The Feast of St. Bridget of Ireland and Candlemas are just two of the many examples of how older religious traditions and customs became an integral part of Christianity and also survive in current folklore.
Imbolc is a festival of Celtic origin marking the halfway point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Many of our so-called pagan friends celebrate it today. It is also called “An Fhéill Bhride,” the festival of Brigid, an Irish goddess of hearth and home. Rather than the bonfires of the other Celtic fire festivals, Imbolc involved the rekindling and blessing of hearth fires.
As Christianity spread through Ireland, rather than stamp out non-Christian practices and festivals, the church adopted many of them and transformed them. Thus Imbolc became the Feast Day of St. Bridget. Traditionally the founder of a double monastery (a community of both women and men) in Kildare, Bridget is also known as the only female bishop in Ireland, and her successors held the equivalent power and authority until the Synod of Kells in 1152. A legend arose later to explain this anomaly of a woman with such status in the church. The elderly bishop Mel (St. Patrick’s nephew), as he was blessing her during the ceremony where she and the first nuns took the veil, inadvertently read the Rite of Consecration of a Bishop which could not be rescinded under any circumstances.
If the Christian Bridget truly existed, her story became intertwined with that of the ancient goddess Brigid. All the information we have about Bridget comes from early biographies, some of the earliest Lives of Saints written, and from legends and folk tales collected after the 17th century, primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries, most of which can be traced to the early biographies.
While Bridget’s feast day is February 1st, the fire associations of the Celtic Brigid continue in the celebration of Candlemas on February 2nd. Also called the Purification of the Blessed Virgin and Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple, Candlemas is the day on which candles and incense for the coming church year are blessed. Another ancient, pre-Christian tradition also survives at Candlemas. People believed that Candlemas predicted the weather would be for the second half of Winter. An old poem, believed to have originated in Scotland, preserves the tradition.
As the light grows longer
The cold grows stronger
If Candlemas be fair and bright
Winter will have another flight
If Candlemas be cloud and rain
Winter will be gone and not come again
A farmer should on Candlemas day
Have half his corn and half his hay
On Candlemas day if thorns hang a drop
You can be sure of a good pea crop
And so we come to Groundhog day here in the United States. Actually, this folk tradition also predates Christianity. Ancient European cultures believed that if hibernating animals left their dens too early and saw their shadow, they were frightened back in for another six weeks. The Romans called it Hedgehog Day.
Here are two short prayers in honor of St. Bridget. The first is from Lesser Feasts and Fasts of the Episcopal Church, and the second from the Northumbria Community’s Celtic Daily Prayer.
Everliving God, we rejoice today in the fellowship of your blessed servant Brigid, and we give you thanks for her life of devoted service. Inspire us with life and light, and give us perseverance to serve you all our days; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, world without end.
There is a door to which you have the key,
and you are the sole keeper.
There is a latch no hand can lift save yours.
No ruler, nor warrior, writer, thinker:
but only you.
O heart, hurry now and welcome your King
to sit by the warmth of your fire.
The St Bridget's cross is placed in the eaves on February 1 to ward off fire and storms from affecting the house. It is traditionally made of rushes, but other materials can be used. Here is a link to instructions for making one: http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/1Kids/MakingBrigdXs.html
Peace,
Jeffri
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