This special day & the Camino

[Preston Pittman]

On the Church calender, today is Candlemas, or the Feast of the Presentation
of the Lord.  If you scoll down, you'll see I've forwarded a segment from a
free daily e-letter to which I subscribe, which gives the readings of the
day and an explanation of the Saint's day or Holy Day of Obligation, etc.

What does it have to do with the Camino?  Last year I became really
fasciated by all the "goose" associations along the Camino in France and
Spain and did a little research.  In Spain, you find a lot of the places on
the Camino have names that associate them with some form of the word "goose"
in Latin or Spanish - ganso, ansar, oca...and many of these sites also have
some relation to the "Black Virgin".  The French writer Louis Charpentier
wrote a book some years ago on these observatons and their relation to the
occult and the Camino.

When I was examining this on my own, I found that many of these sites,
besides having a special relation to the "Black Virgin" or "Black Madonna",
also had a pre-Christian history as sacred sites, related to the Celtic
goddess Epona (or one of her variants) whose animals are the horse and the
goose.  Her Germanic counterpart was the goddess Holda. In Ireland she was
called Bridget, and there, the Church "christianized" her and made her St.
Bridget.  Today is her feast day.  All were goddesses whose great feast -
Imbolc - is today, midway between the winter equinox and spring equinox.  In
the United States, we have the old Germanic celebration transformed into
"Groundhog Day".

In the Germanic speaking areas (which did include Spain under the Visigoths)
a statue of the goddess Holda would be taken around the fields on a cart in
a ceremony with torches to insure fertility.  I many rural areas this
practice continued for a long time - but with a statue of the Virgin Mary
substituted for the pagan goddess.

Please, don't misunderstand me.  I don't mean to imply that the Camino is
not an authentic "Catholic" or "Christian" experience.  The Camino does,
however, seem to pre-date Christianity.  There is evidence that it was a
"Celtic" pilgrimage way to the Finis Terra some thousand years before
Christ.  It only makes it more interesting.

There's also the "goose game" and some link to the Camino, and somehow
Priscillian of Avila is supposed to figure in to all this, but I haven't
been able to make the connection, yet.  There are many, many web sites with
information on all this, if any one is interested.
>
>The Daily E-Pistle
>Friday February 2, 2001
>Ordinary Time
>Feast of the Presentation of the Lord
>
>------------------------
>
>TODAY'S READINGS
>
>Mal 3:1-4
>Ps 24:7-10
>Heb 2:14-18
>Lk 2:22-40 or 2:22-32
>Hours: Sanctoral prop MP: prop antt pss Sun 2 DP: pss Fri 4
>http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/020201.htm
>
>------------------------
>
>FEAST OF THE DAY
>
>The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord has been generally
>celebrated in the Church since the fifth century. One of the earliest
>known references to this feast comes from the diary of a pilgrim
>named Ethera written in the fourth century. This pilgrim traveled to
>Jerusalem to take part in the Christmas celebration there and her
>journal gives a remarkable look into the early Church. Two of the
>celebrations that she describes are the Feast of the Epiphany and
>the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord. At this time the Church in
>Jerusalem celebrated the Birth of Christ at the Feast of the
>Epiphany, January 6 and celebrated the Feast of the Presentation
>forty days later. As this celebration gained popularity in the West, it
>was moved from February 15 to February 2 because this date was
>forty days after the Solemnity of Christmas, which was when the
>Western Church celebrated the Birth of Jesus.
>
>The roots of this celebration come from the Jewish faith, where a
>family would present their children in the temple. This celebration did
>not occur immediately after the birth of the child because the mother
>was ritually unclean for forty days after childbirth. This tradition is
>rooted in Mosaic Law which requires "purification" after contact with
>mystery, especially birth or death.
>
>As this feast gained popularity throughout the Church, it also began
>to develop a rich tradition. One of these traditions comes from the
>beginning of the eighth century when Pope Sergius normalized a
>candlelight procession to commemorate the feast. This grew into the
>tradition of the blessing and distribution of candles for the Faithful
>to
>take into their homes. This feast is often called Candlemas in
>reference to this tradition of bringing candles to Mass to be blessed.
>
>------------------------
>
>
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