Season of Light

Imbolc, Saint Brigid’s Day, Kyndelmisse, Fastelavn and The Chinese New Year begins in February.

Fiery beginnings

This is my very first blog post! I have wanted to write in the blog format for months, so this first attempt is a little rocky - but it’s here >3

The theme is beginnings! Here in February we have a lot of beginnings of the year - although the Gregorian calendar says the beginning of the year is January 1st lots of other traditions actually places “Beginning” energies around the start of February. This is the last winter month in the Northern hemisphere, marking the end of the dark part of the year and thereby the beginning of the light part. By March the Zodiac starts its cycle again with the first season of Aries - the Ram - the first animal in the Zodiac. A fire sign.

In Celtic culture 1st of February is called Imbolc - believed to mean something along the way of “in the belly”. Maybe because these were the months where the belly was empty and hunger was felt and heard from the belly, or because surviving was relying on the scraps and bits and whatever one could cook into a stew and make the most out of it. Imbolc is also a light fest (I’m thinking about the saying “fire in the belly” meaning determination) celebrating the fire Goddess Brigid with the flaming red hair, and they would honor her with lighting a candle (candles were also special - they were not just squandered, but saved for important use, so lighting candles was thought to be somewhat of a ritual).

In western culture and especially city living we are so used to electric lights turning on whenever we want to, without a thought to it, and we are not at all used to darkness. Lots of people are really afraid of the dark and because we are never really forced to face these fears, we don’t think as much of it as people did back in the day when light was not a given thing. When you are in complete darkness you cannot rely on your strongest sense - seeing. This sense is what makes us feel safe, most of the time. It might seem like a silly thing to address - but I think it is important to think about, because it also connects to our sense of believing what is there because we can see it, and not because we can sense it otherwise. This strong reliance on eyesight and “proof” makes us a little distanced from other senses, especially those of vibration. Anyway more on that another time.

In February in Denmark we also have Fastelavn which is believed to have existed before christianity - under other names perhaps - but it is a dressing up party celebrating frivolity and chasing away the dark powers, and with Christianity taking over in the middle ages it became more about fasting, (humility and chastity - actually somewhat opposites of frivolity and foolishness) and keeping a strong faith (fasting already being quite natural this time a year in the North with the pantries being low on food - so a very easy thing to introduce, thank you Christian men).

During Fastelavn you dress up like different characters like during Halloween, and then you line up to smash a barrel with a club and this is called “Slå katten af tønden” - meaning knocking the cat out of the barrel. In the Christian days cats were believed to be connected to the dark, the night, and therefor the devil (all which can be considered divine feminine traits; yin, darkness, underworld, fertility) So they quite literally put a black cat inside the barrel and beat the barrel with a club until it smashed completely, and the cat (if still having any sense) would flee from the place and take the devilish powers with it. Talking about doing dark deeds.

Nowadays we have candy inside the barrel, and the person smashing the first piece of wood off the barrel gets a crown and the person who smashes the last piece of wood down gets a crown and are called Cat Queen and Cat King. There are different ideas of whether it is the first piece of wood or if the bottom of the barrel and all the candy has to fall out etc to get either title. People also eat Fastelavnsboller which are different kinds of buns with remonce, custard or sweetened whipped cream inside. There is also trick or treat’ing and a special song for Fastelavn, and children make or get a Fastelavnsris - a bundle of birch branches (or now any kind of branches really) which are decorated with paper decorations, paper cats and candy hanging from it. Back in the day the birch branches were used to wake up the parents at dawn, and beating the shit out of them would be good for fertility apparently. Questionable strategy.

Lastly, the Chinese New Year also falls at this time (10th of February) being celebrated with lots of fireworks. Big beginning energy!

Fire and light is a central theme for this time a year - and maybe even more important so in countries with the return of lighter days, having survived the dark winter. So if you always stress out in January about finding your new years resolution before January 1st then it might be because winter is not actually over. The Gregorian calendar was invented by a man - and as we all know men are not super connected to nature. You are still in the dark part of the year, your energy is still in the introverted yin slumber, you are not quite ready , you are still a little sprout buried in the soil waiting to slowly blossom up in Spring. Don’t force it - wait for February and the natural coming of light in the Northern hemisphere!

Begginnings as a little spark of fire. That was all my thoughts for now. I still need to learn how to make links for my sources and how to add images and maybe even tiny video clips. Thank you for reading <3