Description

 It was a tradition for the firstborn boys to be observed by Jesus’ guardians as faithful Jews. By analogy today is the “sarantismos” that mothers perform with the child in the Christian church (the sarantismos of the newborn (when the infant becomes forty days old), that is, his/her entry into the Church and his dedication to God).

In the temple of Solomon where the ceremony took place, they met two persons with prophetic gift, the elder Symeon and the elder Anna (not Mary’s mother). They both recognized the Messiah in the face of the infant and prophesied about the redemptive work of the delivered infant.

The feast of Ypapantis belongs to the 12 most important feasts of the Church.