February 4, 2025
Imbolc Celebration and Brigid
Feb. 1-2 – Major- Bridget’s Day
White and light blue: These colors symbolize purity and renewal.
Green: This color symbolizes growth.
Yellow: This color symbolizes the sun.
AKA: Imbolc, Festival Bridget’s Day, Groundhog Day, Valentines Day
Animals: firebirds, dragon, groundhog, deer, hibernating & burrowing animals, cows, cockerels, and ewes
Symbols: white flowers, Brigid's cross, candles, corn dollies, broom, milk, and snowflakes
Essence: initiation, inspiration, creativity, mirth, renewal, dedication, wise counsel
Magicks: cleansing, purification, renewal, candle work, feast of milk & bread
Foods: dairy, honey, pancakes, waffles, herbal tea, spiced wine, seeds
Customs: lighting candles, finding omens of spring, storytelling, cleaning house, bonfires, indoor planting, stone collecting
The celebration of Imbolc originates from the Celts. Imbolc marks the halfway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It's a time to welcome the first signs of spring and the return of warmth.
Now is when we are getting the first peek at spring. This is the time to start searching for herb seeds to sow and preparing seeds for the first seedlings, as the season changes. The days are getting longer, and we can feel the anticipation of the warmth that will come. This is also a time for advancement, dedication, and self-initiation. It is the beginning and setting of goals for what is to come. Get ready to plant what you want to grow and don’t forget to look for the groundhog shadow so you will know if spring will come sooner so you can plant those seedlings you are starting now. The Maiden Bridget is represented in ritual with lots of candles lit in her honor. A festival of lights to herald the coming of springtime; Sun wheels are made to symbolize the heat that will soon come.
Celebration Example
Find seeds that are appropriate for what you want to grow. Mint for rejuvenation, sage for protection, lemon for energy, etc... Growing a magickal garden as well as veggies and herbs is great for calming and getting back into the groove with the energies that Mother Earth can give to you. This will also help with getting out of that hibernation mode that we all seem to get into.
On warmer days, open up the door and windows, let the fresh air come in and revitalize your home. Push out that staleness and wake up the senses. Start your spring cleaning a little early and maybe even start redecorating with brighter colors to bring positive energies into your home and yourself.
Goddess Bridget
Bridget is the traditional patroness of healing, poetry and smithcraft, which are all practical and inspired wisdom. As a solar deity Her attributes are light, inspiration and all skills associated with fire. She is the benefactress of inner healing and vital energy.
Also long known as The Mistress of the Mantle, She represents the sister or virgin aspect of the Great Goddess. Back in the day a virgin meant a female who had not married yet. The deities of the Celtic pantheon were inseparable from daily life. The fires of inspiration, as demonstrated in poetry, and the fires of the home and the forge are seen as identical. There is no separation between the inner and the outer worlds. The tenacity with which the traditions surrounding Brigid have survived, even the saint as the thinly disguised Goddess, clearly indicates Her importance.
Her important association with the cow, coupled with its critical necessity in Celtic culture and history, relates to the festival of Imbolc. This celebration, which is so completely Hers, involves itself with the lighting of fires, purification with well water and the ushering in of the new year (Spring) by a maiden known as the Queen of the Heavens.
Imbolc is associated with the quickening in pregnancy, that time when a mother first feels life growing inside her. She may not show much of a belly, and others will not see the movement, but a pregnant woman knows there is a child growing inside her. This is the energy of Imbolc: the beginnings of beginnings.
By Imbolc these animals will have birthed their young and their milk will be flowing. Milk, to the Celts, was sacred food, equivalent to the Christian communion. It was an ideal form of food due to its purity and nourishment. Mother’s milk was especially valuable, having curative powers. The cow was symbolic of the sacredness of motherhood, the life-force sustained and nourished. This was not a passive cow giving milk but an active mother fighting for the well-being of her children.
During these festivities, She was commonly represented by a doll, dressed in white, with a crystal upon Her chest.
This doll, usually a Corn Dolly, was carried in procession by maidens also dressed in white. Gifts of food were presented to the Goddess with a special feast given by and for the maidens. Young men were invited to this feast for the purpose of ritual mating to ensure that new souls would be brought in to replace those lost during the cold times.
The holiday has pastoral connections due to the association of the coming into milk of the ewes. Although Brigid is designated as an all-encompassing deity during Imbolc She is honored in Her capacity as the Great Mother.
She possesses an unusual status as a Sun Goddess Who hangs Her Cloak upon the rays of the Sun and whose dwelling-place radiates light as if on fire. Brigid took over the Cult of the Ewes formerly held by the Goddess Lassar, who also is a Sun Goddess and who made the transition, in the Isles, from Goddess to saint. In this way Brigid’s connection to Imbolc is completed, as the worship of Lassar diminished, only to be revived later in Christian sainthood.
Brigid long transcended territorial considerations, providing some unity between the warring tribes in Western Europe and the Isles. Her three sons gave their names to the soldiers of Gaul. The cult of Brigid exists not only in Ireland but throughout Europe as well; She has an ancient and international ancestry, Her name meaning in French is high or exalted and in Ireland it means ‘in the belly’. As Mother Goddess, Brigid united the Celts who were spread throughout this area. She was the one feature upon which they all agreed, no matter how disparate they were in location or traditions.
In addition to Her totem animals of the cow and the ewe. She is also associated with the cockerel, the herald of the new day and the snake, symbol of regeneration. In this way She is related to fertility Goddesses, many of whom were also shown holding snakes and shares with Minerva the shield, spear and crown of serpents. Serpents are also a common theme in Celtic jewelry (another product of smithing) with many torches displaying this winding symbol of power and divinity.