Imbolc, celebrated on the Evening of Sat, Feb 1, 2025 – Sun, Feb 2, 2025, is a time to welcome the first stirrings of spring and honour the goddess Brigid. It's a festival of renewal, fire, and fertility, marking the midpoint between the dark of winter and the light of spring.
Brigid's Cross
Orna Ross, "Recalling Brigid"
Queen of queens, they called her
in the old books, the Irish Mary.
Never washed her hands, nor her head
in sight of a man, never looked
into a man’s face. She was good
with the poor, multiplied food,
gave ale to lepers. Among birds,
call her dove; among trees, a vine.
A sun among stars.
Such was the sort of woman
preferred as the takeover was made:
consecrated cask, throne to His glory,
intercessor.
Brigid said nothing to any of this,
the reverence, or the upbraidings.
Her realm is the lacuna,
silence her sceptre,
her own way of life its own witness.
Out of desire, the lure of lust
or the dust of great deeds,
she was distorted:
to consort, mother-virgin,
to victim or whore.
I am not as womanly
a woman as she.
So I say: Let us see.
Let us say how she is the one.
It is she who conceives
and she who does bear.
She who knitted us in the womb
and who will cradle our
tomb-fraying.
Daily she offers her arms,
clothes us in compassion,
smiles as we wriggle
for baubles.
Yes, it is she who lifts you aloft
to whisper through your ears,
to kiss with your eyes,
to touch her cooling
cheek to your cheek.
The Lunar New Year 2025 dates this year are Wednesday, Jan. 29 (Night New Moon), to Wednesday, Feb. 12 (Full Snow Moon)
