Tag: Ireland

Happy Imbolc!

One of the pleasures of living is to learn something new about something a whole lot of people have known about practically forever. Imbolc and the Irish, for example.

The Irish celebrate Imbolc today (February 1). So much so that it has been declared a bona fide national holiday. And I’d barely ever heard of it.

Except for a regular email nod in honor of this and other annual Celtic occasions from a dear cousin who knows well about such things.

Imbolc – I’ve only recently learned – is an ancient festival celebrating the change of season from winter to spring. Or more accurately, it is the halfway mark between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.

Which is a good thing to clarify as that change of season malarkey would not go down at all well with our neighbors who are still in the vise of winter’s frigid grip up North today.

It is a day that nudges us to connect more deeply with nature, as well as to embrace the old Celtic and Christian traditions in Ireland.

Imbolc is also one of four cross quarter day festivals that were spread between the winter solstice, spring equinox, summer solstice and autumn equinox.

The other cross quarter days are Beltane (1 May), Lughnasadh (1 August) and Samhain (1 November) marking the beginning of the ancient Celtic New Year. (Linked in case you want to look them up, too.)

Ways to celebrate Imbolc (from https://www.letsgoireland.com/imbolc/)

  • Fire and light are commonly associated with Imbolc so one of the most traditional ways to celebrate would be to mark the occasion of Imbolc with a fire or candles. 
  • Make your own doll out of straw, rushes, oats or equivalent is a creative way to mark the traditional celebration. There are different videos and tutorials available online that can help guide you on how to do this. 
  • It is also possible to create a small altar for Brigid with candles, perhaps a bowl of milk or some woolen items to symbolize the connection with sheep. 
  • Bake the traditional bread of Bannock, which was baked over the hearth and commonly eaten on the eve of Imbolc may be another appropriate way for you to mark the occasion. 
  • If you want to continue being creative, then you could also attempt to make a Saint Brigid’s Cross and hang it in your home. Instructions on how to make one of these traditional crosses are available here along with some other traditions. 
  • Both the Goddess Brigid and Saint Brigid have strong associations with healing, especially with water. A visit to a holy well or any available stream or river may be a suitable way for you to mark this occasion and be part of your own purifying ritual. 
  • If you happen to be on the island of Ireland around Imbolc, why not take part in one of the Imbolc events there such as the Biddy’s Day Festival or the Imbolc International Music Festival? Other festivities are held at other locations outside of Ireland as well, such as the Imbolc Festival at Marsden in West Yorkshire in England too. From: https://www.letsgoireland.com/imbolc/

Imbolc – like any national holiday worth its salt – also comes with an array of blessings. Handy any time of the year but especially lovely and hopeful on this day celebrating the crossroad between winter and spring.

There are many goodwill blessings for Imbolc as it is a time of joy, rebirth, reawakening and purifying. Here are a few examples:

May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day,
May songbirds serenade you every step along the way,
May a rainbow run beside you in a sky that’s always blue, 
And may happiness fill your heart each day your whole life through.

May the blessings of light be on you,
Light without and light within,
May the blessed sunlight shine on you till it glows like a great peat fire.

And this homage to the only Irish female saint, Brigid.

St Brigid’s Blessing 

May Brigid bless this house wherein you dwell
Bless every fireside every wall and door
Bless every heart that beats beneath its roof 
Bless every hand that toils to bring it joy
Bless every foot that walks its portals through
May Brigid bless the house that shelters you

More Irish blessings can be found here. 

There is so much to read and learn about Imbolc. So much that I couldn’t possibly do a deep dive here. But I will explore on my own and will likely also look more closely at those other cross quarter celebrations.

I quite like the meaning and traditions behind Imbolc as I understand them. Could be the start of my own annual rituals and tradition.

My Irish-born great-granny Mary Shannon would be pleased.

To Each Their Own

As soon as we’re born, we all get some challenge to wrassle with. Some affliction or obstacle that we have to overcome or learn to live with. I’ve observed certain obstacles seem to run in families.

In our family, it was alcoholism and mental health. If there was an upside to being born in an environment where those issues were at play, I learned stuff. Of course, I learned a lot of stuff I didn’t necessarily want to know but we don’t get to choose what hand we are dealt. The learning is lifelong.

Alcoholism is generally regarded in society as a “personal failing” or “a disease.” Alcoholism is often systematic with deep roots in a family’s history or the surrounding society. Ireland and drinking are practically synonyms.

Booze is an especially treacherous opponent because it works. Alcohol can numb our pain and make us feel better even if only temporarily. And temporary is all most people need. A stiff drink to “settle” your nerves. A celebratory toast. Or four. A bridge in social groups to ease discomfort or self-consciousness.

Like many other afflictions, it can be hard to pin down the exact moment when booze shifts from being a “friendly visitor” into a monkey on your back. Dealing with alcoholism myself, there were a few turning points. I lived the dynamic with booze that AA calls “cunning and powerful.”

As my drinking got worse, my body absorbed it more easily and I once experienced a blackout. It is alarming to not have any recall of a particular event or outing. When I saw the car in the driveway one morning and had no idea how it got there, I knew my choices were to heal or to die.

I have read that the Universe can be quite systematic in showing you that you are going off the rails. When you are just starting to head in the wrong direction, it may just jostle you a bit.

You might get klutzier than usual. Maybe break a few things in your house. Lose stuff more frequently. Or you might come down with frequent head colds. if you aren’t paying attention, the jostling can get worse.

I was in a relationship that I should not have been in for a bunch of reasons. We were in a car accident in the early days and had a minor fender bender. Some months later (same relationship), we hit and killed a deer on a back country road. Severe damage to the car.

The third accident – after the relationship ended and we were talking about reuniting – nearly killed us. We were broadsided by someone who ran a red light. Totaled the car. I was concussed and suffered a broken collarbone.

It was only in retrospect that the pattern of increasingly severe accidents became clear. It sure feels like I was being given a message to get the hell out of there.

Emerging from an unstable childhood with excessive drinking and wacky adult behavior all around me prepared me to be flexible. It probably made me resilient. I can easily spot dysfunctional wackiness in other adults (of the deleterious kind – not that of the fun and harmless wackos whom I love dearly).

Other families may have a history of DNA challenges that shape them: Huntington’s disease or MS or autoimmune disorders or ALS or a certain birth defect. The list goes on. Each family and family member has to accept and prepare for the possibility of that affliction popping up in their life up the road. No family is spared though the afflictions vary widely.

The good news is that we can grow out of these restrictions and learn how to manage them as adults. In my case, I gave up drinking almost a quarter of a century ago. I sought out counsellors for years as I tried to raise my family alone and recover from a rocky childhood.

Other good news is that whatever challenges we faced in our family can put us on a path of growth and exploration as adults. I could do nothing about the circumstances into which I was born. No one can. But I had and have ample choice in choosing what I had to do to live with it.

Choice is freedom. Those of us who came from difficult backgrounds where healthy choices were scarce may better appreciate our available choices as adults. Then it is up to us to improve our own lives and leave those circumstances in the dustbin of history where they belong.

There is usually no choice to change our inherited challenges (such as carrying a defective gene). As adults, however, our job is learning to carry whatever that burden is and face it with grace.

Then one day, you may get the chance to support someone else in similar circumstances who may benefit from your insight and knowledge about that issue. If you’re lucky.