04/02/2023
04/02/2023
The calendar this week reaches 1st February, marked in various traditions as the harbinger of Spring. For pagans and neo-pagans, it is Imbolc, meaning “in the belly” and reflecting the pregnant nature of the land. In Celtic countries the date is marked as Saint Bridget’s Day, and elsewhere it is Candlemas. Some scholars suggest that the festival may have been celebrated since at least the Neolithic period, some five thousand and more years BCE. Customs around this time of year include spring cleaning of the house, making a Bridget’s cross, decorating the home with white and green colours and bringing Rowan wood into the home. It is, in the words of some neo-pagan groups, a time for “hope and looking forward to new beginnings”.
