Imbolc and Groundhog's Day

In its earliest incarnation, Groundhog Day wasImbolc, a pagan celebration associated with fertility and weather divination. The word, Imbolcis Gaelic, the language of the Celts. There is a strong association between Imbolc and Brigid, a Celtic fertility goddess. When the pagan holidays were transformed into Catholic equivalents, two new holidays emerged from Imbolc. One, Saint Brigid's Day (a.k.a. Saint Bridget's Day), was celebrated on February 1. Saint Brigid's Day honored an Irish saint, named after the Celtic goddess, who was a contemporary of Saint Patrick's.

The second holiday deriving from Imbolc was Candlemas Day and was celebrated on February 2 (Groundhog Day). Candlemas was the feast of Mary's purification and was marked by a candle procession. The ties between purification rituals and the month of February also hark back to the pagan era. Indeed, our very word, "February," which derives from Latin, unmistakably designates the month as a time for purification (februa means "expiatory offerings"). The Lupercalia, a pagan Roman purification ritual, took place in February.

But how did a groundhog become the symbol for a holiday that was marked by a candle procession? Well, the Romans, for instance, had celebrated a rough equivalent to our Groundhog Day in early February -- only a hedgehog was in charge of the weather divination, not a groundhog. And such beliefs survived the Christianization of Europe (going "underground," if you will), attaching themselves to Candlemas Day as folklore. European settlers in North America kept the pagan tradition alive, but substituted the native groundhog for the European hedgehog. Clearly, Imbolc and the older traditions have won out: today in North America, almost everyone in the general public has heard of "Groundhog Day," while mention of "Candlemas Day" would generally draw expressions of puzzlement!

Most people have now distanced themselves from fertility rites, purification rituals and weather divination (well, except for meteorologists, perhaps!). Nonetheless, on some level, don't we still intuitively associate fertility and purification with spring? Nor can we help but spend our winters speculating on spring's arrival. If hope had a scent, it would be the smell in the air on a warm February day.

If the Groundhog comes out of his winter quarters and sees his shadow, then he will return to his burrow for another six weeks, i.e., on the spring equinox. This is how Groundhog Day turns out most years, namely, with a prediction that good weather will not arrive till the calendar says it's time for the spring equinox. But if Groundhog Day is cloudy, then the Groundhog will remain out, since cloud cover on Groundhog Day is supposed to be an indication of prematurely good weather (just howprematurely is not spelled out by the tradition).

At this juncture, perhaps you're in the scoffer's camp, shrugging your shoulders with a "so what?" regarding Groundhog Day and its vernal prognostications. Phil Connors, Bill Murray's character in the movie, "Groundhog Day," started out in this camp, before his transition (transition, as I argue below, is what the Groundhog Day holiday is all about). Indeed, when pressed for his own prediction on when winter will end, Connors sarcastically gives the date of the spring equinox -- March 21. It's rather arbitrary, after all, to choose a groundhog to play weather forecaster, rather than some other animal; nor should the weather on one day (February 2) weigh so heavily in a 6-week forecast. But such objections utterly miss the point behind Groundhog Day.

Groundhog Day is our only holiday that focuses squarely on weather. It occurs at a time when weather occupies Northerners' thoughts more thoroughly than at any other time of the year. We know we're still stuck in winter, but enough of the winter has elapsed that we feel we can now justifiably look ahead to the promise of the spring equinox. More than any other holiday, Groundhog Day is the "looking-ahead" holiday, a holiday of transition. We're not so much celebrating the day at hand, February 2, as we are a day that is on our horizon, the spring equinox. The spring equinox is simply being celebrated ahead of time, as Groundhog Day, on February 2. Asking us to bottle up our hopes until three weeks in March have passed would be unreasonable, don't you think?

This rationale accounts for all the talk about "forecasting" on Groundhog Day. For it isn't the Groundhog who's looking into the future on Groundhog Day, it is we. And whether it arrives early, late or on-time, this is one prediction that inevitably will prove true: good weather will arrive, one way or another. At least it always has. And on Groundhog Day we take solace in that fact.

If you conceive of Groundhog Day as the "looking-ahead" holiday, par excellence, suddenly you realize that its occurrence in early February is not so arbitrary, after all. Although we mark the passage of a year's time using calendars, I may be able to illustrate my point better by referring analogously to another means of measuring time: the clock. Here's what I mean...

Let's say we wanted to mark off the progress of the earth's annual revolution around the sun using the twelve divisions on the face of a clock, as if we were measuring, instead, the passage within a single day from dawn to dusk (6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.). In this analogy, the winter solstice corresponds to dawn and would be at 6:00 a.m., the summer solstice at 12:00 noon. By this logic, the spring equinox and autumnal equinox would occur at 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., respectively, working clockwise. At 6:00 p.m. we would have come full-circle: it would be dusk, and we'd have as little sunlight as we had started out with, at dawn.

The period that concerns us is that between the winter solstice and the spring equinox (that is, between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.), the time when good weather is so close, and yet so far away. If we looked for the midpoint between these two junctures, it would be 7:30 a.m. on our imaginary clock -- about February 2 (or a few days after), according to the calendar. It would be right around Groundhog Day, in other words.

Yes, Groundhog Day stands at one of the eight major junctures of the year's passing. By the time February 2 arrives, we've already completed the most difficult portion of our ascent out of the pit of winter's darkest days, standing half of the way to the longed-for spring equinox. The future looks bright as we survey it from our Groundhog Day burrows -- and nothing can overshadow our optimism.

History Behind Imbolc

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The Meaning of Imbolc

The weather may be bad, but we are fortunate. Our highways are quickly plowed and de-iced, our homes lighted and reheated with electrical power quickly restored. 

But for the ancients it was the time of the long night -- great darkness, piercing cold, and dwindling food stores. February was such a harsh and brutal month that it was called the Dead-month.

Since travel at this time of year was so fraught with danger, celebrating Imbolc at a large regional festival was out of the question. Instead the Feast of Brigid was celebrated with small rituals in the village and in the home.

Imbolc was nonetheless an important holiday because its message was "hold on, there is hope...the bitter days of winter are near their end." It marked the midway point between the winter and the spring solstice, a time when hope begins to stir with a longing for the return of spring.

Imbolc (also called Oimelc) was primarily a women's festival. Young girls dressed in white carried a corn dolly in processions. Women made corn cakes from the grains that were gathered first and last in last year's harvest and the women and girls feasted together.

And there would be matchmaking as well. With so many deaths over the harsh winter months, it was important to replenish the population of the community so marriageable young men would be invited to attend as well.

Signs of spring's approach would often appear, if only one would look closely.

• the softening of the ewes' udders to prepare for lactation when the lambs would soon be born. This lent the name Oimelc (ewes' milk) to the holy day
• the thawing of the ice and snow (from "imbolc", meaning well waters), and
• the emergence of a few hibernating animals who awoke early to see if the cold and hungry months had ended.

As inspiration, muse, healer, and diviner, Brigid's divine talents bring us hope. So I bring you some thoughts about . . .

Brigid, Celtic Goddess and Saint
The Celtic goddess Brigid and her namesake, Saint Brigid of Ireland, can lay claim to being the most complex, intriguing, widespread, timeless, and beloved of all legendary ladies. Brigid appears in many different guises, with numerous names, in many different European cultures. And she has survived the ravages of time much better than most.

Known as Bride in Scotland, Brigandu in France, Ffaid in Wales, and Brigitania in England, the Irish goddess Brigid (usually pronounced Breet) is also known by the names Brighid, Bridget, Brid, and others. Her varying identities reflect her original image as a triple goddess, but with each of her three faces differing in their gifts.

The Brigid first worshipped in ancient times was the daughter of the great Irish god Dagda, the 'Good Father'. She had two sisters who were also named Brigid. Taken together, they were called the 'Three Mothers', 'Three Sisters', or simply the Goddess Brigid.

Unlike in Greek mythology where the Triple Goddess represented the three chronological stages of a woman's life (Maiden, Matron, and Crone), the Bridgets were all of the same generation and the distinctions between them were based on their domains of responsibility.

• Brigid, the 'Fire of the Hearth', was the goddess of fertility, family, childbirth and healing.
• Brigid, the '"Fire of the Forge', was like the Greek goddess Athena, a patroness of the crafts (especially weaving, embroidery, and metalsmithing), and a goddess who was concerned with justice and law and order.
• Brigid, the 'Fire of Inspiration', was the muse of poetry, song history and the protector of all cultural learning.

When the Christian church came to Ireland, they had little hope of making converts if they were foolish enough to denounce the beloved goddess of the Druids as a demon-ess. So instead they made her a saint and even the foster-mother of the infant Jesus.  Many of the ancient legends of the goddess were soon to become the deeds of the saint. 

Some scholars cite evidence that Saint Brigid was an actual woman, the daughter of a Druid king and his Christian wife. She grew in power within the church and was eventually given the authority of a bishop . . . a power she wielded in the protection of women's rights in the face of the growing patriarchy.

In whatever form she might take, Saint or Goddess, Brigid is loved as a goddess of peace and inspiration . . . one of compassion, generosity, wisdom and healing.

The myths of both the goddess and the saint are fascinating. We chose to deal with them as separate entities.