FEBRUARY 2, 2014

       Today is Groundhog’s day. And he supposedly saw his shadow in Pennsylvania, so more winter weather… there at least. Here he would not have seen his shadow. Its 31° with a rainy-wintery mix.  

     So I’m gonna’ hope we get an early jump on spring. The tradition comes from an ancient belief about cross-quarter days, which are the days evenly spaced between the quarter days which are the two solstices and the two equinoxes. As the markers of our seasons the quarter days are usually not as unpredictable for weather as the days in between. And the people did not mark a specific day as the change of a season so much as to see what was happening each year. The belief was that what ever the weather was on a cross-quarterday, (Feb 2, May 1, Aug 2, Oct 31) it would be opposite for the following weeks until the Sun marked a new phase. So if your weather is cloudy and cold today (no shadow) then “winter would get its finish out” and the change would follow soon with an early spring.

     The same would be for other cross-quarters May 1, could be the start of the heat… Aug 2 could be the end of the heat, and Oct 31, could be the start of cold winter weather.

    Other names for Feb 2^nd are Candlemas Day, Imbolc, Imbolg, Oimelc, and Folcaim. This time of year is also the time for Purification (spring cleaning) which is the meaning of the word February.  And on Feb 1^st you have St. Brigid's feast day, Patron of the Hearth, and the ever burning Fire. Feb 2^nd is also the feast of the Purification of Mary the mother of Jesus, and Jesus Presentation in the Temple, marked at 40 days after Christmas. The 2^nd called Imbolc, was pre-Christian day of the goddess Brigid, who was Goddess of the Hearth, Fire, Smiths, Grains, and Poets. And Feb 3^rd is St Blaise feast day, who was a physician, and when Churches would tie two recently (like yesterday) blessed candles in a V shape and bless the throats of the parishioners to guard against the winter ills that still could befall folks. About this time the Church placed Lent, a time of fasting and abstinence 40 days before Easter. And then we have St Valentine’s a day for lovers

    Why so many ideas surrounding one time?  During ancient times, and on in to Antiquity, peoples migrated and moved back and forth across Europe. Cultures beliefs and customs clashed or blended forming new ideas. As Christendom made some inroads into the area around the third and fourth centuries it too became embroiled into the mix. Northern Europe was filled with wars, empires, monarchies, and change. Even before antiquity, the Irish had migrated as Gaelic peoples all the way from Galatia (northern Turkey) to the present day location. And an isolated pocket of Christianity had formed in Ireland early on in antiquity, but was a bit cut off from the Church later, until the Roman Church Formally came into its own with the Great Schism, of the 1000’s. This pocket was called Celtic Christianity.

     As all this became mixed together in belief systems and customs, two things need to be noted. The first is that no matter what peoples or beliefs were there, the seasons did not change, winter to summer and back again were a constant, dependable, ongoing cycle that always was, and will be, for everyone. And as folks lives depended on hunting, herding, foraging, gathering, and farming, they had to manage according to what Mother Earth had dictated. And this structure was unwavering no mater who you were, or what you believed. The second thing to point out is the two words Feast day. The Church uses them as a commemorative title for specific days, but the idea predated Christianity.

    A Feast Day was a marker in the passage of time. And what was done on those days is just as it says…people Feasted. They ate and celebrated the passage of the next movement in the cycle of life that was the seasons.

     Modern Christians sometimes want to carry on that so many of the church days are based on pagan customs. Yes they are, I say So What! It’s not like pagans were really Godless savages any more than anyone else. Pagan simply means country people, who yes had their own nature based folk religions. And so many modern Pagans want to carry on that the Church Took Over the pagan feast days. In truth it just got all mixed up. The Church simply “fit in.” It was not going to change the seasons or passage of time, or what was going on with the people at any given part of the year, so teach the people new stories, different understandings about The Divine and find ways to celebrate the seasons as they had always been.

     What we end up with is something so rich and beautiful, having to do with food, and life, and growing and harvesting, raising, milking, gathering, hunting, and butchering. These are things we modern people have gotten too far away from, with all of our modern conveniences. It’s not that I feel folks should go back to laboring difficult times, but know what you came from, and what we are. We are not creatures living ON the Earth. We ARE the Earth, part of the web of life that is this living planet. Be connected in a very basic way, by the food you eat and enjoy, to who you are and what you came from.

     So what was going on, and still is, this time of year, in the northern half of this tilted Earth that created these feast day markers, and the foods associated with them?

     Well I have already said a word or two about groundhogs day, but let me add that the stirrings of burrowing animals peaking our from their winter naps, is one of the first signs of returning life. 

     The other being melting snow and flowing streams. So small trapped game and fish are one of the first tastes of fresh meat and fish the new year brings. I’m going to follow with some articles about the various  Feast days at this time of year… most of it will be about food we eat, but the first post will be about  a food most of us throw away (waste in my opinion) now days. I’m talking about the Fat!

  Blessings mes amis