Deliveries. Packaging. Candlemas.

We have a notice next to our front door informing anyone who arrives that we want NO COLD CALLERS - no random salesmen, no evangelists, no canvassers for political parties, and so on.  However, we need another notice, like the one the next door neighbours have, which reminds friends and relations or people making deliveries to PLEASE RING THE BELL!  It’s quite amazing how many people, deliverymen especially, don’t see or choose to ignore the doorbell but opt to knock with their knuckles against the wood, making a gentle tap-tap-tap which can only be heard of you happen to be standing in the entrance hall. It happened again this morning!

Phil ordered some vitamins from the health-food store, Holland and Barrett. They promised swift delivery and swift delivery was what he got. The first we knew about it having arrived was when Phil received a “your goods have been delivered” text message. Neither of us had heard a ring or a knock. Maybe it occurred when I was in the shower! Anyway, the “goods” were left in a box outside the front door, a reasonably safe place we have agreed with delivery men. Eventually I went to seek it out. Yes, there it was, in the black box. 

Here it is: a cardboard box, stuffed with brown paper for insulation around two small bottles of vitamin tablets. This is why the world is running out of resources. You would think a company that specialises in healthy-living stuff would take greater care of the environment! 

Various posts on Facebook have had rhymes about today being Candlemas, reminding us that the days are getting longer and urging us to put out the candles and eat our evening meal by daylight. Of course now I cannot find them again, or I would have quoted them. 

Anyway, today is Candlemas, also known as the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ - a traditional presentation at the temple of a boy child some 40 days after being born. It’s also known as the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary, which strikes me as one of those anti-feminist practices about women who have given birth needing to be somehow ‘cleansed’.

In some countries they keep Christmas decorations up until Candlemas. In others they take candles to their local church to be blessed, these candles then serving as a symbol of Christ, the Light of the World, for the rest of the year.

There’s more. The Virgin of Candles is the patron saint of the city of Puno in Peru, held in the first fortnight of February each year. It is one of the largest festivals of culture, music, and dancing in Peru and judging by the photo it owes as much to South American culture as to Christianity.

“At the festival's core are music and dance performances organized by the Federación Regional de Folklore y Cultura de Puno, consisting of more than 200 dances in more than 150 dance sets. These include "native dances" from the various communities in Puno and sets of dances organized in different quarters of the city, mostly those known as "costume dances". These performances directly involve 40,000 dancers and some 5,000 musicians and indirectly involve about 25,000 people, including directors, sponsors, embroiderers, and the makers of masks, clothing, boots, shoes, bells, and other items, as well as the bandsmen and staff.”

A nice mix of cultures.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!