2nd of February - Purification Day, Candlemas, Forty Shilling Day, Badger Day
2nd of February is the 33rd day of the year
Sorry, we dont have an origin for Purification Day
Candlemas:
February 2 in the Christian calendar marks the day when Mary attended the temple to undergo ritual purification according to Jewish law and custom, and to present her child there. Given the anti-Jewish sentiment of the Middle Ages the presentation of Jesus tended to be more emphasized here, and to commemorate the arrival at the holy place of ‘the light of the world’ additional candles were burned in church on that day, thus the common term Candlemas for what was originally called Purification Day. In some trades conducted inside the day also marked the end of using candles to illuminate their work.
Forty Shilling Day:
Sadly this very localised event in our national calendar died out for lack of interest in the latter part of the last century, the reward offered of £2 (in the past, 40 shillings) not enough to attract boys to take part. When William Glanville died in 1717, however, 40 shillings would have been a small fortune to the poor boys of the parish. Five such, if able to recite the Lord’s Prayer, Apostles’ Creed and Ten Commandments from memory, with their hands on Glanville’s marble tomb in the Church of St John the Evangelist in Wotton, Surrey, would each receive that sum.
Badger Day:
Badger Day was and in some places is more commonly observed in Germany but for centuries was also a custom in some places here (and very obviously must be the forerunner of Groundhog Day in the USA) – we were after all effectively a Germanic country for half of the first millennium. Badgers emerging from their setts judged by the shadow cast by their own tail whether or not to end their hibernation, i.e. would the spring be clement or otherwise. Human observers would apparently use this for their forecasting. To make life easier some of these proto-weathermen it seems used stuffed badgers, equipment rather less expensive than a super-computer.
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