This is a fictional account of Imbolc as I'd love to see it celebrated.
One of my favorite memories from my childhood is that we used to visit our grandparents and Brighid would come to visit. She was a big woman dressed in white with big, red, curly hair and big laugh. We sang to her songs we had practiced and then we would talk with her about all the things we want to be and do when we grow old. I told her about wanting to become a fashion designer, and she told me to learn to sew and draw, and gave me small gifts I can use to do that, like one year I got a drawing pad and set of pens, and another year I got a very nice sewing kit and fabric and pattern to make myself a dress. My brother wanted to be a carpenter and he got carpenter tools and wood.
I was about 20 when our "Brighid" died, and I finally realized she was just an ordinary person, and that the gifts were from our parents. We haven't found anyone to play Brighid to our children, I play her to some friends' children. Not our family friends, because they know me and that I'm not Brighid, but I have some friends whose children don't know me.
At our house the kids write to Brighid about their future plans and she sends them a package that magically appears at the foot end of the beds on Imbolc morning. These gifts are always something they can use in their future professions, or something that helps them reach their professional goals, or something about their creative pursuits and ambitions.
Our Imbolc begins on the eve. We don't decorate before the eve. The dinner is being prepared and one of the parents (or grandparent, family friend, aunt or so) takes the kids out to play - hopefully in the snow, or ice skating, if there's ice - and the other parent stays at home and decorates the whole house. If we get a relative to take the kids, even better, because then we can do it together. It is amazing to leave the house as it usually is and come back to winter wonderland
Then we have a dinner and a small dedication ritual. It is usually just lighting candles and blessing food, but for Imbolc we have a bowl of snow or ice on the table, to melt by our heat, to symbolize how Mother Earth is awakening and the snow and ice is melting outside.
We read a picture book together before bedtime, the kids get a new pajamas for the feast, and in the morning the kids find Brighid's gift on their bed.
Then we'll eat Imbolc brunch. There is a lot of dairy and citrus fruits that are in season right now, and pancakes. We'll have it served on a side table and we eat it in the living room, watching family movies with season appropriate message. The Pebble and the Penguin is a family favorite. It has love, escape from capture, winning against all odds, surviving difficult situations, winter and pebbles :-D
Later the day we have a mystery play. We do it every Sabbath. It is the same every year, to create tradition and habit. I wrote it myself, because there aren't any mystery plays for Pagans.My husband and I chose our favorite folk songs and carols and we wrote new words for them. These little plays aren't long, and in the beginning my husband and I used to play most parts. We also used teddybears and dolls to act as stand-ins and extras :-D Now we are leaving more and more of the fun to the kids. The two eldest are quite capable of doing most of the work and they think it's great fun.
One of my favorite memories from my childhood is that we used to visit our grandparents and Brighid would come to visit. She was a big woman dressed in white with big, red, curly hair and big laugh. We sang to her songs we had practiced and then we would talk with her about all the things we want to be and do when we grow old. I told her about wanting to become a fashion designer, and she told me to learn to sew and draw, and gave me small gifts I can use to do that, like one year I got a drawing pad and set of pens, and another year I got a very nice sewing kit and fabric and pattern to make myself a dress. My brother wanted to be a carpenter and he got carpenter tools and wood.
I was about 20 when our "Brighid" died, and I finally realized she was just an ordinary person, and that the gifts were from our parents. We haven't found anyone to play Brighid to our children, I play her to some friends' children. Not our family friends, because they know me and that I'm not Brighid, but I have some friends whose children don't know me.
At our house the kids write to Brighid about their future plans and she sends them a package that magically appears at the foot end of the beds on Imbolc morning. These gifts are always something they can use in their future professions, or something that helps them reach their professional goals, or something about their creative pursuits and ambitions.
Our Imbolc begins on the eve. We don't decorate before the eve. The dinner is being prepared and one of the parents (or grandparent, family friend, aunt or so) takes the kids out to play - hopefully in the snow, or ice skating, if there's ice - and the other parent stays at home and decorates the whole house. If we get a relative to take the kids, even better, because then we can do it together. It is amazing to leave the house as it usually is and come back to winter wonderland
Then we have a dinner and a small dedication ritual. It is usually just lighting candles and blessing food, but for Imbolc we have a bowl of snow or ice on the table, to melt by our heat, to symbolize how Mother Earth is awakening and the snow and ice is melting outside.
We read a picture book together before bedtime, the kids get a new pajamas for the feast, and in the morning the kids find Brighid's gift on their bed.
Then we'll eat Imbolc brunch. There is a lot of dairy and citrus fruits that are in season right now, and pancakes. We'll have it served on a side table and we eat it in the living room, watching family movies with season appropriate message. The Pebble and the Penguin is a family favorite. It has love, escape from capture, winning against all odds, surviving difficult situations, winter and pebbles :-D
Later the day we have a mystery play. We do it every Sabbath. It is the same every year, to create tradition and habit. I wrote it myself, because there aren't any mystery plays for Pagans.My husband and I chose our favorite folk songs and carols and we wrote new words for them. These little plays aren't long, and in the beginning my husband and I used to play most parts. We also used teddybears and dolls to act as stand-ins and extras :-D Now we are leaving more and more of the fun to the kids. The two eldest are quite capable of doing most of the work and they think it's great fun.
