For me the long dark nights are something of a strange time, I seem to have a restlessness and slightly unsettled spirit. Like most, though, I suspect I am eager for the return of longer days that enable one to be more constructive with one's time. At least that is my excuse for being more lethargic over the winter months! Motorbiking , except for hardcore riders, isn't an activity most do in the winter, and perhaps I am itching to be back in the saddle. But, tying in riding and history needn't stop. It is near the end of January (how did that happen so quickly?), and the festivals continue in earnest. Celebrated on the evening of 1st February and on the day of 2nd of February is Imbolc; one of the pagan 'fire festivals'.
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| Imbolc 'fire festival' celebrated at the Marsden Imbolc Festival |
Imbolc lies roughly between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal (Spring) Equinox and as such is known as a 'cross quarter day': the festival is associated with the Pagan Goddess Brigit who was - as Christianity so often did - later adopted, Christianised and morphed into the [Irish] Saint Brigid. She was originally associated with fertility; presumably no coincidence that Imbolc is from the Irish 'i mbolc' meaning 'in the belly' thought to refer to the pregnancy of ewes (Chadwick, 1970, 181). Other Pagan traditions have around the festival have been Christianised and 'Candlemass' is a derivative of the torchlight processions associated with Imbolc.
Brigit was the daughter of Dagda (the 'good god') who's other children were the gods Ogma and Ler. All were Tuath Dé ('tribe of the Goddess Danu' also known as the Tuatha Dé Danann) - a supernatural and ancient race in Irish mythology. There are other parallels to Brigit, namely Dís (the plural is Dísir) in Norse mythology who were worshiped on the Dísablót, and are also connected to fertility. I wrote about the significance of mounds within Irish early religion previously, and the Mound of Hostages (Dumha na nGiall) at Tara is aligned with Imbolc (along with Samhain or Halloween). Coincidentally, myself, Kivi and Dee explored the Brú na Bóinne on the bikes around Samhain last year, and there was something about the hues of reds and orange leaves in the trees that added to the area's vibe. Another monument potentially aligned with Imbolc is Listoghil (Lios an tSeagail); the large central monument in the Carrowmore group of prehistoric tombs in Sligo (Meehan, 2012). This is another place that we have been to on the bikes and, once there, it is no surprise that the windswept landscape was ritually and ceremonially significant for our ancestors.
There is something about the ending of Winter and the promise of Spring that awakens something in our spirit; for me a large part of it is the (hopeful) change in weather to enable me to get back on the bike, the potential of which means visiting more sites that continue to fascinate me.
