An ancient Gaelic festival and feast day, Imbolc marks the beginning of spring in the Celtic calendar, and the quickening of the year.
For the ancient Celtic people of Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, celebrations traditionally lasted for several days and began halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox – the very beginning of February in the modern Gregorian calendar.
The name derives from the old Irish ‘I mbolg’, which means ‘in the belly’ and relates to sheep birthing and nurturing lambs.
Imbolc long predates the arrival of Christianity in Britain and Ireland. The festival was originally held in honour of Brigid, a powerful pagan goddess in the Celtic pantheon, daughter of the Dagda (the great god of Irish mythology and chief of the mighty Tuatha Dé Danann), to whom offerings of craftwork and poetry were made.
As Christianity took hold, however, this devotion was neatly transferred to Saint Brigid, one of Ireland’s three patron saints (along with along with Patrick and Columba), and 1 February became St Brigid’s Day.
The tradition of making a St Brigid's cross from straw or rushes on 1 February is still popular, and many people mark the day by consciously reconnecting with nature.
Since 2023, St Brigid’s Day has been observed as a national holiday in Ireland.
Snowdrops are also associated with St Brigid, and there is a tradition of forecasting the weather for the coming year, which seems to have crossed the Atlantic with Irish and Scottish emigrants, and has echoes in Groundhog Day (which takes place on 2 February).
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How did Imbolc begin?
Along with Beltane (beginning of summer), Lughnasadh (first harvest, beginning of autumn) and Samhain (last harvest, start of winter), Imbolc is one of four important festivals marking the changing seasons, which punctuated the calendar in traditional Celtic culture.
With the winter and summer solstices, and the spring and autumn equinoxes, these dates were profoundly important to people living off the land, whose fortunes were ties closely to the weather and the natural elements.
When exactly celebrations first started happening around these events has long been lost in the mists of time, but they date back many millennia.
Imbolc and Samhain are both referenced in The Táin Bó Cúailnge ('Cattle Raid of Cooley’), an epic tale from Irish mythology set in the 1st century. It was first written down in the early Middle Ages, but is thought to have been told as an oral tradition for hundreds of years prior to that. And passage tombs in Ireland – including the Mound of the Hostages on the Hill of Tara (which is over 5,000 years old) – were constructed so the rising sun illuminates the entrance on the advent of both Imbolc and Samhain.
As Christianity took hold, the church cleverly absorbed elements of Imbolc (and the other festivals), and repackaged them to make the new religion more palatable to the pagan populations of Ireland and Britain.
Imbolc celebrations – which traditionally involved making offerings to the Celtic deity of Brigit, goddess of wisdom, poetry, healing, protection and domesticated animals – became associated with Saint Brigid of Kildare, who may or may not have been a real person. Evidence of her existence is scant.
When is Imbolc?
Today, Imbolc is firmly pinned to 1 February (St Brigid’s Day), with some celebrations continuing until sunset on 2 February. However, since the history of the festival long predates the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, it would traditionally have been determined by natural events including the length of the day.
In the pre-Christian Celtic world, Imbolc celebrations were underpinned by the breeding cycle of sheep, and especially the beginning of lactation in ewes. It was also timed to fall halfway between the winter solstice (shortest day of the year) and the spring equinox, which would place it between 3 and 6 February on the modern calendar.
What traditions are associated with Imbolc, and how it is celebrated today?
In its ancient form, Imbolc celebrations involved feasting and offerings of poetry and craft being made to the goddess Brigit. Some of these traditions survive in the way St Brigid’s Day is marked today, but with a Christian twist, as seen in the making of a cross or a doll from straw or rushes.
Imbolc is also celebrated – completely independently of St Brigid’s Day – by Wiccans and other followers of neopagan or pagan-influenced religions, who use the occasion to reconnect with nature, and sometimes incorporate fire rituals in their festivities.
Is Imbolc associated with other festivities or customs?
The arrival of spring weather after a long cold winter is, unsurprising, something that’s been historically celebrated across much of Europe by many diverse groups of people for thousands of years.
The tradition of Candlemass, which originated in Greece but is probably a Christianised descendent of the ancient Roman holiday of Februalia, also welcomes the lengthening and lightening of days. It shares various aspects with Imbolc.
People have also argued that Groundhog Day was inspired by elements of Candlemass and Imbolc. Groundhog Day is a curious (and relatively modern) custom that takes place in Pennsylvania in the US on 2 February. It involves getting a groundhog freshly emerged from it winter hibernation den to predict weather conditions for the coming season. However, the connection is hotly debated.
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