I often hear people saying that 'the days are getting longer'. True, one should say 'there are more hours of daylight' as the day itself is still 24 hour. But maybe it's just an Irishism.
I was taught in school and brought up to believe that Spring starts on 1st February and runs until the end of April. Many of my friends and colleagues from other parts of Europe and farther afield consider that Spring starts at the end of March !. For me, it's Spring on 1st February, you can feel it in the air.
In Ireland the 1st February is St. Brigids day, the day for making your Brigid's cross and placing it in the kitchen to ward off bad luck and prevent fires. St. Brigid is associated with the town of Kildare. Her feast day intentionally coincides with the pre-Christian (or pagan) date of the first day of Spring in Ireland. St. Brigid brought her own winds of change to Kildare when in the fifth century A.D. she converted the people of Kildare to the Christian faith and established a monastery with a highly acclaimed scriptorium. Her feast day effectively re-used the pre-Christian first day of Spring.
So if you're wondering why you're rushing around cleaning the house, you are in fact doing your spring clean, which is natural, as it's Spring... if it was good enough for the Celts then its good enough for me.
If you should find yourself in Kildare, take some time out from rushing, visit the fantastic round tower in the town and go up to the summit (great views), do some shopping in the Kildare Village Outlet Centre and make sure to drop in to the Curragh race course. And if you are down that way, drop us a line.
Kildare round tower
Kildare round tower - detail of doorway
No comments:
Post a Comment