Celebrating Imbolc

This is the time of year, halfway between winter and spring, that I get a little antsy, especially this year after everyone's seen so much snow and "wintry mix" - this change-over is much more subtle in the southern half of the country - by February, new leaves can be seen on the trees and everything starts to wake up - up north, however, Nature often takes her sweet time sweeping winter out the door - I want to begin planting herbs and flowers, open windows, see green and blue instead of white and brown, but I must wait a little longer...

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about this midway point of Imbolc (or Imbolg) and Candlemas:

The holiday was, and for many still is, a festival of the hearth and home, and a celebration of the lengthening days and the early signs of spring. Celebrations often involved hearth fires, special foods (butter, milk, and bannocks, for example), divination or watching for omens, candles or a bonfire if the weather permits.

Imbolc is traditionally a time of weather prognostication, and the old tradition of watching to see if serpents or badgers came from their winter dens is perhaps a precursor to the North American Groundhog Day. A Scottish Gaelic proverb about the day is:

Thig an nathair as an toll
Là donn Brìde,
Ged robh trì troighean dhen t-sneachd
Air leac an làir.

"The serpent will come from the hole
On the brown Day of Bride,
Though there should be three feet of snow
On the flat surface of the ground."

Imbolc is the day the Cailleach — the hag of Gaelic tradition — gathers her firewood for the rest of the winter. Legend has it that if she intends to make the winter last a good while longer, she will make sure the weather on Imbolc is bright and sunny, so she can gather plenty of firewood. Therefore, people are generally relieved if Imbolc is a day of foul weather, as it means the Cailleach is asleep and winter is almost over.

On the Isle of Man, where she is known as Caillagh ny Groamagh, the Cailleach is said to have been seen on Imbolc in the form of a gigantic bird, carrying sticks in her beak.

Fire and purification are an important aspect of this festival. Brigid (also known as Brighid, Bríde, Brigit, Brìd) is the Gaelic goddess of poetry, healing and smithcraft.

As both goddess and saint she is also associated with holy wells, sacred flames, and healing. The lighting of candles and fires represents the return of warmth and the increasing power of the Sun over the coming months.

Brigid is said to walk the earth on Imbolc eve. Before going to bed, each member of the household may leave a piece of clothing or strip of cloth outside for Brigid to bless. The head of the household will smother (or "smoor") the fire and rake the ashes smooth. In the morning, they look for some kind of mark on the ashes, a sign that Brigid has passed that way in the night or morning. The clothes or strips of cloth are brought inside, and believed to now have powers of healing and protection.

In the modern Irish Calendar, Imbolc is variously known as the Feast of Saint Brigid (Secondary Patron of Ireland), Lá Fhéile Bríde, and Lá Feabhra — the first day of Spring. Christians may call the day "Candlemas." Long celebrated as "the feast of the Purification of the Virgin." Since Brigid represents the light half of the year, and the power that will bring people from the dark season of winter into spring, her presence is very important at this time of year.

Okay, so this year on Feb. 2, I dutifully tied two long white ribbons outside as a signal to Brigid to bestow her healing blessings upon me & mine as she passed by on her journey - I also burned a red candle (to symbolize the hearth fire's eternal flame) and thought about how I would honor what Brigid represents (water, fire and, um, smithing?) and figured that I am really ready for spring to show up so I can water my struggling indoor plants and new ones I will be planting out-of-doors, and perhaps lighting a candle as I meditate or work on new projects (or even turn on the new paper star light I recently bought) or, even more ambitiously, light up my little corner of the world by creating new things and helping others by being a good person... the smith-craft will have to wait, though!

Still, it's all very comforting for me (in an ancient, instinctual sort of way) to think about these rituals reaching back thousands of years, when people had to rely on the natural world for everything - they had no grocery stores, no refrigerators, no microwaves ("no phone, no lights, no motorcars, not a single luxury...") just planting, harvesting and storing food, hunkering down to wait for winter to end so they could do it again, and making sure they gave thanks to their deities in the hopes of ensuring they could repeat it year after year - this must be how the world's religions began, with these rituals as the people's way of showing gratitude and hope and reverence for the way the natural world works and our roles in it...

And if you're curious about what a bannock is (see above) here's what Wikipedia says about it:

Bannock is any of a large variety of flat quick breads. The word can also be applied to any large, round article baked or cooked from grain. When a round bannock is cut into wedges, the wedges are often called scones. But in Scotland, the words bannock and scone are often used interchangeably.

Yum - talk about comfort food!

OH, and I wanted to clear up the confusion about Groundhog Day (mostly because I am very happy about this year's prediction!) so here's part of an article from The Washington Post:

By LEE POWELL

The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 2, 2011; 8:00 AM

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. -- To the relief of the winter-weary, the world's most famous groundhog predicted an early spring Wednesday.

Punxsutawney Phil emerged just after dawn on Groundhog Day to make his 125th annual weather forecast in front of a smaller-than-usual crowd who braved muddy, icy conditions to hear his handlers reveal that he had not seen his shadow.

Including Wednesday's forecast, Phil has seen his shadow 98 times and hasn't seen it just 16 times since 1887. There are no records for the remaining years, though the group has never failed to issue a forecast.

The celebration took place on Gobbler's Knob, a tiny hill in Punxsutawney, a borough of about 6,100 residents some 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

The celebration is rooted in a German superstition that says if a hibernating animal casts a shadow on Feb. 2, the Christian holiday of Candlemas, winter will last another six weeks. If no shadow was seen, legend said spring would come early.

SO:

I wish you Happy Imbolc/Candlemas/Mid-Winter/Almost Spring

(and St. Valentine's Day is right around the corner - another good excuse to make bannock!)

P.S. I'm not sure what the illustration (by Donn P. Crane) is depicting - I just thought it was pretty - and I'm sure Brigid must have been a cat-lover...