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Happy St / Goddess Bridget's day

Aladdin

Aladdin

Well-Known Member

Inaugural Saint Brigid’s Day bank holiday cultural programme launched to celebrate women in Ireland

www.gov.ie www.gov.ie

Ireland celebrates Bridget and women in Ireland with a new Bank Holiday.

The first of February marks the beginning of Spring and the celebration of Lá Fhéile Bríde, St Brigid’s Day. Like many of other feast days of the Irish calendar, Brigid predates Christianity – her roots lie in the Celtic festival of Imbolc, the feast of the goddess Brigid, celebrated at least five millennia ago. In old Irish, Imbolc means "in the belly", a reference to lambing and the renewal Spring promises.

Brigid was a triple goddess – of healing, fire, and of poetry – and the saint who took her name, born in 450 AD, carried some of those same associations. The patron saint of poets and midwives, by legend, she maintained a sacred fire by the monastery she founded in Kildare. Alongside St Patrick and St Columcille, she is one of Ireland’s three patron saints.

Plenty going on around the country this bank holiday weekend celebrating Bridget / Brigid / Brid through art, music and creativity.

PIC 2 assorted crosses (1).jpg
 
Happy Festive indulgence to all. However, I'd like to see proof to back up the claim that this day has been celebrated for 5,000 years. It sounds like a date drawn out of a druids hood to me
 
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tim said:
Happy Festive indulgence to all. However, I'd like to see proof to back up the claim that this day has been celebrated for 5,000 years. It sounds like a date drawn out of a druids good to me
Click to expand...

Brigid is one of the most venerated deities in the Pagan Irish pantheon. She was a goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann and a daughter of the chief of the gods, The Dagda. Her name means exalted one, while her earliest Gaelic name, Breo-Saighead, means fiery arrow. These ‘fiery arrows’ illuminate our minds, hearts, and spirits. As a solar goddess, she embodies the element of fire and is commonly depicted with rays of light or fire emanating from her head.

Also have a read here.

Imbolc (Imbolg) the Cross Quarter Day - Early February

Imbolc (Imbolg) is a Cross Quarter Day, midpoint between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Celtic Goddess Brigid (Brigit, Brighid, Bride, Bridget, Bridgit, Brighde, BrÃd).
www.newgrange.com
Imbolc included the goddess Brigid and was celebrated in the Neolithic period 5000 years ago.
 
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Aladdin said:
Brigid is one of the most venerated deities in the Pagan Irish pantheon. She was a goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann and a daughter of the chief of the gods, The Dagda. Her name means exalted one, while her earliest Gaelic name, Breo-Saighead, means fiery arrow. These ‘fiery arrows’ illuminate our minds, hearts, and spirits. As a solar goddess, she embodies the element of fire and is commonly depicted with rays of light or fire emanating from her head.
Click to expand...
Very interesting, but all that doesn't prove that Imbolc has been celebrated for 5000 years. Just because something is worth celebrating doesn't mean that you have to fashion an ancient pedigree for it.
 
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tim said:
Very interesting, but all that doesn't prove that Imbolc has been celebrated for 5000 years. Just because something is worth celebrating doesn't mean that you have to fashion an ancient pedigree for it m
Click to expand...
Well it's a cross-quarter day (halfway between solstice and equinox) more or less and those have had various festivals and celebrations around them in various cultures for a jolly long time (I'm not looking it up, I'm busy).
 
tim said:
Very interesting, but all that doesn't prove that Imbolc has been celebrated for 5000 years. Just because something is worth celebrating doesn't mean that you have to fashion an ancient pedigree for it m
Click to expand...
People are willing to believe all sorts of things, tim. I don't see the problem.

I like the sound of this Briget. She seems like a cheerful sort.
 
tim said:
Very interesting, but all that doesn't prove that Imbolc has been celebrated for 5000 years. Just because something is worth celebrating doesn't mean that you have to fashion an ancient pedigree for it m
Click to expand...

Brigid was a celtic goddess celebrated in many locations. Not just Ireland.

Bridget the saint has been celebrated for 1500 years. Traditions of making a St Bridgets cross go back that long. All my life the day was special. We left milk and bread outside on the step and made a cross or triform.

You're kind of missing the point of the current new bank holiday though. Its very much a celebration of women and the feminine.
 
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For me the real issue is whether Brigid required her lover, the Sacred King to be sacrificed by his rival the Tanist at Midsummer?
 
Poot said:
People are willing to believe all sorts of things, tim. I don't see the problem.

I like the sound of this Briget. She seems like a cheerful sort.
Click to expand...

You might not be so happy if you were being sacrificed to Her by people who believed that sort of thing made Her cheerful.


Human Sacrifice in Ancient Ireland

Bog bodies suffered violent and grisly deaths. Of these bodies, the most famous, Cashel Man was discovered near Portlaoise in 2011, and at over 4000 years old, is said to be the oldest European bog body ever found with skin intact; then there is Old Croghan Man from Co. Offaly, and Clonycavan...
www.dublincity.ie www.dublincity.ie
 
I guess it's easy to add bank holidays when your GDP relies so much on low corproate tax rates to attract multinational headquarters rather than on people actually going to work.
 
platinumsage said:
I guess it's easy to add bank holidays when your GDP relies so much on low corproate tax rates to attract multinational headquarters rather than on people actually going to work
Click to expand...
Ireland will have an extra public holiday at the start of February to mark Imbolc/St Brigid’s day. It will be observed on the first Monday of February except where the 1st of February falls on a Friday in which case it will be observed on that day. This will be the first Irish public holiday named after a woman. It marks the half-way point between the winter solstice and the equinox, the beginning of spring and the Celtic New Year. The creation of a tenth public holiday will bring Ireland more into line with the European average and it is one of five new workers’ rights that I am establishing this year. The others are the right to statutory sick pay, the right to request remote working, new rights around redundancy for people laid off during the pandemic, and better protection of workplace tips.”

Government agrees Covid Recognition Payment and New Public Holiday

www.gov.ie www.gov.ie
 
tim said:
You might not be so happy if you were being sacrificed to Her by people who believed that sort of thing made Her cheerful.


Human Sacrifice in Ancient Ireland

Bog bodies suffered violent and grisly deaths. Of these bodies, the most famous, Cashel Man was discovered near Portlaoise in 2011, and at over 4000 years old, is said to be the oldest European bog body ever found with skin intact; then there is Old Croghan Man from Co. Offaly, and Clonycavan...
www.dublincity.ie www.dublincity.ie
Click to expand...


Human sacrifice happened in Neolithic England too .. and Brigid was not the only god worshipped by the Celts..

www.google.com

Dozens of Neolithic 'Human Sacrifice' Victims Have Been Found in England

The burials are weird.
www.google.com www.google.com

As for the special day celebrating Saint Bridget, it's been a very long tradition here. It's pretty special that our female patron saint is being shown some degree of recognition by the state.
 
.
platinumsage said:
I guess it's easy to add bank holidays when your GDP relies so much on low corproate tax rates to attract multinational headquarters rather than on people actually going to work.
Click to expand...
Have you been watching GBNEWS again?
 
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Aladdin said:
Human sacrifice happened in Neolithic England too .. and Brigid was not the only god worshipped by the Celts..

www.google.com

Dozens of Neolithic 'Human Sacrifice' Victims Have Been Found in England

The burials are weird.
www.google.com www.google.com

As for the special day celebrating Saint Bridget, it's been a very long tradition here. It's pretty special that our female patron saint is being shown some degree of recognition by the state.
Click to expand...

Neolithic Britain, England didn't exist as a concept, let alone a political entity, until the arrival of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes in the Fifth Century C.E. As to the Celts, they didn't mosey up to Northwest until the First Millennium B.C.E.

Human sacrifice was fairly common but gives good reason not to get to soppy about religious rituals and traditions of the past.
 
tim said:
You might not be so happy if you were being sacrificed to Her by people who believed that sort of thing made Her cheerful.


Human Sacrifice in Ancient Ireland

Bog bodies suffered violent and grisly deaths. Of these bodies, the most famous, Cashel Man was discovered near Portlaoise in 2011, and at over 4000 years old, is said to be the oldest European bog body ever found with skin intact; then there is Old Croghan Man from Co. Offaly, and Clonycavan...
www.dublincity.ie www.dublincity.ie
Click to expand...
So she does go back to an ancient tradition - that's progress since a few posts back a tradition was being invented :thumbs:
 
afaik the evidence of human sacrifice is: romans, who talked that shit about everyone they were beefing with. also, bog bodies. Which could well have been murders or executions. Anything stronger than roman libels and debatable bog bodies?
 
tim said:
Neolithic Britain, England didn't exist as a concept, let alone a political entity, until the arrival of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes in the Fifth Century C.E. As to the Celts, they didn't mosey up to Northwest until the First Millennium B.C.E.

Human sacrifice was fairly common but gives good reason not to get to soppy about religious rituals and traditions of the past.
Click to expand...


Its a national day that will be full of art music dance drama and creativity...a celebration of women in Ireland.
 
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