The Hibernica Minora includes an Old Irish poem about the four seasonal festivals, translated by Kuno Meyer (1894). It says “Tasting of each food according to order, this is what is proper at Imbulc: washing the hands, the feet, the head”. This suggests a ritual cleansing occurred at this time. Imbolc naturally marks the beginning of the spring when the very first tiny shoots of green start appearing. The northern hemisphere becomes a scene of rebirth and regrowth. Sheep and cows were pregnant and the first baby lambs and cows were being born. The animals were beginning to produce milk which was sacred to many cultures in old Europe and Asia and may have meant the difference between life or death when winter food stores were running out by this time in the season.

“She who put beam in moon and sun, She who put food in earth and herd, She who put fish in stream and sea, Hasten the butter up to me. Pray Brigid, see my children yonder, Waiting for buttered buns, White and yellow.“

Traditional Irish Prayer during Imbolc

The Hill of Tara in Ireland is aligned with the rising sun of Imbolc. The Irish Brigid is known variously as St. Brigid, Brighid, Brigit, Bridget, Bride as well as being possibly a cognate figure for the British Brigantia. It’s sort of a mystery how Brigid became associated with Imbolc… and if she was a remnant from a pagan past or if she was a real person who just had the name Brigid that was an early saint in Ireland and then revered appropriately overtop of Imbolc. Of course she is quoted as the Dagda’s daughter but there’s no evidence connecting the ancient feast of Imbolc that is mentioned as having to do with lambs and milking in old Irish texts to Brigid to my knowledge for that time period. It is possible the saint merely had the same name and was supplanted over this day because of her connection in her Christian myth to helping birth Jesus so became connected to the birthing process and consequently, this time of year.

If one was to choose to somewhat combine the two figures, both the saint and the goddess, she is associated with fire, spring, fertility, healing, poetry, arts and crafts, cattle, and other livestock, sacred water wells and smithcraft. She watched over the home, hearth, livestock and women when they were in labor. She also was skilled in aiding in unwanted pregnancy and abortion. She may have been somewhat of a sun goddess given her symbolism of fire and healing and there being a relation regarding the legend of her birth. Legend says she was born at the exact moment of daybreak with rays of sunlight beaming from her head. She was fed the milk from a sacred cow in the Otherworld and it was said that wherever she walked, small flowers and shamrocks would appear. The Brigid’s cross, being a widdershins swastika is a very ancient sun symbol. Brigid is thought to mean “exalted one”. As mentioned, her father was the Dagda (the great father and good god of Ireland) and her mother is a bit of a mystery although possibly Danu. Cormac’s Glossary, written in the 10th century by Christian monks, says that Brigid was the goddess of poetry and “the goddess whom poets adored” and that she had two sisters: Brigid the healer and Brigid the smith. This possibly suggests she was another triple deity and certainly one of the most powerful in Irish history.

“Brigid, that is, the female poet, daughter of the Dagda. This is Brigit the female seer, or woman of insight, i.e., the goddess whom poets used to worship, for her cult was very great and very splendid. It is for this reason that they call her the goddess of poets by this title, and her sisters were Brigid the woman of leechcraft and Brigit, the woman of smithcraft, i.e., goddesses, i.e., three daughters of the Dagda are they. By their names the goddess Brigid was called by all the Irish.“

Cormac Mac Cuileannain, Tenth-century scholar

She became the wife of Bres, with whom she had three sons. The marriage of Brigid and Bres was an unsuccessful attempt at an alliance to bring peace between the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomorians. Bres was half Fomorian and half Tuatha Dé Danann but he favored his Fomorian kin and was an unfavored king. He made the Tuatha Dé Danann work as slaves, forced Ogma to carry firewood and the Dagda to dig trenches around their forts. When Nuada gained his hand back and reclaimed the kingship, he banished Bres who took refuge with his father Balor and led the Fomorians in the Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh. Ruadan, Brigid’s eldest son became a wonderful smith like his mother and killed the Fomorian’s smith during the battle. However, before the Fomorian died he managed to kill Ruadan as well. Brigid’s grief was so enormous, her lamentations could be heard throughout all of Ireland.

They were so heart wrenching that both sides stopped fighting and forged a peace. Henceforth, Brigid invented keening, a combination of weeping and singing, while mourning. She is credited in the same passage with inventing a whistle used for night travel. Mourning for the dead by keening became a profession in Ireland and women were paid to do this at funerals up until at least the 18th century. She had two oxen, Fe and Men, that graze on a plain named after them, Femen. She also possessed the king of boars, Torc Triath, and Cirb, king of sheep, from whom Mag Cirb is named. The animals were said to cry out a warning if there was trouble and this is why Brigid is also considered the guardian of domesticated animals. She had an apple orchard in the Otherworld and her bees would bring their magical nectar back to earth. 

Sometime in the Middle Ages, Brigid was syncretized with the Christian Saint of the same name. February 1st is celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church as St. Brigid’s Day. The legends of Saint Brigid are equally compelling. Again, in Christianized tales, she was the midwife of Mary when she gave birth to Jesus. It is said in the Carmina Gadelica (1860-1909) that she “presided over the different seasons and that Bride with her white wand would breath life into the mouth of the dead winter and to bring him to open his eyes to the tears and the smiles, the sights and the laughter of Spring.” Brigid is said to have founded her own church in Kildare.

The thirteenth-century cathedral that is still standing today was supposedly built on top of the original structure built in the 6th century. One of the more popular tales of St. Brigid involves two lepers who visited her sacred well in Kildare. They asked to be cured and she instructed them they were to bathe each other until their skin was healed. After the first one became healed, the other suddenly felt repulsed and would not continue bathing him. Brigid, angered by his reaction caused his leprosy to return. She gently placed her mantle around the other leper and immediately cured him. Her magical cloak became weaved into countless tales through the generations.

It was believed that she travelled around the countryside on the eve of her festival, blessing the people, home, crops and their livestock. In order to receive her blessings, you were to leave her food, butter or drink as well as a bed to rest. Many would ritually invite her in by opening their door widely and calling out to her. A large piece of cloth, cloak, a Brat Brid as it was called was also left out on a window sill for blessing. Both the butter and brat were then thought to be imbued with her healing powers. Brigid crosses or brideog dolls were typically made and displayed in her honor. The cross was made of woven rushes and was thought to keep evil and hunger from homes where it was displayed. Also occurring on the eve before or the night of Imbolc, the hearth fire was ritually extinguished. However, before it was put out, a special candle was lit from it. The woman of the house swept the hearth, laid a new fire and used the blessed candle to light it. Tending the fire, morning and night was the task of the woman of the house as women naturally invoke the presence of Brigid.

Divine water wells, although commonly visited at every festival, were visited more frequently at this time and offerings were left there as well. Ireland is full of wells and springs named after her that were thought to have curative properties. This is no surprise considering that water too represented healing. The water would often be used to cleanse any various number of things including a ritual bath of one’s self, sprinkling the head, the hands and feet. Because it was thought that Brigid rewarded any offering to her, coins were often tossed into these wells which may have been the forerunner of the modern custom of throwing a coin into a fountain while making a wish.

“Tar isteach, tar isteach! Ligigi Brid isteach! Ta céad mile failte romhat, a bhean uasail!” – Come in, Come in! Let Brighid inside! A hundred thousand welcomes to you, noble woman!

Traditional Irish incantation welcoming Brigid into the house

Another lovely surviving song or chant from the Carmina Gadelica (1860-1909) is as follows…

“Feast of the Bride, feast of the maiden. Melodious Bride of the fair palms. Thou Bride fair charming. Pleasant me the breath of thy mouth. When I would go among strangers, though thyself wert the hearer of my tale.”

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