February festivals: Candlemas, Valentine’s Day and Pancake Day

Our vision at Wilded Family is to help children everywhere enjoy a childhood filled with wonder, to encourage independence and creativity in primary education, and to make a positive impact on the planet by inspiring childhoods filled with a love of nature and peaceful learning.

Spring is coming

With longer, warmer days just a few weeks ahead, we can begin to sense the energy of spring. Bulbs and seeds stir from their sleep, and nature reminds us that this is a time of renewal and new life.

We welcome back the snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils after their long winter sleep. The spring term begins with Epiphany and the journey of the Three Kings, moves to Candlemas and the warming of the earth, and builds towards Easter. Each part of nature’s cycle offers a different path to a closer connection.

2 February – Candlemas

Candlemas falls midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It coincides with the older Celtic festival of Imbolc, or St Brigid’s Day, and the church adopted it as a day to bless the candles for the year ahead. It traditionally marks the end of the Christmas season.

Whatever your beliefs, it’s a time to recognise that winter is ending and spring is around the corner – a celebration centred on hearth and home. Gather as a family and light candles to welcome back the light after the darker days of winter.

Making and lighting beeswax candles is a traditional way to celebrate, and even the littlest hands can roll a beeswax candle. Planting seeds in pots is another lovely way to welcome the new season.

14 February – Valentine’s Day

A day to remind each other that we’re loved and appreciated. Children can make art to share their love – handmade hearts and gifts for family, friends and teachers. Rather than seeing it as too commercial, use it to share the deeper meaning of love: for family, and for all living creatures.

Shrove Tuesday – Pancake Day

The date changes each year because it depends on Easter. Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. Traditionally, rich foods like butter and eggs were used up before the 40 days of Lent. Today it’s a fun day of cooking with children, flipping pancakes and perhaps a pancake race, like the one at my children’s school.

As we think about what we might give up for Lent, we can also think about what we might add – a meditation, a prayer or a small daily practice – to bring more light inwardly as the days grow lighter.

Rudolf Steiner wrote that love is higher than opinion, and that learning to live together and understand one another is one of humanity’s most important tasks. February’s festivals, with their candles, hearts and shared meals, are a gentle way to practise exactly that.