Happy Candlemas (or Brighid’s Day). By Adam Garfinkle. The American Interest, February 1, 2013.
Groundhog Day: A Movie For All Time. By Jonah Goldberg. National Review, February 14, 2005.
Garfinkle:
Well,
February 2 is a significant date in the Christian calendar. It’s Candlemas Day,
which is also known, with slight variations according to religious tradition,
as the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. But the Church
calendar appears to be coincidental with or, more likely, an overlay on much,
much older Celtic agricultural observances. It has to do with a very ancient,
astronomically linked celebration called Imbolc, which later became Brighid’s
Day and even later, after Christianization, Saint
Brighid’s Day. There is a great deal of lore and legend associated with Imbolc,
much of it involving Cailleach, the hag of Gaelic tradition. And yes, that lore
and legend very much includes weather prognostication and careful observation
of the emergence from hibernation of badgers and snakes. Imbolc is about
halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, and markings on
ancient megaliths testify to its origins in astronomical observation. It was a
time thought to be a harbinger of spring on account of the onset of ewe’s
lactating in expectation of spring lambs, and the blossom-setting of certain
plants, principally the blackthorn (itself associated with much lore).
