Candlemas

The forty days of Christmas are over. We celebrated Candlemas as darkness fell outside today, with incense and plainsong and the ancient tale of the presentation of the infant Jesus in the temple, of Simeon and Anna.

We have incense only on special services that fall other than on a Sunday, so it seems even more special. The outlines of the high roof become blurred, and distorted shadows - a moth? a bat? - flicker across the page of the plainsong Nunc Dimittis. That's why today's blip shows not a candle, but the shining thurible with the smoke curling out of it.