Tonight and tomorrow is when most modern Pagans celebrate the fire festival of Imbolc sacred to the goddess Brigid, patroness of poets, healers, and smiths. Today is also the feast day of Saint Brigid of Ireland patron saint of poets, dairymaids, blacksmiths, healers, cattle, fugitives, Irish nuns, midwives, and new-born babies.

Brigid: Saint and Goddess.

In Kildare, Ireland’s town square, a perpetual flame is kept lit and housed in a statue that pays homage to the Pagan and Christian conceptions of Brigid. Festivities for La Feile Bride in Kildare started on January 25th and will continue through Febrary 3rd.

Here are a collection of quotes on this holiday.

I see and smell the first fragrant scents of spring——the yellow acacia beginning to bloom. Gradually if we walk slowly and quietly we’ll notice the subtle changes occurring in nature, here and there in the plant kingdom. Humanity needs fire festivals during the gray, wet, rainy, snowy days of winter, to chase away doldrums and light deprivation. On Feb. 2 we have Candlemas and Imbolc (pronounced Im-bolk). Both Candlemas and Imbolc are fire festivals…lighting the darkness, offering humanity hope. February 2nd is also the midway point between winter solstice and spring equinox – Risa D’Angeles, Esoteric Astrology

As with all quarter days e.g. mid summer solstice and Halloween it was customary for customs, festivities and rituals to be enacted and these have remained an unbroken folk tradition in practice in many west of Ireland’s rural communities. One such enduring tradition marking the 1st of February are the distinct strawcraft folk rituals associated with Brigit who symbolically on the same date deposes the goddess of winter thereby marking the beginning of Spring. Loved by young and old is the fashioning of various Brigit crosses, 3 armed, four armed, diamond and interwomen which occur in pre historic stone carvings throughout Europe where they are understood to be ancient symbols of the life giving earth mother goddess. – The Fermanagh Herald

Happy Imbolc 2009! “Again, we banish winter; Again, we welcome spring!” The Wheel has turned once more, and brought us to the next holiday of the Pagan Year, Imbolc, February 2nd. A day directly between Yule and Eostre. Pagans call the day the first day of spring, since it is the time that the first sprouts show through the snow. This day is the centerpoint of the dark half of the year. – Terry Smith, The Town Talk (Louisiana)

…the history of Groundhog Day is far more complex than what it has become: a staged event in which poor Phil is observed in the glare of television cameras so our local meteorologists have a cute sound byte and a brief close-up of his blinking, bewildered groundhog face, a yearly ritual that appears on the morning news. The origin of Groundhog Day is derived from earlier celebrations held on the cross-quarter day of February 2, dates variously known as Brigid’s Night in Ireland (festival of the Celtic goddess of poetry, birth, weddings, smithcraft, and healing), Oimelc/Imbolc/Imbolg in Scotland, and Candlemas in England. The cross-quarter days (Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lughnasa) were always associated in ancient times with divination–the veil between the worlds is believed to be its thinnest, and the balance of energies between solstice and equinox was thought to be very significant. – Peg Aloi, “You Call It Groundhog Day, We Call It Imbolc”

“Candlemas” is the Christianized name for the holiday, of course. The older Pagan names were Imbolc and Oimelc. Imbolc means, literally, “in the belly” (of the Mother). For in the womb of Mother Earth, hidden from our mundane sight but sensed by a keener vision, there are stirrings. The seed that was planted in her womb at the solstice is quickening and the new year grows. Oimelc means “milk of ewes”, for it is also lambing season. – Mike Nichols, The Witches’ Sabbats

“I’d sit with the men, the women of God, There by the lake of beer, We’d be drinking good health forever, And every drop would be a prayer.” – Excerpt from “Saint Brigit’s Prayer”

Many blessings to you this holiday! Be sure to check out the fourth annual Brigid in Cyperspace Poetry Reading in your travels around the web tomorrow, I’ll see you by the lake of beer!

Tonight and tomorrow is when most modern Pagans celebrate the fire festival of Imbolc sacred to the goddess Brigid, patroness of poets, healers, and smiths. Today is also the feast day of Saint Brigid of Ireland patron saint of poets, dairymaids, blacksmiths, healers, cattle, fugitives, Irish nuns, midwives, and new-born babies.

Brigid: Saint and Goddess

In Kildare, Ireland’s town square, a perpetual flame is kept lit and housed in a statue that pays homage to the Pagan and Christian conceptions of Brigid. Festivities for La Feile Bride in Kildare started on January 25th and will continue through Febrary 3rd.

Here are a collection of quotes on this holiday.

“Bridget, the ancient Celtic Goddess of Poetry, Healing and Smithcraft was highly revered by our ancestors, and honoured at Imbolc (Feb. 1), a holiday marking the birth of the tribe’s sheep, essential for their milk, meat and wool. It was said that the ocean became warm on that day as Bridget, also associated with fire, put her hand into the water. At Imbolc, she was welcomed into the family home, and many wonderful customs were maintained when she was later venerated as St. Bridget, the daughter of a druid. She is much beloved in Ireland and Scotland, her powers as Goddess and saint interwoven still.” – Sharynne NicMhacha

“Before Candlemas there was, indeed, the Celtic festival of Imbolc (pronounced IMolk) meaning ‘in the belly,’ as in a pregnant ewe, but also symbolic of the earth right before spring. It is associated with the goddess Brigid, who some say became St. Brigid, whose feast day is Feb. 1. Imbolc was much concerned with fertility and weather prognostication. According to Gaelic folklore, the hag goddess Cailleach would gather firewood on Imbolc. If she intended to prolong winter she would make the day bright and sunny, the better to gather firewood. If Imbolc turned out overcast, it meant that Cailleach was asleep in her den and that there would be an early spring. Sound familiar?” – Daniel Deagler, The Morning Call

“Brigid’s protection of agriculture and poetry underscores the need to tend our inner fertility. Tending our forms of creativity is crucial to a fulfilling life. The ancients believed that gifts of expression were only on loan. We are reminded to remain grateful, and to be good custodians of artistic talents.” – Jonathan Young, The Center for Story & Symbol

“Although Carolyn Deby has named her new performance Imbolc (in the belly), the choreographer said she’s not trying to transplant a Celtic festival to the West Coast. She’s interested in exploring how the eternal rhythms of life, death and birth celebrated by pagan Celts affect multicultural urban Vancouverites. ‘I’m interested in how people see themselves as part of the natural world,’ Deby said.” – Kevin Griffin, The Vancouver Sun

“I call it Candlemas. Some people call it Imbolc. And for me it’s the start of spring, which is not most people’s understanding of when the season starts. Candlemas is celebrated on Feb. 1 and 2, and here in Seattle the first buds are on the trees and the first green shoots are coming out of the ground already, so there are really very clear signs that something is changing. I also like to use it as a new beginning time, so instead of doing New Year’s resolutions on Jan. 1, I wait until Feb. 1, and then make some kind of intention – that I’m either going to symbolize in a collage or a pledge that I’ll make to myself. For me it’s really the start of a new year.” – Waverly Fitzgerald, The San Francisco Gate

“I’d sit with the men, the women of God, There by the lake of beer, We’d be drinking good health forever, And every drop would be a prayer.” – Excerpt from “Saint Brigit’s Prayer”

Many blessings to you this holiday! Be sure to check out the third annual Brigid in Cyperspace Poetry Reading in your travels around the web today, I’ll see you by the lake of beer!

Tonight and tomorrow is when most modern Pagans celebrate the fire festival of Imbolc sacred to the goddess Brigid, patroness of poets, healers, and smiths. Today is also the feast day of Saint Brigid of Ireland patron saint of poets, dairymaids, blacksmiths, healers, cattle, fugitives, Irish nuns, midwives, and new-born babies.

Brigid: Saint and Goddess

In Kildare, Ireland’s town square, a perpetual flame is kept lit and housed in a statue that pays homage to the Pagan and Christian conceptions of Brigid. Festivities for La Feile Bride in Kildare started on January 26th and will continue through Febrary 3rd.

Here are a collection of quotes on this holiday.

“Tonight we prepare for the visitation of Bride. She comes tonight to bring us tidings for the rest of this year. We are gathered here to honor the Goddess of Poetry, Healing, and Smithcraft. She is daughter of the Dagda, guardian of our hearth and home, an inspiration to poets and a healing Goddess who hangs Her cloak on the rays of the sun.” – Danielle Ni Dhighe, La Fheile Bride (Imbolg) Ritual

“Imbolc is rooted in an old British festival dedicated to Brigid, a Celtic goddess who later was canonized as a Christian saint. The day heralds the coming of spring and new life. It is marked by sharing of food with friends, spring cleaning and the lighting of candles.” – The State (South Carolina)

“Brigit’s holiday was chiefly marked by the kindling of sacred fires, since she symbolized the fire of birth and healing, the fire of the forge, and the fire of poetic inspiration. Bonfires were lighted on the beacon tors, and chandlers celebrated their special holiday.” – Mike Nichols, The Witches’ Sabbats

“Though we can’t see it through the cover of white, at Imbolc we know the spring bulbs have sent runners into the earth, that the ice floes on our lakes and rivers have begun to thin and move, and that the first of the young animals due in spring have been born. Many Wiccans celebrate this holiday as a group by standing in a dark room, with one small candle flame lighting their way, each Wiccan then lights their candle from that flame, until everyone in the room is bathed in the great light of their community’s bounty. Prayers are said for a gentle spring, and that stores of food and money, greatly depleted by the festivities of the winter solstice, last long enough to be supplemented by the first crops.” – Kaatryn MacMorgan, Beliefnet

“I’d sit with the men, the women of God, There by the lake of beer, We’d be drinking good health forever, And every drop would be a prayer.” – Excerpt from “Saint Brigit’s Prayer”

“I think of the approaching festival of Imbolc, the midwinter fire festival honoring Brigid, and I picture the beautiful Irish goddess up there beside her sister the Moon, also wrapped in a white gossamer cloak, both of them aglow from the cold air…offering us their gifts of healing and hope as we wait for a brief respite from the single-digit temperatures, a thaw, a day or two when the snows melt away, the buds tremble with incipient growth and all living creatures feel a small, fiery flutter deep within our beings, as we whisper, gladly, ‘Spring will come again! Spring will come again!’” – Peg Aloi, Witchvox

Many blessings to you this holiday, meet you by the lake of beer!