The Feast of St Brigid

Dear Diary,

In the Celtic calendar, today is the first day of spring.  Doesn't look like it out there with snow gently falling but at Imbolc, the Celtic festival celebrated today, one feels a stirring in the belly, of things beginning to grow beneath the snow covered ground.

St Brigid is one of the three patron saints of Ireland, along with St Patrick and St Columba.  She has always been fascinating to me.  She is a very busy saint too.  St. Brigid is the patron saint of babies, blacksmiths, boatmen, cattle farmers, children whose parents are not married, children whose mothers are mistreated by the children's fathers, Clan Douglas, dairymaids, dairy workers, fugitives, Ireland, Leinster, mariners, midwives, milkmaids, nuns, poets, the poor, poultry farmers, poultry raisers, printing presses, sailors, scholars, travelers, and watermen.

I wove this St Brigid cross three years ago and it is time I made another although finding the right reeds to do it isn't easy around here.  The cross and the little blue ribbon hung outside my door last night.  In Ireland it is believe that on the eve of her feast day St Brigid goes from house to house blessing little bits of cloth and ribbon left outside.  They came in and sit, for the time being, in the pot of hyacinths which are in full bloom.  A beautiful and comforting sight I thought for this snowy day.