{"id":6300,"date":"2026-01-25T17:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T17:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/?p=6300"},"modified":"2026-01-25T17:05:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T17:05:35","slug":"the-season-of-imbolc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/25\/the-season-of-imbolc\/","title":{"rendered":"The Season of Imbolc"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This post was first published on my old blog in 2010.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Photo of a shirt I once owned. Not sure who designed it.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The Celtic year can be pictured as a wheel. Each season flows into the other and it’s a cycle that continues on an on like a rolling wheel. In fact, some people think a Brigid’s cross is the shape of a wheel and represents the four seasons. Imbolc (or Imbolg) is the day of the Feast of St. Brigid and originally belonged the Celtic goddess of the same name. Later the church used this festival and named it Candlemas, which is the blessing of the candles or more important to the church, the recognition of the purification of the Virgin Mary. From newadvent.org:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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According to the\u00a0Mosaic law\u00a0a mother who had given birth to a man-child was considered\u00a0unclean\u00a0for seven days; moreover she was to remain three and thirty days “in the blood of her purification”; for a maid-child the\u00a0time\u00a0which excluded the mother from\u00a0sanctuary\u00a0was even doubled. When the\u00a0time\u00a0(forty or eighty days) was over the mother was to “bring to the\u00a0temple\u00a0a\u00a0lamb\u00a0for a\u00a0holocaust\u00a0and a young pigeon or turtle\u00a0dove\u00a0for\u00a0sin”; if she was not able to\u00a0offer\u00a0a\u00a0lamb, she was to take two turtle\u00a0doves\u00a0or two pigeons; the\u00a0priest\u00a0prayed\u00a0for her and so she was cleansed. (Leviticus 12:2-8)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But getting back to Imbolc, which is the Celtic festival, it’s the beginning of spring, the time when new life was just beginning to reveal itself, the first planting of crops and the beginning of fishing season. It was also the day for hanging a new Brigid cross over the front door of your house or your barn. You can read more about the crosses in my post\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It may not feel like spring where you live. It likely didn’t in the land of these ancient people either. But it was the beginning, the hope of new life, fertile crops, young lambs and calves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a9SandyBeck2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post was first published on my old blog in 2010. The Celtic year can be pictured as a wheel. Each season flows into the other and it’s a cycle that continues on an on like a rolling wheel. In fact, some people think a Brigid’s cross is the shape of a wheel and represents…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6300"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6301,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6300\/revisions\/6301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cindyswriting.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}