When do you think Spring starts? Is it the Vernal Equinox, March 21st, one of the two mid points between Winter and Summer solstice? Is it March 1st, the beginning of the second season in the Meteorological record keeping system? Or (if you are ancient Celtic inclined) is it around the beginning of February which marks Groundhog day (how much more winter still to come?), St. Brigid feast day (and a few other major saints), the Presentation of Jesus at the temple, Candlemas (blessing of candles for use by the church and at home), and Imbolc, the point midway between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox?
You don’t know Imbolc? Imbolc is the pre-Christian Celtic fest day of Spring’s beginning. While it is tied to the mid-point between Winter Solstice and Vernal Equinox, it is also tied to the beginning of the lambing season and so can drift by a couple of weeks in either direction. The lambs make the season.
As a teen-ager, Spring actually started with the first sight of crocuses and daffodils on my way to and from school in the rainy, wet, cold Pacific Northwest winter. Those hope giving little pokes of new green leaves and stems showed up thankfully in early February. As a suburban girl, I didn’t know about sheep but I did have those little fragile bits of white, purple, and yellow colors promising more to come.
Continue reading “Everything Happens at Once and Sooner then You Thought”