The Dia de la Candelaria (Day of the Candles) is a big feast in Mexico. It differs from the Candle Mass in the United States because during this Mass not only the Candles get blessed but also the Baby Jesus from the crib. In Mexico this has been celebrated since the Colonial times. This celebration also changes according to every ethnic group and region who gives the Celebration the characteristics proper to their culture.

Basically, the Dia de la Candelaria (Day of the Candles) the Godparents (in some places it will be the same people who sang the Baby Jesus to sleep on the night of the 24th, in some other places it will be the ones who found the Baby Jesus in the Rosca de Reyes or Kings cake) must go to the house of the “owners” of the Baby Jesus, to dress him and to take him to Church to be presented, just like Mary and Joseph did with Jesus, forty days after he was born. The first year the Baby Jesus is dressed in white to represent El nino de las Palomas (The Child of the Doves) or El Nino de las Azucenas (The Child of the White Lillies), which signifies the purity of his being.

Read more Dia de la Candelaria, a Mexican Tradition

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