How Stuff Works

Today is the 15th of February. Every 15th of February Candlemas is celebrated throughout Eastern Europe and it's affilliates. But exactly what is Candlemas, and why is it so important?

Well, i'm glad you asked.

Candlemas came about as a direct result of the bubonic plague, or Black Death of the 1300s. Prior to this Europe had experienced two centuries of unparallelled mild weather, due to the Smurf's defeat of Gargamel at the Battle of Gargamel's Castle (1076AD) which resulted in the lifting of sullen rainclouds which had heretofore covered the entire continent. This mild weather combined with the realisation that cattle could be eaten instead of cattle dung (as had previously been the belief) led to a population explosion. This in turn led to a flowering of education and an increase in literacy. The newly literate population combined with a well-fed peasantry meant that candles (which at the time were composed entirely of ear-wax) were more and more plentiful, but also more and more in demand.

The onset of the Black Death in the 1300s did not kill populations indiscriminately. The dearth of farm labourers in it's aftermath pushed food production to it's lowest ever recorded rate. Scholars, by virtue of their more solitary existence, were more numerous amongst the survivors. The high demand for candles combined with an extremely malnourished population (who produced no ear-wax and hence, no candles) caused the price of candles to skyrocket. Patriarch Antiolopoulos Nicodemus of Constantinople took drastic steps and stockpiled all of the available candles in the land, parcelling them out to those scholars most in need. As the effects of the Black death wore off candle output rose such that the mass of available candles in Eastern Europe reached it's previous nadir within a century. When this was realised the church was able to sell off it's remaining stockpile and buy a speedboat. Ever since, the day of the selloff (February 15th) has been celebrated as 'Candlemas'.