Imbolc

What is it's origin?

Imbolc is the first date in our calendar year that we celebrate and the festival was, and is used to mark the first sight of spring and the hope of new growth and abundance.

It is a marking of roughly halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.

It is believed Imbolc was originally a festival celebrating the goddess Brigid, who became Saint Brigid as Christianity swept across Europe.
Celebrants marked the day by making Brigid’s crosses in the hopes of receiving blessings over their homes and livestock from the lady herself.

If you haven’t made any new year’s resolutions yet, no worries- traditionally, Imbolc was the time to start to bring new ideas and projects to the fore.
After a winter of allowing the ideas to germinate in your mind, they are now ready to stick into the sun, and to see what springs forth! We’ll be discussing this on the day and bringing in an exercise or two to help us to cultivate our resolution’s for the year ahead.

Brigid is the goddess of fire, blacksmiths, wells, healing waters, springs and poets.
So expect your day with us to be full of water (in this case, the hot tub!), fire-y yoga poses and lots of chat about folklore, local ecology and history that you may know, and other bits that may be entirely new to you. Even the menu has been prepared with Brigid and her story in mind.