Happy Celtic Spring

February 1 celebrates the first signs of spring in the old Celtic calender of festivals. The word Imbolc means  in the belly referring to the pregnancy of ewes and the hoped-for fertility in the new farming year.

It is no coincidence that it is also St Brigid’s Day. She was a goddess, a saint, a nun, a wise woman. She is patron of babies; infants; young girls; children whose parents are not married; children whose mothers suffer domestic violence; mothers; fugitives; midwives, poets, students, sailors, farmers,  the poor…and Ireland. I’ve probably missed quite a few out.