Candlemas Bells

Sun printing the first flowers of spring.

Till now I have created cyanotypes using only sunlight, making it a seasonal hobby.

I collected leaves in autumn – and waited for the spring sunshine. I collected plant skeletons in winter – and waited for the spring sunshine. Then I saw the snowdrops bloom and knew that unless I printed them now, I would not get the chance. They are too delicate and will not press and keep well. By the time the spring sun was strong enough, it would be too late. So, I finally bought myself a UV lamp.

Now, if I want to, I can print with sunshine, in the house, in the middle of winter, in the middle of the night!

There is something very special about making cyanotypes of snowdrops. Capturing the first flowers of spring. Blooming so early they have become associated with the festival of Candlemas on 2^nd February.

Candlemas is a festival of light. Its date was fixed by its biblical origin, but it happens to fall midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, as the days begin to lengthen and the sunlight grows stronger.

‘Candlemas is the last feast of winter and the first feast of spring – a transitional festival, which looks back to Christmas and forwards to Easter’ [1]. In the concluding words of the Candlemas procession, ‘We turn from the crib to the cross’. [2]

Candlemas commemorates the presentation of Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem, by his parents [3]. Forty days after his birth, as required by Jewish law [4]. Mary and Joseph were met by an elderly man and woman, Simeon and Anna, who recognized their baby as the awaited Messiah.

‘Candlemas is a festival which has at its heart a meeting between childhood and old age, birth and death, winter and spring. Celebrated since the fourth century in the Eastern church, and the seventh century in the West, this feast reached Anglo-Saxon England in the eighth century. The English name Candlemæsse is first recorded in the late Anglo-Saxon period, and refers to the most distinctive custom of the feast: people would bring candles to church to be blessed, carry them in procession, then take them home and keep them all year.’ [5]

Cyanotype of Snowdrops. Alice Pettit 2026

In England snowdrops have long been linked with the festival of Candlemas, and known as ‘Candlemas Bells’. In Medieval times, before the reformation, snowdrops were gathered to decorate churches for Candlemas.

Snowdrops, (Galanthus nivalis - from the Greek gala and anthus "Milky flower" and the Latin nivalis meaning "Snow") provide much needed nectar and pollen for early insects.

They are not native to the UK and it is thought they were brought to these shores from Southern Europe around the 1500s by Norman Monks travelling from Monastery to Monastery, cultivating them in their herb gardens for medicinal use including as a remedy for headaches. [6]

The first record of snowdrops in England comes in 1597, when English surgeon and herbalist John Gerard first noted snowdrops being grown in London gardens in his 1597 book The Herball or Generall Historie of Plantes. They were first recorded in the wild in 1778 and have slowly spread from Cornwall to Northern Scotland.

They were so prevalent in Victorian graveyards that they became associated with death. More recently they have been considered a hopeful flower associated with the new life of spring.

Whether using sunshine or a UV lamp, you need to test to see how much exposure gives you the Cyanotype print you want.

I increased the minutes to achieve more of an x-ray effect.

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3 pictures of snowdrops, exposure time 6 minutes, 20 minutes, 40 minutes.

Then I made two prints of snowdrops with a background of Uncial script.

This script is the style inscribed by monks in the 4th to 8th centuries in texts such as the Lindisfarne Gospels and Book of Kells. I used this as a reference to the monks who brought snowdrops to the UK, and would also have carried manuscripts, on their travels between monasteries.

For these I exposed the snowdrops for between 35 and 45 minutes, and then exposed the script next to them (written on tracing paper) for 4 – 5 minutes. When I exposed the calligraphy for 15 minutes it was lost as the ink and paper were thin and let thought enough UV light to fully expose the cyanotype chemicals after only a short while.

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FOOTNOTES:

[1] Winters in the Word, A journey through the Anglo-Saxon year. By Eleanor Parker.

[2] https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/common-worship/churchs-year/times-and-seasons-1

[3] Luke 2:22-40

[4] Lev 12:1-8

[5] P86-87, Winters in the Word, A journey through the Anglo-Saxon year. By Eleanor Parker.

‘This element ‘mas’, still found in many of our festival names, derives from the Old English mæsse, a borrowing into English from Latin missa. In Anglo-Saxon sources it means both ‘mass’, in the sense of a celebration of the Eucharist, and more generally ‘festival, feast-day’. You could pretty much put mæsse on any word in Old English and make it a festival name: examples which go back to Anglo-Saxon usage include Christmas, Candlemas, Childermas … Lammas, Michaelmas and Martinmas.’ P80.

[6] Like many plants they have medicinal value. A chemical found in snowdrops, Galanthamine, is now used to treat Alzheimers.