Meeting of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple — 40 days after Nativity.
Forty days after His Nativity, the infant Christ was brought to the Temple in Jerusalem by the Theotokos and the righteous Joseph, in fulfillment of the Law of Moses. There He was received into the arms of the Elder Simeon, to whom it had been revealed that he would not die before seeing the Messiah, and Simeon blessed God with the prayer now sung at every Vespers. The aged Prophetess Anna likewise gave thanks and spoke of the Child to all who awaited redemption.
This Great Feast, called in Greek the Ypapanti, the Meeting, celebrates the encounter of the Old Covenant with the New, and is kept on February 2.
Feast day
On the New Calendar, Presentation of the Lord is commemorated on February 2. Churches on the Old (Julian) Calendar keep the feast on February 15 of the civil calendar.
Who celebrates a name day
People with these names keep their name day on this feast:
Also commemorated on February 2
Gabriel of Prokonnesos
Martyr, Γαβριήλ ο Οσιομάρτυς
Monk-martyr Gabriel of Prokonnesos, who suffered in Constantinople.
Agathodoros the Martyr
Martyr, Αγαθόδωρος
Holy Martyr Agathodoros, who completed his contest by the sword.
Icon: public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.