As the light lengthens, so the cold strengthens. – English folk saying
This day has a number of names; to the Celts it was Oimelc (“ewe’s milk”) or Imbolc (“in the belly”), both referring to the fact that ewes are heavily pregnant by this time of year and will soon lamb; in Christianized Ireland it became St. Brigit’s Day in honor of the goddess of healing, fire and smithcraft who (like so many other pagan gods) was made into a saint in order to convert her worshippers. The association with fire survived when the day was celebrated as Candlemas throughout most of Christendom, and the belief that the day could be used as an inverse weather predictor was brought to the New World by German immigrants and survives in the modern tradition of Groundhog Day.
Though the old European tradition saw this as the first day of spring, that’s rarely true in central North America; where I live February is often the coldest month, and the lowest temperature I’ve ever recorded here was in February. So though the folk saying in my epigram was perhaps meant to apply to January, it usually holds true well into February for our continental climate (though not this year, I’m afraid; the signs point to an early spring, which is bad if we get another cold snap in late March or early April as sometimes happens). As I explained last year, we celebrate the holiday with a feast whose main course is a big pot of chicken and andouille gumbo; if you’d like to make some yourself, I shared my sister’s peerless recipe last year (complete with photos to illustrate technique).
I pray that all my readers, no matter what your individual beliefs, find renewal in your lives at this time; I ask that negative things die away like weeds in winter, and that positive things appear and grow for you like leaves in the spring. Blessed Be!
Maggie, I don’t know where in the country you are (and I don’t want to know), but I sincerely hope it’s warmer than the D.C. area!
Upper South. In the winter it generally gets down to the single-digit negative Celsius at night, but I’ve recorded temperatures as low as -17 (0 Fahrenheit). I did hear it snowed in Washington this week.
Today is also the anniversary of the birthday of James Joyce in 1882, and of the first publication of Ulysses in 1922.
In my part of Ireland, St Brigid’s day is 1 February.
It seems that Punxsutawney Phil didn’t see his shadow. Hopefully this matters to the people in charge of my air-conditioning.
And whether you see any shadows or not, Maggie,* may your Oimelc be a happy one.
*I have to admit, you are a LOT more attractive than Phil. 😉
In that case, Phil and I are in agreement this year: early spring.
Chicago got a few inches overnight, as Punxsutawney has no powers over weather in this part of the region. No, we’re guarded by a darker power here.
I always have sausage on this day. Because sausage is ground hog.
{groan}
LOL!
Weeds die away in winter..? You could have fooled me, Ms McNeillaphor..
Groundhog Day was always a bit of a joke where I grew up on the Canadian prairies. “Early spring” and “six more weeks of winter” were roughly co-equal to us. “Only six more weeks? Cool!” Springs arriving by the equinox were rare.
Nightly lows are routinely in the -20s C throughout February (and it can be colder quite regularly), and the -10s can persist into late March. Nobody but the insanely optimistic plants an outdoor garden before the May long weekend, unless May started off really, really nicely. And even then, a killing frost is likely even into June in some years.
Farm seeding works slightly differently, depending on the crop, but April seeding is pretty rare north of the Trans-Canada Highway.