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#lafheilebride — Public Fediverse posts

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  1. The Origins of St. Brigid's Day & Imbolg.
    I look at the origins of what is now a Public Holiday in Ireland. Imbolg is one of the four Gaelic festivals, Brigid a Saint & Goddess.

    I'd be very grateful for RTs!
    #StBrigidsDay #Brigid #Imbolg #LáFhéileBríde

    irishlanguagematters.com/2026/

  2. The Origins of St. Brigid's Day & Imbolg.
    I look at the origins of what is now a Public Holiday in Ireland. Imbolg is one of the four Gaelic festivals, Brigid a Saint & Goddess.

    I'd be very grateful for RTs!
    #StBrigidsDay #Brigid #Imbolg #LáFhéileBríde

    irishlanguagematters.com/2026/

  3. The Origins of St. Brigid's Day & Imbolg.
    I look at the origins of what is now a Public Holiday in Ireland. Imbolg is one of the four Gaelic festivals, Brigid a Saint & Goddess.

    I'd be very grateful for RTs!
    #StBrigidsDay #Brigid #Imbolg #LáFhéileBríde

    irishlanguagematters.com/2026/

  4. The Origins of St. Brigid's Day & Imbolg.
    I look at the origins of what is now a Public Holiday in Ireland. Imbolg is one of the four Gaelic festivals, Brigid a Saint & Goddess.

    I'd be very grateful for RTs!
    #StBrigidsDay #Brigid #Imbolg #LáFhéileBríde

    irishlanguagematters.com/2026/

  5. The Origins of St. Brigid's Day & Imbolg.
    I look at the origins of what is now a Public Holiday in Ireland. Imbolg is one of the four Gaelic festivals, Brigid a Saint & Goddess.

    I'd be very grateful for RTs!
    #StBrigidsDay #Brigid #Imbolg #LáFhéileBríde

    irishlanguagematters.com/2026/

  6. Look, I’m not saying my little offering last night, clipped from my garden’s heather and berries, and placed on the liminal doormat, is what brought the break in the bad weather. But I’m not *not* saying that either, like. #Imbolc #LáFheileBríde #Mastodaoine #Spring #BringTheSpringBrigid

  7. Look, I’m not saying my little offering last night, clipped from my garden’s heather and berries, and placed on the liminal doormat, is what brought the break in the bad weather. But I’m not *not* saying that either, like. #Imbolc #LáFheileBríde #Mastodaoine #Spring #BringTheSpringBrigid

  8. Look, I’m not saying my little offering last night, clipped from my garden’s heather and berries, and placed on the liminal doormat, is what brought the break in the bad weather. But I’m not *not* saying that either, like. #Imbolc #LáFheileBríde #Mastodaoine #Spring #BringTheSpringBrigid

  9. Look, I’m not saying my little offering last night, clipped from my garden’s heather and berries, and placed on the liminal doormat, is what brought the break in the bad weather. But I’m not *not* saying that either, like. #Imbolc #LáFheileBríde #Mastodaoine #Spring #BringTheSpringBrigid

  10. Look, I’m not saying my little offering last night, clipped from my garden’s heather and berries, and placed on the liminal doormat, is what brought the break in the bad weather. But I’m not *not* saying that either, like. #Imbolc #LáFheileBríde #Mastodaoine #Spring #BringTheSpringBrigid

  11. The Quickening of the Year Again

    Today would be the first day of teaching in Semester 2 at Maynooth University, were it not for the fact that it is a Bank Holiday in Ireland. The holiday marks Imbolc, an old Celtic festival occurring halfway between the winter solstice and vernal equinox in the Northern hemisphere. In the modern calendar the date is 1st February. In Ireland Imbolc is often referred to as a Lá Fhéile Bríde,  St Brigid’s Day, after St Brigid of Kildare, whose feast day is 1st February. In the old pagan calendar, this day is regarded as the first day of spring, as it is roughly the time when the first spring lambs are born, daffodils, etc, start to appear, and the days get noticeably longer. It corresponds to the Welsh Gŵyl Fair y Canhwyllau and is also sometimes called, rather beautifully, The Quickening of the Year. It’s a time for rebirth and renewal after the darkness of winter.

    I noticed some scepticism on social media about 1st February being the first day of spring, but it makes sense to me. I feel the same way about May being the start of summer too. From living 7 years in Ireland, I’ve always found May/June the most summery months – as far as that means anything in Ireland!

    In the Northern hemisphere, in astronomical terms, the solar year is defined by the two solstices (summer, around June 21st, and winter, around December 21st) and the equinoxes (spring, around March 21st, and Autumn, around September 21st). These four events divide the year into four roughly equal parts of about 13 weeks each. If you divide each of these intervals in two you divide the year into eight pieces of six and a bit weeks each. The dates midway between the astronomical events mentioned above are the cross-quarter days, of which Imbolc is one. Here they are represented on a diagram:

    The timings are rough because the dates of the equinoxes and solstices vary from year to year. Imbolc is often taken to be the 2nd of February (Groundhog Day) and Samhain is sometimes taken to be October 31st, Halloween but hopefully you get the point that although the Pagan festivals have been appropriated by the Christian church, they have much older origins.

    Until 2023 only three of the four cross-quarter days were associated with public holidays in Ireland; there wasn’t a holiday for Imbolc. In 2022 however, the Government decided to create a new Bank Holiday that corrected this anomaly by introducing a new St Brigid’s Day holiday on the first Monday on or after 1st February (or on Friday if 1st February falls on that day), which also happens to be the first national holiday in Ireland to be named after a woman. The first such holiday was Monday, 6th February 2023 and the second was on Monday 5th February 2024. This is the third.

    But I digress.

    I am glad to have today’s holiday just before teaching starts. Having completed my examination marking duties promptly I was planning to use last week to get my teaching materials ready. Unfortunately I wasn’t at all well for most of the week – though I recovered by Friday – and am way behind schedule. Fortunately, I’ve taught one of the modules (Computational Physics) many times before so not much preparation is required although it is a bigger class than I’ve had on previous occasions which means extra work in due course grading the CA components. The other module, Particle Physics is new for me at Maynooth, though I have taught it elsewhere. This also has a bigger class than I was expecting for a final-year module and my first lecture on it is tomorrow. I’m going to have to spend most of today quickening the writing of the lecture notes and preparing assignments.

    P.S. Not particularly relevantly, Particle Physics is an anagram of Happier Cyclists.

    #brigid #Imbolc #LáFhéileBríde #MaynoothUniversity #pagan #StBrigidSDay #TheQuickeningOfTheYear #witchcraft

  12. The Quickening of the Year Again

    Today would be the first day of teaching in Semester 2 at Maynooth University, were it not for the fact that it is a Bank Holiday in Ireland. The holiday marks Imbolc, an old Celtic festival occurring halfway between the winter solstice and vernal equinox in the Northern hemisphere. In the modern calendar the date is 1st February. In Ireland Imbolc is often referred to as a Lá Fhéile Bríde,  St Brigid’s Day, after St Brigid of Kildare, whose feast day is 1st February. In the old pagan calendar, this day is regarded as the first day of spring, as it is roughly the time when the first spring lambs are born, daffodils, etc, start to appear, and the days get noticeably longer. It corresponds to the Welsh Gŵyl Fair y Canhwyllau and is also sometimes called, rather beautifully, The Quickening of the Year. It’s a time for rebirth and renewal after the darkness of winter.

    I noticed some scepticism on social media about 1st February being the first day of spring, but it makes sense to me. I feel the same way about May being the start of summer too. From living 7 years in Ireland, I’ve always found May/June the most summery months – as far as that means anything in Ireland!

    In the Northern hemisphere, in astronomical terms, the solar year is defined by the two solstices (summer, around June 21st, and winter, around December 21st) and the equinoxes (spring, around March 21st, and Autumn, around September 21st). These four events divide the year into four roughly equal parts of about 13 weeks each. If you divide each of these intervals in two you divide the year into eight pieces of six and a bit weeks each. The dates midway between the astronomical events mentioned above are the cross-quarter days, of which Imbolc is one. Here they are represented on a diagram:

    The timings are rough because the dates of the equinoxes and solstices vary from year to year. Imbolc is often taken to be the 2nd of February (Groundhog Day) and Samhain is sometimes taken to be October 31st, Halloween but hopefully you get the point that although the Pagan festivals have been appropriated by the Christian church, they have much older origins.

    Until 2023 only three of the four cross-quarter days were associated with public holidays in Ireland; there wasn’t a holiday for Imbolc. In 2022 however, the Government decided to create a new Bank Holiday that corrected this anomaly by introducing a new St Brigid’s Day holiday on the first Monday on or after 1st February (or on Friday if 1st February falls on that day), which also happens to be the first national holiday in Ireland to be named after a woman. The first such holiday was Monday, 6th February 2023 and the second was on Monday 5th February 2024. This is the third.

    But I digress.

    I am glad to have today’s holiday just before teaching starts. Having completed my examination marking duties promptly I was planning to use last week to get my teaching materials ready. Unfortunately I wasn’t at all well for most of the week – though I recovered by Friday – and am way behind schedule. Fortunately, I’ve taught one of the modules (Computational Physics) many times before so not much preparation is required although it is a bigger class than I’ve had on previous occasions which means extra work in due course grading the CA components. The other module, Particle Physics is new for me at Maynooth, though I have taught it elsewhere. This also has a bigger class than I was expecting for a final-year module and my first lecture on it is tomorrow. I’m going to have to spend most of today quickening the writing of the lecture notes and preparing assignments.

    P.S. Not particularly relevantly, Particle Physics is an anagram of Happier Cyclists.

    #brigid #Imbolc #LáFhéileBríde #MaynoothUniversity #pagan #StBrigidSDay #TheQuickeningOfTheYear #witchcraft

  13. #imbolc is almost here.
    "The public holiday [Éire] is observed on the first Monday of February, except for years where 1 February happens to fall on a Friday, in which case the holiday is observed on that Friday instead." -Wikipedia
    #LàFhèillBrìghde (Gàidhlig) #LaFheillBrighde #LáFhéileBríde (Gaeilge) #LaFheileBride

  14. #imbolc is almost here.
    "The public holiday [Éire] is observed on the first Monday of February, except for years where 1 February happens to fall on a Friday, in which case the holiday is observed on that Friday instead." -Wikipedia
    #LàFhèillBrìghde (Gàidhlig) #LaFheillBrighde #LáFhéileBríde (Gaeilge) #LaFheileBride

  15. #imbolc is almost here.
    "The public holiday [Éire] is observed on the first Monday of February, except for years where 1 February happens to fall on a Friday, in which case the holiday is observed on that Friday instead." -Wikipedia
    #LàFhèillBrìghde (Gàidhlig) #LaFheillBrighde #LáFhéileBríde (Gaeilge) #LaFheileBride

  16. #imbolc is almost here.
    "The public holiday [Éire] is observed on the first Monday of February, except for years where 1 February happens to fall on a Friday, in which case the holiday is observed on that Friday instead." -Wikipedia
    #LàFhèillBrìghde (Gàidhlig) #LaFheillBrighde #LáFhéileBríde (Gaeilge) #LaFheileBride

  17. Happy St. Brigid's Day! Beannachtaí na Féile Bríde oraibh!
    The Irish Baby Names release for 2023 will be released on 23 Feb 2024.
    The How Popular is Your Name visualisation tool:
    visual.cso.ie/?body=entity/bab
    #StBrigidsDay #Imbolc #Brigid1500 #stbrigidscross #LaFeileBride #LáFhéileBríde

  18. Happy St. Brigid's Day! Beannachtaí na Féile Bríde oraibh!
    The Irish Baby Names release for 2023 will be released on 23 Feb 2024.
    The How Popular is Your Name visualisation tool:
    visual.cso.ie/?body=entity/bab
    #StBrigidsDay #Imbolc #Brigid1500 #stbrigidscross #LaFeileBride #LáFhéileBríde

  19. Happy St. Brigid's Day! Beannachtaí na Féile Bríde oraibh!
    The Irish Baby Names release for 2023 will be released on 23 Feb 2024.
    The How Popular is Your Name visualisation tool:
    visual.cso.ie/?body=entity/bab
    #StBrigidsDay #Imbolc #Brigid1500 #stbrigidscross #LaFeileBride #LáFhéileBríde

  20. Happy St. Brigid's Day! Beannachtaí na Féile Bríde oraibh!
    The Irish Baby Names release for 2023 will be released on 23 Feb 2024.
    The How Popular is Your Name visualisation tool:
    visual.cso.ie/?body=entity/bab
    #StBrigidsDay #Imbolc #Brigid1500 #stbrigidscross #LaFeileBride #LáFhéileBríde

  21. Happy St. Brigid's Day! Beannachtaí na Féile Bríde oraibh!
    The Irish Baby Names release for 2023 will be released on 23 Feb 2024.
    The How Popular is Your Name visualisation tool:
    visual.cso.ie/?body=entity/bab
    #StBrigidsDay #Imbolc #Brigid1500 #stbrigidscross #LaFeileBride #LáFhéileBríde

  22. Happy St. Brigid's Day! Beannachtaí na Féile Bríde oraibh!
    The Irish Baby Names release for 2023 will be released on 23 Feb 2024.
    The How Popular is Your Name visualisation tool:
    visual.cso.ie/?body=entity/bab
    #StBrigidsDay #Imbolc #Brigid1500 #stbrigidscross #LaFeileBride #LáFhéileBríde

  23. Happy St. Brigid's Day! Beannachtaí na Féile Bríde oraibh!
    The Irish Baby Names release for 2023 will be released on 23 Feb 2024.
    The How Popular is Your Name visualisation tool:
    visual.cso.ie/?body=entity/bab
    #StBrigidsDay #Imbolc #Brigid1500 #stbrigidscross #LaFeileBride #LáFhéileBríde

  24. Happy St. Brigid's Day! Beannachtaí na Féile Bríde oraibh!
    The Irish Baby Names release for 2023 will be released on 23 Feb 2024.
    The How Popular is Your Name visualisation tool:
    visual.cso.ie/?body=entity/bab
    #StBrigidsDay #Imbolc #Brigid1500 #stbrigidscross #LaFeileBride #LáFhéileBríde

  25. Happy St. Brigid's Day! Beannachtaí na Féile Bríde oraibh!
    The Irish Baby Names release for 2023 will be released on 23 Feb 2024.
    The How Popular is Your Name visualisation tool:
    visual.cso.ie/?body=entity/bab
    #StBrigidsDay #Imbolc #Brigid1500 #stbrigidscross #LaFeileBride #LáFhéileBríde

  26. Happy St. Brigid's Day! Beannachtaí na Féile Bríde oraibh!
    The Irish Baby Names release for 2023 will be released on 23 Feb 2024.
    The How Popular is Your Name visualisation tool:
    visual.cso.ie/?body=entity/bab
    #StBrigidsDay #Imbolc #Brigid1500 #stbrigidscross #LaFeileBride #LáFhéileBríde

  27. "Solas Earraigh, drúcht an cheo
    Plúirín sneachta, Imbolc-ó
    Neart na breithe, anál bheo, bainne na máthar Imbolc-ó
    Sé do bheatha, a Bhrighid bandia na beatha"

    Imbolc - Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin
    yewtu.be/watch?v=yB7JSCdzACU

    irishsong.com/music/seven-daug
    #Gaeilge #Ceol #Imbolc #Brighid #LáFhéileBríde

  28. "Solas Earraigh, drúcht an cheo
    Plúirín sneachta, Imbolc-ó
    Neart na breithe, anál bheo, bainne na máthar Imbolc-ó
    Sé do bheatha, a Bhrighid bandia na beatha"

    Imbolc - Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin
    yewtu.be/watch?v=yB7JSCdzACU

    irishsong.com/music/seven-daug
    #Gaeilge #Ceol #Imbolc #Brighid #LáFhéileBríde