Presentation of the Lord to the Temple

[Salpy]

Tomorrow, Feb. 14, is Presentation Day in the Armenian Church.  Actually, it starts tonight so I am going to church in a little while.  It's a nice service.

[surajiype]

Salpy,

In the West Syrian and Indian traditions the presentation of the Lord is celebrated
on the 2nd of Feb, again a very good service. It is i think a fixed feast

[Salpy]

Happy Presentation Day!

[PeterTheAleut]

Blessed feast to you, Salpy!

[Amdetsion]

Tomorrow, Feb. 14, is Presentation Day in the Armenian Church.  Actually, it starts tonight so I am going to church in a little while.  It's a nice service.

Blessed feast my brother!

I love this celebration. It brings so much Orthodoxy forward.

I thought we all were the same date?

Ethiopia and Egypt are together on the Feb. 16.

No matter.

I am happy for you that God has allowed you and your family to once again share in this wonderful spirit filled time; sadly only found in the Orthodox Church today.

Selaam

Fr Dcn Amde Tsion

[Salpy]

I am happy for you that God has allowed you and your family to once again share in this wonderful spirit filled time; sadly only found in the Orthodox Church today.

Fr Dcn Amde Tsion

Is that true, that only the Orthodox celebrate it?  I just assumed the Catholics--and possibly the Anglicans--would have it too.

[Amdetsion]

Is that true, that only the Orthodox celebrate it?  I just assumed the Catholics--and possibly the Anglicans--would have it too.

I do not know any RC that would even know that the day was upon them.

Too many RC people have no connection with this day even if it is celebrated in some quiet way or remembered in the RC Church calendar. Anglican and so on are the same.

Seems to me that the western Christians are not well acquainted with the church holidays that have not digressed into the 'fanfare' of shopping, revelry, decorations and eating and so.

Christ entrance into the temple is very Holy, spiritual albeit very festive holy-day.

I guess nobody has found away to characterize this holiday into a more 'secular' activity that people can enjoy (and thus follow). Like Easter with peter cotton tail, jelly beans and Easter bonnets and looking for colored eggs and Christmas with trees, lights, flying reindeer, talking snowmen etc. Or "Valentines day" which is a real crowd pleaser (the "adult" holiday). The 34Th Street NYC flagship Victoria Secret store was packed last evening. I wonder why?

Of course not to be confused with the actual 'St. Valentine' who has nothing to do with cupids pagan arrow, red "heart" shaped pagan images and the lewd overtones of the whole brouhaha people call "Valentines day".

Have you any idea what the "heart shape" we are used to seeing is actually a shape of?  It is too lewd for this forum I assure you. You may be interested in researching it. When I found out the meaning I was shocked. Mattered not to me what it means now. I removed all these images from my home and life. I sold a "heart" shaped ring and necklace set I bought my wife and replaced it with something else.

That is just mt way of dealing with things.

I am basically trying to show that the various "churches" may observe the day but the "faithful" of these "churches" are completely unaware.

[Schultz]

Is that true, that only the Orthodox celebrate it?  I just assumed the Catholics--and possibly the Anglicans--would have it too.

RCs call the feast "Candlemas" (due to the old practice of blessing candles on this day) where the RCC celebrates both the presentation of our Lord and the purification of His mother Mary.  It is most definitely a feast that is almost forgotten among American Catholics.  In my RC upbringing, I don't remember celebrating it in church other than it being a part of the daily service if I happened to be serving early morning Mass that day before school.  I can't remember if we even blessed candles if it happened to fall on a Sunday.


EDIT:  Of course, I go and write the above and Shawn over at the New Liturgical Movement posts these pictures of an outdoor procession from a Fraternity of St. Peter Seminary's Candlemas celebration earlier this month:

[ebpusey]

Anglicans also celebrate this wonderful feast on the second of February.  Many of the "High Church" variety also have Candlemas processions as seen above.

[Entscheidungsproblem]

RCs call the feast "Candlemas" (due to the old practice of blessing candles on this day) where the RCC celebrates both the presentation of our Lord and the purification of His mother Mary.  It is most definitely a feast that is almost forgotten among American Catholics.  In my RC upbringing, I don't remember celebrating it in church other than it being a part of the daily service if I happened to be serving early morning Mass that day before school.  I can't remember if we even blessed candles if it happened to fall on a Sunday.


EDIT:  Of course, I go and write the above and Shawn over at the New Liturgical Movement posts these pictures of an outdoor procession from a Fraternity of St. Peter Seminary's Candlemas celebration earlier this month:

I used to attend a traditionalist RC parish and every year there was an amazing, but humble outdoor procession (not a huge parish), blessing of beewax candles, and everything. 

I was hoping to go to the Liturgy this morning, but alas, midterms next week have me bogged down.

[Amdetsion]

RCs call the feast "Candlemas" (due to the old practice of blessing candles on this day) where the RCC celebrates both the presentation of our Lord and the purification of His mother Mary.  It is most definitely a feast that is almost forgotten among American Catholics.  In my RC upbringing, I don't remember celebrating it in church other than it being a part of the daily service if I happened to be serving early morning Mass that day before school.  I can't remember if we even blessed candles if it happened to fall on a Sunday.


EDIT:  Of course, I go and write the above and Shawn over at the New Liturgical Movement posts these pictures of an outdoor procession from a Fraternity of St. Peter Seminary's Candlemas celebration earlier this month:

WOW

I am happy to see the pictures.

Very beautiful!!!

I appreciate the information. I did not know that there was a different name used by the RCC for this celebration.

I meant no harm in my post regarding RCC and Anglicans. I am always trying to convince my RC co-workers and so on to become closer to the church and follow more than the 'fun' stuff of which as I stated and you well know has too much secularism attached to it.

The pictures shows how beautiful and Holy our faith really is.

There is no clutter of decorations and folly in these pictures; just acts of Holy supplication and observance of God alone. This is what the world needs today.

I would like to attend a service to see this myself with Gods will.

Thanks much..

Fr Dcn Amde Tsion

[Salpy]

Happy Presentation Day again!

[Αριστοκλής]

A blessed Dyarnuntarach to our Armenian members!

[Entscheidungsproblem]

Blessed feast day!

[Salpy]

A blessed Dyarnuntarach to our Armenian members!

I'm impressed!   

[Salpy]

Happy Presentation Day again!

I love this feast day.  

[ialmisry]

A blessed Dyarnuntarach to our Armenian members!

Happy Feast!  Where you been?

[Alveus Lacuna]

Where you been?

Still gone.  It's a resurrected thread.

[Salpy]

I miss him too.  I hope he's OK.

[Asteriktos]

I miss him too.  I hope he's OK.

I was worried about this as well, so I just called the number of the parish that he has listed in his profile. Fr. Michael answered, and he said that Αριστοκλής is ok.

[geovar]

Dyarnuntarach - Thanks for teaching me a new word . With the Feast. In the Indian Church the feast is celebrated on February 2 . A good read for reflection that I found was by Tenny Thomas at his blog

http://thomastheconfessor.blogspot.com/

[Salpy]

Thank you for the link, and welcome to the forum!   

[Salpy]

Happy Dyarnuntarach again, everyone.   

[Salpy]

Here's a video in Armenian about the holy day, showing the Old Country customs associated with it.  Early in the video there are young girls in traditional costumes making food.  Toward the end of the video you see the bonfire that people traditionally burn on that day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKQHTx1qnaA&feature=endscreen

[ialmisry]

Here's a video in Armenian about the holy day, showing the Old Country customs associated with it.  Early in the video there are young girls in traditional costumes making food.  Toward the end of the video you see the bonfire that people traditionally burn on that day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKQHTx1qnaA&feature=endscreen

I wonder if it is connected with the fire jumping on Nowruz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQiBnM0JuYE

[Salpy]

Probably.  As you know, both Persians and Armenians were Zoroastrians back in the old pagan days.  Fire was important and I've heard it said that the bonfires and the custom of jumping over them (considered good luck) is a pagan tradition that was kept.  In the Armenian tradition it is considered especially good luck for newly married couples to jump over the bonfire.

Of course the Church "baptized" it with Christian meaning.  The bonfire came to be done on Presentation Day and it is lit with a candle from the altar after an evening prayer service in the church.  I think the fire is supposed to represent the Holy Spirit now.

It's kind of like people splashing each other with water on Transfiguration Day.  In the old pagan days, the water was associated with a pagan holiday called Vartavar.  After Armenia became a Christian nation, no one wanted to stop celebrating Vartavar, so the Church took the customs associated with it and made them a part of the Transfiguration Day celebrations.  To this day, people like to douse each other with water on that day, and Transfiguration Day is often referred to as Vartavar, even though that's a pagan holiday and not the proper Christian term for it.

[Shanghaiski]

I am happy for you that God has allowed you and your family to once again share in this wonderful spirit filled time; sadly only found in the Orthodox Church today.

Fr Dcn Amde Tsion

Is that true, that only the Orthodox celebrate it?  I just assumed the Catholics--and possibly the Anglicans--would have it too.

You are correct. It is a common feast, although it's become en vogue in Western churches to transfer the feast from the day to the Sunday nearest. Kind of sad, I think.

[Shanghaiski]

February 3, IIRC, is also the feast of St. Blaise, the martyr bishop (who was, I think, an Armenian). In the ancient Orthodox West (and still today in traditional liturgical churches), it was common to bless throats with the candles blessed on Candlemass, since St. Blaise was the patron of throats--a good one to have for the winter cold season.

[primuspilus]

February 3, IIRC, is also the feast of St. Blaise, the martyr bishop (who was, I think, an Armenian). In the ancient Orthodox West (and still today in traditional liturgical churches), it was common to bless throats with the candles blessed on Candlemass, since St. Blaise was the patron of throats--a good one to have for the winter cold season.

Thats what we did on St. Blaise's day. Pretty neat

PP

[Salpy]

Happy Presentation Day!   

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