Pagans, a question about Imbolc?

Question

Does Imbolc fall on February 2, or the evening before, or on February 12? I have seen all these dates used. Do you "celebrate" Imbolc or "observe" Imbolc?

And, is there a proper greeting to give you on this day, such as best wishes for the day? :)

Answer 1

It's okay to not get hung up on too much detail. Imbolc is the high feast of the year in our household, as we are both dedicated to Brighid. But we celebrate the feast whenever the time is best for a bunch of our friends to come and have a really good solid meal at our hearth, and weave Brighid's crosses together. We did this on Sunday the 31st, just because it gave everyone enough time to do that.

If asked my opinion on the most correct time for Imbolc to begin, I'd say that it is at sunset on Feb. 1st. But I expect that our spiritual intent works just as well a couple of days on either side of that.

As for "celebrate" vs. "observe...well, I really don't think of it either way. My wife and I are likely to describe it as "having everyone over to weave Brighid's crosses."



There isn't a particular greeting that is commonly used. The Irish people refer to the day as "Lá Fhéile Bride"in their own language, which just means "the feast-day of Brigid", although they are usually referring to St. Brigid of Kildare, whom my wife and I also revere. So for those who can speak the Irish language, "Lá Fhéile Bride shona duit" (Happy feast-day of Brigid!) would be perfectly appropriate. I haven't met any Irish Pagans who refer to the day as Imbolc rather than Lá Fhéile Bride, but that doesn't mean there aren't any who do.

Answer 2

Technically, Imbolc is when the Sun reaches 15 degrees of Aquarius in the Tropical zodiac. :) It's called a "cross-quarter" because it's supposed to fall at the midpoint of a solstice and an equinox. This doesn't happen until the 3rd or 4th this year, depending on your time zone.



January 31/February 1 is used as a "traditional" date for those that - for whatever reason - don't use the astrological timing. Oddly enough, these "traditional dates" are the ones used by the Church after they made up festivals to "replace" the ancient ones. ;)



You can celebrate or observe... :) a lot of Wiccans do a purification ritual around this time of year. My Wiccan friends usually wish each other a "Blessed Imbolc." (I never quite figured out why some are "Merry" and others are "Blessed.")

Answer 3

The festival of Imbolc (also Imbolg), now often called St Bride's Day or Candlemas after the forcible Christianization of Europe, falls today at the beginning of February. But the Gaelic people did not mark February as we do. Called in Gaelic faoilleach, or faoillteach, as we read in MacBain (1911), the month extended from the middle of modern January to the middle of our February. The word derives from the Irish faoillidh or faoilleach, meaning holidays or carnival, which itself means 'wolf-month' from faol, 'wolf'. According to McBain, February in Irish is mí na Féile Bríghde, or Lá Fhéile Bríde (Lá Feabhra), pronounced law ay-leh bree-djeh (law feow-rah). We take our name for this month from the Roman purification ritual of Februa, derived from the Latin februum, 'purification', which was held on the 15th of February by the old Roman calendar.



The name Imbolc comes from the Old Irish i mbolg, 'in the belly', apparently in reference to either pregnant ewes or milking. The oldest etymology, that of the ninth century Cormac's Glossary, derives imbolc (also oimelc) from 'the time the sheep's milk comes'. Whilst often criticised as a fanciful derivation by scholars, this has come to dominate interpretations of this festival. Within Gaelic culture the festival itself is clearly a veneration of the pre-Christian goddess Bride or Brigid and most of the recorded customs centred around this deity. Consequently, most references to this festival historically used the name of Bride or Brigid.



The festival's popularity in Wicca arose from the work of Gerald Gardner. However, Gardner had no access to authentic Pagan witchcraft sources (despite his claims) and based the ritual for what he called 'February Eve' on the general schema he had developed for ordinary coven meetings. Developed sometime between 1949 and 1953 this bare outline has since been fleshed out by other Wiccan writers, often drawing on the greater availability of scholarship on the customs and traditions of the Gaelic and Celtic peoples.

Answer 4

Not this Wiccan for sure. My mustache would have been a Mead mustache. LOL. As for Ash Wednesday, it falls on the New Moon Esbat, so I guess us Wiccans (those of us who celbrate the new moon Esbats) will be sharing a day with the Christians. That's OK, I don't mind sharing at all. Happy Ash Wednesday to you Christians out there. Brightest Blessings, Raji the Green Witch

Answer 5

Well, traditional Wiccans celebrate February Eve, on, well, February Eve, not on the 1st or the second (Celebrating it from sunset on 1/31 to sunset on 2/1.) I can understand how people moved it from 1/31-2/1 to 2/1, as the whole "from the sunset on" thing is something a lot of people don't understand, but I've no idea where people got the 2nd from... really, really.



February 12th probably comes from people setting their calendar from the four solar festivals and saying 'cross quarters' are between them, but the 'Eves' or Kalends aren't the same thing as the solar festivals...



For Wiccans, our calendar makes sense, the four solar days come from astrological moments, and the other ones are on Kalends, and are based on the civic calendar for a reason....



In fact, many of us have sacred festivals at EVERY kalends.



Edit: The Kalends predate Christianity, duh.

Answer 6

It's on February 2nd. At least, in the Northern Hemisphere.

And there's no official greeting for any holidays. Wiccans usually stick with Merry Meet and Blessed Be, from my experience.

Answer 7

i observe it to coincide with the secular observance of ground hog's day, and i usually say 'happy ground hog's day'. but as you can see, there's little consistency in any of our holidays, and we rarely observe them on the actual day anyway, since rituals usually have to planned on weekends and scheduled around a lot of other holiday events.



i come from an eclectic community that generally holds to the secular dates for sabbats. contrary to recon prejudices, we don't arbitrarily pick and choose what catches our fancy. we generally approach our spirituality as an integral part of our day-to-day lives and incorporate secular customs into it. for many of us, that's what paganism is -- a celebration of life.



so, here's my newsflash for corey: most eclectics happen to have a very real concern for cultural authenticity. unlike backward-looking recons, we're concerned about contemporary culture. we realize that religion adapts and grows with the society. all of the eclectics i know are fully aware of the historical context of their gods and traditions and use them respectfully. in the end, respect is the real issue. wouldn't you agree, corey, honey?

Answer 8

Imbolc isn't in every pagan religion. Mostly it's for celtic recons and any eclectic pagan religion that poached it without any concern of cultural authenticity.

http://www.paganachd.com/faq/ritual.html#imbolc