An Chraobh Airgid
At frosty sunrise a woman looks out of the half-door of a whitewashed farmhouse, a rush cross in its thatch, a cloth on the bush, ewes and a lamb in the white field.

Fire festival · 1 February

Imbolc

The start of spring

Say it: IM-bulk

Brigid’s day, and the first stirring of the lambs.

Open it on the full site There the Wheel of the Year starts from today, and counts the nights to the next festival.

1 February is Lá Fhéile Bríde, the feast of St Brigid, and in Ireland the first day of spring. Cormac’s Glossary, of about 900, names a goddess Brigit, a daughter of the Dagda and the goddess of the poets. Many see her behind the saint; that the saint took her place is an inference, for no early text says so.

The word

No one is sure what the word means. Cormac’s Glossary derives it from “ewe’s milk”, which linguists treat as a folk etymology. One modern proposal is i mbolc, “in the belly”, for the pregnant ewes; another derives it from a word for milking or for cleansing.

Customs

Crosses woven from rushes for the rafters, and a cloth, the brat Bríde, left outside overnight for the saint to bless.

See also

  • Brigid Saint, and perhaps goddess, of 1 February.
  • The Dagda “The good god”: father, druid and king of the Tuatha Dé Danann.

Sources

Every source the site draws on is listed on the full site.