You will notice that this Sunday’s Mass has a very Christmas feel about it. While the official Christmas liturgical season ends with the Baptism of the Lord, there is an ancient non liturgical Catholic cultural and religious tradition that does view Candlemas as a “Christmas” feast.

The Vatican does keep up its Christmas manger until Feb 2nd and this tradition is found in many countries such as Spain, France and Poland and Mexico. The history of this is long and complicated. However, in an article on Candlemas or the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary or the Presentation of the Lord as it is now commonly called, the Catholic author Jennifer Gregory Miller from CatholicCulture.org states that this Feast with its importance, (when it falls on a Sunday, it replaces the normal liturgy of ordinary time) and its message and theology does make it liturgically correct to view it as the last of the feasts of Christmastide! ~John Donovan