Imbolc: Brigid and the First Day of Spring

On 1 February, Imbolc marks the first day of spring and the festival of Brigid — goddess, saint, and now the namesake of Ireland's newest public holiday.

If Samhain opened the dark half of the year, Imbolc (pronounced IM-olk) is the moment the light begins to win it back. Falling on 1 February, it's the first of the four great Irish festivals in the calendar year — the start of earrach, the spring — and it belongs, more than any other, to a single figure: Brigid.

The first stirring of spring

Imbolc marks the point when winter loosens its grip: the days are visibly lengthening, ewes come into milk, and the very first signs of new growth appear. The name itself may come from i mbolg, "in the belly" — the pregnant ewes about to lamb — or from an old word for cleansing and washing, a spring purification. Either way, it's an agricultural hinge, the turn from surviving the winter to preparing the ground. (Imbolc is one of four festivals that structure the whole year — see The Irish Calendar.)

Brigid — goddess and saint

Imbolc is the festival of Brigid (Bríd), and she comes in two overlapping forms. In the older tradition she is a goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann — a patron of poetry, healing and smithcraft, keeper of the sacred fire. As Christianity spread, she became Saint Brigid of Kildare (Naomh Bríd), one of Ireland's three patron saints, her feast day set exactly on the old festival: Lá Fhéile Bríde, 1 February. At Kildare a perpetual flame was tended in her honour — by nuns in Christian times, and, the tradition holds, by priestesses long before.

Crosses, cloaks and a visitor at the door

The customs of Imbolc are among the most alive of any Irish festival:

• The Brigid's cross — Cros Bríde — woven from rushes into its distinctive off-square shape and hung over the door or in the rafters to guard the house against fire, illness and harm. A fresh one is made each year and the old one kept.
• The brat Bríde — a strip of cloth or ribbon left outside overnight on Imbolc eve. Brigid was believed to travel the land that night and bless whatever she passed; the cloth was then kept through the year as a charm for healing.
• The brídeóg — a little effigy of Brigid made from rushes or straw and carried from house to house, welcomed in for luck.
• A bed for Brigid — some households made a small bed by the hearth and invited the saint to rest, leaving out food and a candle to light her way.

A festival reborn

For centuries Imbolc lived on mainly through Saint Brigid's Day and its folk customs. Then, in 2023, Ireland made 1 February a public holiday in her honour — the first Irish national holiday named for a woman, and the first new public holiday in decades. An ancient festival of the returning light became, once again, a day the whole country marks.

A few words for the season

Imbolc is the second of the four festivals of the Celtic year, after Samhain. Next comes Bealtaine, when the fires are lit and summer begins.