Today, Feb 2, 2025, is a cross-quarter day. That is, today is a day that sits about half way between a solstice and an equinox. There are four cross-quarter days of old, Samhain (Nov), Imbolc (Feb), Beltaine (May), and Lughnasa (Sep).
The Library of Congress does a nice job of describing how old ways became new ways, or perhaps how old days became new days:
“For ancient Europeans, these days were so crucial and so embedded in their cultural sense of time that when the Western European peoples were Christianized, the new Church, unable to root them out, “baptized” them into Christian holidays.
May 1 became May Day, originally associated with the Virgin Mary and later a secular spring festival, with maypole, May queen, and other folkloric customs.
August 1 became in Britain Lammas, or “Loaf-Mass Day,” when the farmers’ wives brought the first loaves of bread baked from the new harvest of grain to the church to be blessed.
Since November 1 in the Celtic year was a day devoted to the dead, the Church made it into All Saints’ Day. But the people continued to celebrate the eve of the old holiday as Halloween, with its many harmless folkloric customs that have come all the way down to our day.
February 1, extended into February 2, became Candlemas, and eventually Groundhog Day.”
In Ireland, Imbolc has become a national holiday co-celebrated with St. Brigid’s Day on the first Monday in February (unless 1 Feb is a Friday, in which case that is the holiday).
Regardless of how all of this came to be, I encourage you you to get outdoors and find yourselves in nature, whether you see your shadow or not.
#Groundhogday #HelenaOutdoors #Whistlepig #Marmot #Imbolc #Imbolg #StBrigidsDay #CrossQuarterDay #NatureEveryDay #Phenolgy
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