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St Brigid's Day

Post 1

Gnomon - time to move on

Today is St Brigid's Day, 1 February, the first day of Spring in the ancient Irish calendar. Although the Irish weather service now use the British definition of Spring as starting on 1 March, many people in Ireland consider today to be Spring.

It's normally about this time that the days start getting back to a reasonable length, and the plants start putting up new shoots. Some of the early flowers come into bloom.

Of course this year, due to global warming, the flowers have been in bloom since early December, so the transition into Spring is not as obvious.

St Brigid was one of the three patron saints of Ireland. She had the same name as one of the pagan goddesses. I always assumed that either:

a) she was a fictional character invented by the early Christian missionaries to subsume the pagan goddess into Christianity, or

b) she was an actual person named after the goddess who became a convert to Christianity and later had lots of stories of miracles attributed to her

I've recently heard a third theory which I had not considered:

c) she was an actual person who became important in the early Christian church, and the pagans not yet converted to Christianity were so impressed with her that they created the legend of the pagan goddess.

I must look into this some more.

Brigid's name is also spelt Bridget in English. In modern Irish the central g is softened to a silent gh giving spellings Bríghid (pr. breej), Bríd (pr. breej) and Breda (pr. breeda).

There are lots of fantastical legends about Brigid. After curing the King of Leinster of an embarrassing illness, she asked for some land on which to build a convent. She said she would accept as much land as she could cover with her cloak. When the time came to allocate the land, Brigid laid her cloak on the ground and it magically stretched out to an enormous size, giving her a piece of land big enough for the convent and farmland to support it.


St Brigid's Day

Post 2

Icy North

Ah, so not related to Bridget the Midget: the Queen of the Blues.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvFESQmeKpI


St Brigid's Day

Post 3

Rev Nick - dead man walking (mostly)

The first day of spring over here is still based on solar circumstances, usually around the 20th to 22nd of March. Though realities of weather can often make it more like late April. It takes time for 8 to 22 inches of frost depth to come out of the ground and let things sprout.

On the other hand, I need to find one massive umbrella for tomorrow. I don't want any groundhogs to be seeing shadows and causing 6 more weeks of winter! All very well grounded in the sciences, ya know, such prognostications.


St Brigid's Day

Post 4

Gnomon - time to move on

Well, the Irish calendar was based on solar events as well, the Vernal Equinox (21st March) being considered the exact middle of Spring. But that puts the beginning of Spring a little later, around the 4th of February. When the months were introduced, it was easier to align with the start of the month.


St Brigid's Day

Post 5

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

Saint Brigid is mentioned in a song "Deliver us to Beekman Place" form the musical "Mame."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv8ivr8pS_Q

I'm envious of people who live in places where flowers bloom in early February. Granted, due to unusually warm weather here, a few brave geraniums and petunias were still hanging on as late as new year's Day, but not even they could hold out after that. smiley - sadface

In the Royal Albert china pattern "Flower of the Month Series," violets are the February flowers, so they must be blooming *somewhere* this month, possibly in southwestern England? smiley - huh


St Brigid's Day

Post 6

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

Sorry,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv8ivr8pS_Q


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