and litanies, which had continued through the whole winter, ceased until the ensuing All Hallow Mass, which will serve to explain the old English proverb in Ray’s collection:

      “On Candlemas Day,

       Throw candle and candlestick away.”

      New Curiosities of Literature, vol. i. p. 25.

Dorsetshire.

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      Formerly at Lyme Regis the wood-ashes of the family being sold throughout the year as they were made, the person who purchased them annually sent a present on this day of a large candle. When night came, this candle was lighted, and, assisted by its illumination, the inmates regaled themselves with cheering draughts of ale, and sippings of punch, or some other animating beverage, until the candle had burnt out. The coming of the Candlemas Candle was looked forward to by the young ones as an event of some importance; for of usage they had a sort of right to sit up that night, and partake of the refreshment, till all retired to rest, the signal for which was the self-extinction of the Candlemas Candle.—Every Day Book, vol. i. p. 206.

Yorkshire.

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      Formerly at Ripon, on the Sunday before Candlemas Day, the collegiate church was illuminated with candles.—Gent. Mag. 1790, vol. lx. p. 719.

SCOTLAND.

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      At grammar schools it is, or was, an universal custom for the children attending schools to make small presents of money to their teachers. The master sits at his desk or table, exchanging for the moment his usual authoritative look for one of bland civility, and each child goes up in turn and lays his offering down before him, the sum being generally proportioned to the abilities of the parent. Sixpence and a shilling are the usual sums in most schools, but some give half, and whole crowns, and even more. The boy and girl who give most are respectively styled king and queen. The children being then dismissed for a holiday proceed along the streets in a confused procession, carrying the king and queen in state, exalted upon that seat, formed of crossed hands, which, probably from this circumstance, is called “the king’s chair.” In some schools it used to be customary for the teacher, on the conclusion of the offerings, to make a bowl of punch, and regale each boy with a glass to drink the king and queen’s health, and a biscuit. The latter part of the day was usually devoted to what was called the Candlemass bleeze or blaze, namely, the conflagration of any piece of furze which might exist in their neighbourhood, or, were that wanting, of an artificial bonfire.

      According to Sinclair the king’s power lasted for six weeks, and during his reign he was not only entitled to demand an afternoon’s play for the scholars once a week, but had also the royal privilege of remitting punishments.—Book of Days, vol i. p. 214. Stat. Acc. of Scotland, Sinclair, 1794, vol. xiii. p. 211.

      It was formerly customary in Scotland to hold a football match, the east end of a town against the west, the unmarried men against the married, or one parish against another. The “Candlemas ba’,” as it was called, brought the whole community out in a state of high excitement. On one occasion when the sport took place in Jedburgh, the contending parties, after