to keep evil spirits away, and the belief that newlywed women needed to jump over fire to purify themselves before getting pregnant. Young men will also leap over a bonfire. The tradition of lighting a candle in each window is not the origin of the name "Candlemas", which instead refers to a blessing of candles. On the day following Candlemas, the feast of St. Blaise is celebrated. It is connected to the rite of Blessing of the Throats, which is, for to be available to reach more people, also often transferred after the Mass of the Presentation of the Lord or even bestowed on both feasts. By coincidence, the Blessing of the Throats is bestowed with crossed candles. In art The event forms a usual component of extensive cycles of the Life of Christ and also of the Life of the Virgin. Often either the Presentation of Jesus or the visually similar Circumcision of Jesus was shown, but by the late Middle Ages the two were sometimes combined. Early images concentrated on the moment of meeting with Simeon. In the West, beginning in the 8th or 9th century, a different depiction at an altar emerged, where Simeon eventually by the Late Middle Ages came to be shown wearing the elaborate vestments attributed to the Jewish High Priest, and conducting a liturgical ceremony surrounded by the family and Anna. In the West, Simeon is more often already holding the infant, or the moment of handover is shown; in Eastern images the Virgin is more likely still to hold Jesus. In the Eastern Churches this event is called the Hypapante. Simeon's comment that "you yourself a sword will pierce" gave rise to a subset iconography of the Sorrowful Mother. Gallery In music Many motets and anthems have been composed to celebrate this feast and are performed as part of the liturgy, among them an anthem by 16th century German composer Johannes Eccard (1553–1611), Maria wallt zum Heiligtum, often translated in English as "When Mary to the Temple went". The Lutheran church of the Baroque observed the feast as Mariae Reinigung (Purification of Mary). Johann Sebastian Bach composed several cantatas to be performed in the church service of the day, related to Simeon's canticle Nunc dimittis as part of the prescribed readings. Erfreute Zeit im neuen Bunde, BWV 83, 1724 Mit Fried und Freud ich fahr dahin, BWV 125, 1725 (on Luther's hymn