January & February 2026 – Before planning your visit, please check our ‘Visitor Notices’ page for any occasional changes to opening hours or temporary accessibility updates. Click here to view
January & February 2026 – Before planning your visit, please check our ‘Visitor Notices’ page for any occasional changes to opening hours or temporary accessibility updates. Click here to view
Join us to celebrate the Festival of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Candlemas), with beautiful music from the Cathedral Choir.
The feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, or Candlemas, is the final feast day in the season of Epiphany. This feast lands on 2 February, falling exactly 40 days after Christmas, and brings to a close the full celebration of Jesus’ infancy narratives from Christmas through the Epiphany season. It is the final Epiphany when Jesus is revealed as the “light for revelation to the Gentiles” and our Saviour.
This scene is depicted in a window by C.E. Kempe & Co. in the Cathedral’s South Aisle. (Photo courtesy of Iona Art Glass.)
Candlemas marks the turning point of the Christian Year. It is the point where we stop, looking back on the celebrations of Jesus’ coming at Christmas and looking forward, moving towards Jesus’ passion. We turn from birth towards death and resurrection. We turn not simply from cradle to cross but from cradle through the cross to the empty tomb, already visible, albeit dimly, through the darkness still to come.
This service will also be live-streamed via our YouTube channel.