What does that mean?
In Noelithic
Ireland and Scottland Imbolc was meant to signify the midway point between the
Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox and is celebrated from February first
through the evening of February second.
The holiday
is primarily celebrated by Wiccans, Pagans, and other neopagan religions. Ibolc
is the Celtic Sabbat that resides between Yule(Christmas) and Ostara (Easter)
on the Celtic Pagan Wheel of the Year.
The Goddess Brigid
Imbolc
became a festival to celebrate the goddess of fertility, poetry, crafts and
prophecy.
Brigid was
one of the most powerful goddesses of Celtic religion. She was the daughter of
Dagda who was the oldest god in
the Tuatha du Danann. According
to myth, she was born with a flame on her head and was reared on the milk of a
mystical cow. She was credited with the invention of keening, the traditional
wailing for the dead performed by Irish and Scottish women,
In
ancient times Ibolic was celebrated by crafting a likeness of Brigid out of
oats and rushes, dressing it, and placing it in a basket overnight. The
following day was celebrated with bonfires in tribute to Brigid.
Christianity
In the
Christian religion Brigid morphed into Saint Brigid who is one of the three
patron saints of Ireland. St. Brigid is also the saint of milk and fire. She is
the patron saint of Irish nuns, newborns, midwives, dairymaids, and cattle.
A
twelfth century legend claims that the nuns of Kildare built a fire to honor
St. Brigid and the fire burned for five hundred years and only women were
allowed near it.
The
church enacted the holiday, St. Brigid’s Day to take place on February first
and replace the pagan Imbolc holiday. It is a feast day when on effigy of St. Brigid
is washed in the ocean and surrounded by candles to dry. Crosses crafted out of
stalks of wheat and created and called St. Brigid crosses.
Modern Celebrations
Imbolc
is also known as Feast of Torches, Oimelc, Lupercalia, Feats of Pan, Snowdrop
Day, Feast of the Waxing Light, and Brigid’s Day.
Modern
pagan celebrations of Imbolc are often small and include bon fires or fire
rituals. It is a time to celebrate femininity, new beginnings, and fire.