Imbolc

Imbolc, also Imbolc [' Imbolg ] or Oimelc along with Beltane (May 1), Lughnasadh (August 1 ) and Samhain (November 1 ) one of the four great Irish, incurred by certain country work parties. The name comes from the Irish Imbolc < imb - folc ( "all- wash" ) and marking it as a cleaning party. Oimelc is the name for the first milk Enter the sheep in spring. The festival was celebrated beginning on the eve of the night of February 1, and on this day and is celebrated even in rural areas of Ireland as a holy day of Brigid ( Lá Fhéile Bride ) until today.

Mythology

Imbolc is seen as fertility and Lustrationsfest, where you tinkered straw figures as Customs, who were regarded as salvation and safety signs and were used in various rituals. The second name Oimelc states that give off this time, the ewes that give birth on the spring lambs soon, milk again - an event that points to the western european - atlantic mild climate. Imbolc may thus be called pastoral festival, similar to the Roman Februa Spurcalia and, as with the Lupercalia. Vendryes concludes that there could be an Italo Celtic heritage. When Ingeborg Clarus Imbolc is called " the application of the Lambs ( to the ewe ) ' translated.

The feast day is also seen as a festival of light, because the longer days reflect the hope of spring. Traditionally, all lights on the house are infected for a few minutes and rituals often include a plurality of candles. Likewise, it is still customary to eat special foods (butter, milk, Bannockbrot ) to hold out for omens, or to kindle bonfires. After Carmina Gaedelica you put on this occasion the laomachan ago, a magical cheese which protects against the Sidhe ( the people of the Otherworld ) and with which one can make prophecies.

Neopaganism

Some neo-pagans bring the celebration in conjunction with the midpoint between the winter solstice ( Yule ) and the spring equinox ( Ostara ). However, this actually falls on the 4th or 5th of February. In the southern hemisphere it is celebrated on August 2, and thus coincides with the northern Lughnasad. Today, most neo-pagans celebrate the festival on the 1st or 2nd February with February 2 is more popular in America, perhaps due to the subsequent identification of the feast of Candlemas.

Imbolc is traditionally a time of weather- delayed union, and perhaps the old tradition of watching it, whether snakes and badgers come out of their dwellings, a precursor of the acclaimed in America and Canada Groundhog Day. According to some modern Pagans, the Christian Candlemas, the date of which depends on Christmas, is a Christianization Imbolgs. On the other hand, there is no evidence that Imbolg was practiced in pre-Christian times than anywhere else in Ireland, while light measurement was first committed in the eastern Mediterranean. Fire is so important on this day, as Brigitte, according to neo-pagan conception is the goddess of fire, healing and fertility. Lighting of fire symbolizes the increasing in the coming months power of the sun.