Simeon's prayer, the Nunc Dimittis, became one of the most widely used texts in Christian liturgical life, incorporated into the service of evening prayer, Compline or Vespers depending on the tradition, in both Eastern and Western Christianity, recited daily by many Christians for centuries independent of its connection to the specific Presentation narrative from which it originates.
Critical scholarship reads the Presentation, like the other episodes in Luke's infancy narrative, as carefully composed to advance the Gospel's theological purposes: it reinforces Jesus's connection to Jewish law and temple worship from infancy, introduces Simeon's prophecy anticipating both Jesus's significance for the Gentile world, described in the prayer as "a light for revelation to the Gentiles," and the suffering that would eventually accompany his ministry, themes Luke develops at length across the rest of his two volume work, the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles.
The feast commemorating the Presentation is kept on 2 February, calculated as the fortieth day after Christmas in keeping with the period of ritual purification the Torah specifies, and in Western tradition it is also associated with the blessing of candles, giving the day its popular name, Candlemas, in several European liturgical calendars.