Candlemas

This passage is reproduced by permission of the author. 

The 2nd of February is Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation. It remembers some aspects of Jewish law preserved by Mary and Joseph in the New Testament.

The scripture readings to reflect on at this time are Matthew 2:13-18 and Luke 2:22-38. 

Joseph had been warned by the Angel of the Lord in a dream decided this very night to take his family to join a caravan to Egypt and escape Judah before Herod sent his men to kill all the baby sons of Bethlehem.

Traditionally Christmas decorations had to be packed away by this day to leave no trace of the baby's nativity.

On their way from Bethlehem to join the caravan to Egypt, Joseph and Mary first stopped at the site of the church of the kathisma (as recounted in Sura 19 of the Islamic Quran) where they had previously stopped to pick cherry-dates on the way to Bethlehem before the nativity. There are a couple of "Old Christmas" cherry carols that still remember the location. 

In the morning they went on to Jerusalem to find a Caravan to Egypt and Mary was purified and offered the two turtledove at the temple as required for Pidyon haBen following the birth of her child. Here they met Simon Ben Hillel as well as the 84 year old Prophetess Anna bat Phanuel HaAsheri before joining the caravan and going on to Egypt. 

From this time onwards the most devout Messianics (whatever denomination) have always observed the Yashan ve Chadash dietary restrictions of "Lent" until Holy Week. Lent was never symbolic of the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness and in fact never had anything to do with it even though that has come to be the fallacious idea in recent years thanks mainly to Internet crowd source forums such as Reddit, Quora and Wikipedia etc..

Modern Hillelite Passover is one month later than ancient Hasmonean Passover this year but I recommend unless you are living in a Jewish community that you observe the Hasmonean dates. 

Although I promote a Hasmonean version of Lent which usually coincides with the Oriental Orthodox Churches, this year, Juluan Lent will coincide with the beginning of the Jewish month of Adar Sheni instead of Adar this week. The reason for this is that the 21st of March is interpreted as literally by the Julian Churches according to the Julian Calendar rather than as intending to mean the Spring Equinox and that sometimes causes a problem. Hence the Sunday after the week of the full moon after the Julian 21st of March will be 5th of May 6 weeks after Hasmonean Reshith Katzir and 5 days after Nissan 22 the modern Easter Day for Messianic Noahides on the Hillelite Calendar). That week just so happens to be the start of the Yashan diet if anyone were to use Umar's Sunni calendar. 

For anyone who is interested, Easter on Umar's Sunni calendar will be Friday the 28th of June. 

The week of Pilgrimage for circumcised people on the Julian Calendar will begin on April the 21st.

The time for the Circumcision's pilgrimage (for anyone not in Jerusalem) on the modern Hillelite Calendar will begin on Thursday 16th of April. 

The Week of the Circumcision's Pilgrimage on the Hasmonean Calendar will begin on Tuesday the 17th of  March.

So plan your holidays well!

The circumcision's pilgrimage remembers the Ram given to Abraham on the 10th of Nisan for the sacrifice of Isaac. It is also the day the Passover Lamb was set apart from the rest of the flock. This pilgrimage is not a pilgrimage for all nations but only for the Mahul people of the Circumcision who remember Abraham and Isaac and the Passover. Remember that Areil uncircumcised people are not allowed to take part in the Passover Lamb but may receive its bones symbolising the leftovers.