SPRING! yay!

Hi Susanna
Imbolc is a pagan festival at the beginning of February in the Northern hemisphere. It's beginning of August in the Southern hemisphere. It's one of the 8 sabbats that we celebrate.

We celebrate by making paper animal lanterns, ice sculptures, having fire dances with drums, setting off far too many fireworks, dressing in the costumes of jack frost and the green man. Last year we had a huge metal tree of life that we lit. The night ends with a fire and smoke 'play fight' between jack frost and the green man. The green man is supposed to win so the winter will leave till the cycle moves again to Yule (winter solstice)

Sabbats are the festivals to acknowledge the human relationship with the Earth's seasons and our connection with nature.

Imbolc is also know as the feast of Brighid and is a time for the first shoots to push up through the soil. We call snowdrops 'Maids of February'. The Goddess Brighid is a protector of women, children and newborn animals and is the midwife of spring who breathes fire upon the earth to awaken it.

She's also the goddess of inspiration and action and is a goddess of transformation particularly with turning raw materials into beautiful things. Maybe we should adopt her on CO&K.

My daughter's video of the festival
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHu2HFbuIio

http://s999.photobucket.com/albums/af119/lucreciacat/random%20stuff/?action=view&current=MOV03160.flv



Blessed be x

thank you Sheila! sounds really amazing and magical! never heard about that before..

Hi Susanna
we have 8 festivals during the year so there's always a celebration of the seasons. Each one special in it's own way x

@Violetta the picture of barka looks like what we call pussy willow

Sheila-thank you for the info re the festivals I was looking for a theme for the next set of Inchies-
Ostara looks like an interesting festival.Am I correct in thinking eggs and rabbits are symbolic images.How else do you celebrate this festival ?

Hi Essex Debs
Ostara is our spring and is a celebration of fertility and growth. We paint hollow eggs and welcome the longer days. The eggs can be put in the fallen branch of a tree in a sacred place and we make 'wishes' onto them for the coming summer as eggs represent potential life. It's also a time of growth and a time to restore balance both physically and psychologically. The hare has historically been a symbol of fertility and with short grass around we get to see them jumping round more. hence the 'Mad March Hare'
Most of the Christian calendar follows the Pagan one. Recently we had ash wednesday which falls in the Celtic Ash Tree month and it will soon be Easter. Good excuse for egg shaped chocolate though

omg! i was wrong =D
spring is coming! yaaaaaaaay! i saw snowdrops and crocus and some daffodils today, i was so happy! finally, spring again =D
i love spring <3

Look how beautiful the sky is right now:

oh my gosh its gorgeous! where i live, at dawn the skuy is (on a good day) blue with pale pink clouds, and at dusk its blue with red and orange bits couds. really pretty. on a bad day its just grey, the whole sky is whitish of grey then.

oh my gosh its gorgeous! where i live, at dawn the sky is (on a good day) blue with pale pink clouds, and at dusk its blue with red and orange bits couds. really pretty. on a bad day its just grey, the whole sky is whitish of grey then.

oh my gosh its gorgeous! where i live, at dawn the sky is (on a good day) blue with pale pink clouds, and at dusk its blue with red and orange bits couds. really pretty. on a bad day its just grey, the whole sky is whitish of grey then.

Hi Violetta
What a beautiful sky. I live high up and look down to the valley. We get some lovely sunsets here too.

@Essex Debs. I like the idea of the inchies theme. There are so many symbols you can use. http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/bookofshadows/ig/Pagan-and-Wiccan-Symbols/

The Celtic calendar is good for inspiration too as it has trees.

There are also animal months in the Pagan Calendar at http://pagancalendar.co.uk/ just click on the pdf download for 2010 and it will give you the full year calendar with all the details of Pagan & Celtic Calendar x

Did anyone see the moon rise last evening ! Wow we were on a ferry between Kingston and Edmonds.A huge red moon rose from behind the Cascade mountains reflected in a calm Puget Sound.We also saw a gathering of around 25 bald eagles,4 pairs of courting Red breasted Mergansers and a seal.A great day.

Thanks for the site info off to do some research :0)