Imbolc is unique among the quarter days in that it’s almost entirely a domestic affair. Where the other festivals are marked by large communal celebrations, Imbolc’s traditions centre on the home and family, with only the occasional folk custom like the Bridéog doll parades engaging broader community ties.
Imbolc is also a word whose origins escape us. It may come from the Old Irish term for ewe milk. It may mean “in the belly”, referencing the lambing season about to begin, or derive from the word folcam, to wash, with attendant themes of purification. There’s even an argument out there that it means “wolf butter,” named after a lost ritual where the goddess, and later the saint, purified returning Fianna warriors (the wolves) by anointing them with butter – its an interesting theory, even if I don’t personally subscribe to it.
Whatever the origins of the name, it’s undeniable that dairy and themes of purification were both central to Imbolc, even if we can’t be certain the exact forms they took.
Like many pre-Christian Irish practices, when it comes to Imbolc we’re left sifting through syncretic folk practices and Christianised narratives written by monks to try and piece together what came before. Writing was rarely used in Ireland prior to Christianisation, and it took several centuries of cultural shift before the idea of using it to record anything other than lists of names or bare bones administrative matters took hold. Our records dealing with Imbolc as distinct from St. Brigid’s day are sparse, and we rely largely on the syncretisation of the two Brigids, goddess and saint, and the gradual transformation of Imbolc to St. Brigid’s Day in our attempts to reconstruct the Imbolc that was.
Brigid, goddess and saint. Urban art mural of the Seek Festival, Dundalk, County Louth [DSexton, Wikimedia Commons, CC 4.0
Brigid, goddess and saint, is a patron of many things, but of particular relevance to the practices surrounding February 1st is her role in the lives of women and their traditional concerns. The hearth fire, birth, dairy work, and sheep, an animal traditionally owned by women, all fell under her protective mantle, and all featured heavily in the traditions surrounding St. Brigid’s Day, and likely the Imbolc that came before it.
St. Brigid’s day is in many ways a women’s festival, with women leading the rituals and practices that mark the day and secure protection and abundance for the year to come. Their traditional labour, both domestic and income generating, was acknowledged and celebrated as integral to the survival and success of the family unit, and their concerns around childbirth and pregnancy addressed by the goddess-saint.
Food, naturally, plays a much larger role on February 1st than the other Quarter Days, with the visiting goddess-saint invited in to share a meal with the family before bedding down for the night beside the fire. Traditional foods now associated with it include various potato dishes, post-Columbian additions made well into the Christian period, but also meats like mutton and bacon, both associated with the goddess, as well as an abundance of dairy, from fresh churned butter to a traditional “cake as big as a cartwheel” that incorporated curds as well as butter. In some places a specific kind of oat cake would be made the night before and left out for Brigid to eat on her travels. In others it would be used as part of a ritual inviting the saint into the house that included an incantation to ward off hunger; after which the family would eat it, washed down with glasses of milk.
Attempts to guarantee abundance in the coming year were a widespread tradition of the day, drawing on Brigid’s role as a provider in the mythology of both saint and goddess. Coastal communities scattered shells in the corners of rooms in hopes of a plentiful catch throughout the year. Numerous farming communities had variations on the Brigid’s cross that incorporated potatoes, as well as oats, wheat, and other cereals, storing them in the rafters or thatch until sowing time. These seeds and potatoes would then be planted along with the rest of the seed crops, said to bring luck, as well as protection from fairies and baneful magic, for the rest of the harvest.
A near universal tradition sees the Brat Bhríde, the blanket (often just a strip of fabric) left out for Brigid to bed down with on the night of February 1st, being used to help with milk production in cows by draping it across their backs. Whether these practices were rooted in Brigid Briugu, the aspect of the goddess as hosteller and farmer who fed all in need, the saint with her prodigious cattle and ability to conjure food from nothing, or some mixture of the two, the reliance on Brigid to meet the needs of the people remained.
This is merely a cross section, an amuse bouche (I’m so sorry) if you will, of the wealth of folklore and food traditions surrounding Imbolc and the two Brigids. As ever I thoroughly encourage you to do your own research into this genuinely fascinating topic, even if you aren’t a Gaelic polytheist or follower of Brigid yourself. I also encourage you to indulge in some delicious, butter based foods this Imbolc. It’s a religious obligation after all, no one can fault you for that!
Oat Bannoch
A traditional unleavened bread, it was bannochs similar to this one that were left out for Brigid, handed out to Biddy Boys (and girls), and used in a number of the rituals for abundance on this day. Bannochs are very easy to make, and because they’re made on a griddle or in a pan they’re ready a lot faster than oven baked bread.
Ingredients
- 330g oat flour
- 265g of plain flour
- 2 teaspoons of baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 375 ml buttermilk
- Oil or butter
Depending on where you live you might have trouble sourcing oat flour and buttermilk. If you have access to a food processor then whole oats can easily be transformed into oat flour by grinding them up in it. Buttermilk can be approximated by adding lemon juice to whole milk or by thinning out yoghurt with water until it reaches a similar consistency.
Thoroughly mix the dry ingredients together (make sure you level off the top of the baking soda in the spoon when measuring, too much and the bannoch will taste of baking soda – not pleasant). Slowly stir in the buttermilk (or substitute) until it forms a dough, you may find you still have some of the buttermilk left at this point but try to resist adding it, texture is more important than quantity here.
Dust a surface with flour, turn the dough out onto it, separate it in half and then form two flatish circles from it. Do not roll, kneed, or squish the dough as this will counteract the effect of the baking soda, leaving your bannoch unpleasantly dense. Do score or indent the dough across the top so it will be easy to separate into four equal parts.
Grease up a pan, griddle, or skillet with oil or butter and put it over low heat. When it’s heated up add the first bannoch and cook for ten minutes. At this point check to see if it’s browned on the bottom by lifting it a little, and if not then put it back for a few minutes more. Then flip it over and cook for another ten minutes.
Serve hot or cold with as much butter as your dairy loving heart requires.
Bannock made with beremeal from Orkney [Lajmmoore, Wikimedia Commons, CC 4.0]
This is the second year running my January column has been marked by mourning for a grandparent. My grandfather was the person who shared my interests in Irish language, mythology, and history. He was the person I called if I wasn’t sure of a translation or just came across an interesting fact that I wanted to share, or to ask about the folk customs he remembered from his own childhood. Writing this article was hard because I kept thinking “oh he’d be interested in that” or “I should ask him about this” only to remember that I couldn’t and never would again. He was such an intrinsic part of my writing on these topics that I have no idea what my work, or my life, is going to look like going forward. Only that it’s going to be different, and I wish it wasn’t.
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