Festival of IMBOLC

In studying to write this article, I felt that it was appropriate to give the names of the Festival from other cultures and other lands.  The word, Imbolc, is from Irish Celtic "i mblog" which means 'in the belly' and is not entire nature in the belly of the Mother Earth maturing to burst forth with all its goodness for our sustenance.  In America the Festival is usually celebrated on February 2nd and is one of the eight solar holidays (or Sabbaths) of Neopaganism.  In the Southern Hemisphere this great Festival is celebrated in August  being the time of nurturing of the seed and animal life in those climes.  The Festival is also associated with the birth of the lambs and as a matter of information the world Oimelc means 'ewe's milk'.  The Celts frequently referred to Spring as Oimelc.  On this day they also celebrated the person of Brigid, goddess of smithcraft, frequently referred to 'as Mother of the Gaels', secondary patron of Ireland.

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, this day is known as Candlemas and is the last Festival in the Christian year.  It takes its dating from the Christmas Day and the Festival is given many reasons for being.  Primarily it falls 40 days after the date named as Christmas Day and has been known as The Purification Of The Virgin (primarily in Roman Catholic rites).  In the Orthodox Church it is known as the "Feast Of Presentation of our Lord and Savior in the Temple and by titles quite similar in the Anglican Church of Canada, England and Australia.

According to the laws of Moses after a woman gives birth to a man child she is considered to be unclean and will remain so for 33 days.  Candlemas therefore refers to the day that the Mother Mary had to go to the Temple for purification according to the  Mosaic law.  And so it is written in the Gosper of Luke  that Mary was purified and that Jesus, her son, was presented in the Temple in Jerusalem. (This doubtlessly explains the formal names given to the Festival).   In the Armenian Apostolic Christ, this date is referred to as The Coming of the Son of God into the Temple.

There are references of such Festival as far back as the 4th Century on February 14th in the Holy Land which presupposes that the birth of Jesus was celebrated on January 6th.  In 542 the Festival was celebrated throughout the Eastern Empire and in Rome the Festival was noted in some manuscripts in the 7th and 8th centuries.  It was here the name Purification of Mary first appears.  When Christ's nativity was moved to December 25th, the Festival of Candlemas was moved to February 1st. The Festival did not spread very rapidly in the west, however it is report that the first performance of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in 1602 was on Candlemas.

There are many traditions associated with both the Pagan and Christian celebrations and it cannot be absolutely determined if the Festival of Oimelc and Lupercalia (Roman) were the inspiration for the Festival of Candlemas.  Safe to say, we all welcome the lengthening day, the increasing warmth of the sun and the beginning of what promises to be a fruitful season for the earth.