These early days of February have picked up all kinds of notions – like that groundhog thing. (By the way, the groundhog in New York did not see his shadow – I’m going with that one!) And like St. Blaise’s Day and Candlemas. Sometimes St. Brigid’s Day is thrown in.
Actually, if there ever was a St. Brigid, it was likely a pick at random, so St. could be put in front of the Goddess Brigid’s name on all those sacred wells, sacred fires, sacred spaces all over Ireland. Brigid is a Triple Goddess, the first Trinity – Maiden, Mother, Crone.
In the ancient Irish calendars, these days are Imbolc, the start of spring, the days, as the saying goes, ‘when the seed stirs in the earth’. To me, seeing spring starting today means that we see the whole of spring – we don’t start to pay attention in the middle with the Equinox.
We see the tips of the snowdrops peeking up, the first bit of the daffodil leaves, buds swelling on the forsythia, more warmer days mixed in with the very cold ones, more sunshine showing up, more daylight. And by the time spring ends, on May 1 at Beltane, the first real heat begins. So it all makes much more sense to me this way.
Happy Spring, Everyone!