Editing Imbolc (section)

==Origins==
[[File:Brigidakapelle (Kronenburgerhütte) 04.jpg|thumb|Saint Brigid depicted as a shepherdess with a lamb and calf]]
Historians such as [[Ronald Hutton]] and [[Dáithí Ó hÓgáin]] argue that Imbolc must have pre-Christian origins.<ref name="stations">{{Cite book |last=Hutton |first=Ronald |url=https://archive.org/details/stationsofsunhis0000hutt/page/135 |title=Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain |date=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-820570-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/stationsofsunhis0000hutt/page/135 134–138] |author-link=Ronald Hutton}}</ref><ref name="ohogain"/> It is suggested that Imbolc originally marked the onset of the [[lambing]] season,<ref name="koch287">Koch, John T. ''Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia''. 2006. p. 287.</ref><ref name="Chadwick1">{{Cite book |last=Chadwick |first=Nora K. |title=The Celts |publisher=Penguin |year=1970 |isbn=978-0-14-021211-2 |location=Harmondsworth |page=181}}</ref> the arrival of fresh [[sheep milk]] after a period of food shortage,<ref name="Patterson"/> and the beginning of preparations for the spring [[sowing]].<ref name="Danaher13">{{harvnb|Danaher|1972|p=13}}</ref> [[Joseph Vendryes]] and [[Christian-Joseph Guyonvarc'h]] suggested that it may have also been a purification festival, similar to the [[Religion in ancient Rome|ancient Roman]] festival [[Lupercalia|''Februa'' or ''Lupercalia'']], which took place at the same time of year.<ref name="Patterson"/><ref>Wright, Brian. ''Brigid: Goddess, Druidess and Saint''. The History Press, 2011. p. 83–85</ref>

Some scholars argue that the date of Imbolc was significant in Ireland since the [[Neolithic Europe|Neolithic]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Imbolc |url=http://www.newgrange.com/imbolc.htm |access-date=1 June 2011 |website=Newgrange UNESCO World Heritage website}}</ref> A few [[passage tomb]]s in Ireland are aligned with the sunrise around the times of Imbolc and Samhain. This includes the [[Mound of the Hostages]] on the [[Hill of Tara]],<ref>Moriarty, Sean Keir. [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270104708_Orthostat_The_Mound_of_the_Hostages "Orthostat: The Mound of the Hostages"]: p. 34</ref> and [[Loughcrew|Cairn L]] at [[Slieve na Calliagh]].<ref>Brennan, Martin. ''The Stones of Time: Calendars, Sundials, and Stone Chambers of Ancient Ireland''. Inner Traditions, 1994. pp. 110–11</ref> Frank Prendergast argues that this alignment is so rare that it is a product of chance.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Prendergast |first=Frank |title=The Archaeology of Height: Cultural Meaning in the Relativity of Irish Megalithic Tomb Siting. |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |year=2021 |editor-last=Gunzburg |editor-first=Darrelyn |location=London, New York, Oxford, New Delhi, Sydne |pages=13–42}}</ref>

Hutton writes that Imbolc must have been "important enough for its date to be dedicated subsequently to [[Brigid of Kildare|Brigid]] … the Mother Saint of Ireland".<ref name="stations" /> [[Cogitosus]], writing in the late 7th century, is the first to mention a feast day of Saint Brigid being observed in [[Kildare]] on 1 February.<ref name="ohogain">Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí. ''Myth, Legend & Romance: An encyclopedia of the Irish folk tradition''. Prentice-Hall Press, 1991. pp.60–61</ref> Brigid is said to have lived in the 6th century and founded the important monastery of Kildare. She became the focus of a major cult. However, there are few historical facts about her, and her early [[Hagiography|hagiographies]] "are mainly anecdotes and miracle stories, some of which are deeply rooted in Irish pagan folklore".<ref>Farmer, David. ''The Oxford Dictionary of Saints'' (Fifth Edition, Revised). Oxford University Press, 2011. p.66</ref> It is suggested that Saint Brigid is based on the goddess [[Brigid]],<ref name="Mackillop2">{{Cite book |last=MacKillop |first=James |title=Dictionary of Celtic mythology |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-19-280120-3 |page=58}}</ref> or that she was a real person and the lore of the goddess was transferred to her.<ref name="ohogain"/> Like the saint, the goddess is associated with wisdom, poetry, healing, protection, blacksmithing, and domesticated animals, according to ''[[Sanas Cormaic|Cormac's Glossary]]'' and ''[[Lebor Gabála Érenn]]''.<ref name="ohogain" /><ref>Wright, Brian. ''Brigid: Goddess, Druidess and Saint''. The History Press, 2011. pp.26–27</ref> It is suggested that Imbolc, which celebrates the start of lambing, was linked with Brigid in her role as a fertility goddess.<ref name=koch287/> Hutton says that the goddess might have already been linked to Imbolc and this was continued by making it the saint's feast day. Or it could be that Imbolc's association with milk drew the saint to it because of a legend that she had been the wet-nurse of Christ.<ref name="stations" />

Prominent folklorist [[Seán Ó Súilleabháin]] wrote: "The main significance of the Feast of St. Brigid would seem to be that it was a Christianisation of one of the focal points of the agricultural year in Ireland, the starting point of preparations for the spring sowing. Every manifestation of the cult of the saint (or of the deity she replaced) is bound up in some way with food production".<ref name="Danaher13"/>