Hints from Hera: Celebrate Spring with Brigid

And now for a crafty interlude…

Spring is just starting to come to my part of the world here in New England and so it is time to celebrate Brigid.  Brigid (pronounced “Breed”) was the great Goddess of the Celts.  Her name means “Bright One” and she ruled gold-crafting, poetry, creativity, and healing and she was associated with spring.  She shares many characteristics with St. Bridget who is still honored in churches bearing her name all over the world.  Brigid was  venerated by nineteen priestesses, then St. Bridget by nineteen nuns, who have tended a perpetual sacred fire for millennia.  The fire was doused for a time, but is now lit and tended again.

One of the traditions of Brigid and St. Bridget is fashioning a “St. Bridget’s Cross,” traditionally made on St. Bridget’s Feast Day of February 1st but always a wonderful way to welcome in the spring.  This description of how to make a St. Bridget’s cross is much better than anything I could come up with, so I will just link it here.

Perhaps as you make your cross you will want to sing this song that was traditionally sung to St. Bridget.  You’ll have to make up your own melody.  “Brigid, excellent woman, sudden flame, may the bright, fiery sun take us to the lasting kingdom.”

Sources:

Monaghan, Patricia.  The New Books of Goddesses and Heroines.  St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2000.

Walker, Barbara G.  The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. San Francisco, CA: HarperCollins, 1983.

                                                                              ~ Carolyn Lee Boyd