IT IS universally agreed that this lockdown is the toughest to date. We’re all feeling it.
Once again, home schooling is a reality for many. Whether you’re trying to manage primary school children or teenagers, juggling with work, cooking and cleaning, Monday to Friday at home has become even more challenging, claustrophobic and noisy.
Everyone’s experience of lockdown is very different, with difficult obstacles to overcome. Last week, I wrote about hope springing eternal – the excitement that comes with a sense of hope. Looking at any situation with hope, let alone the current political situation in the US or anywhere else, could be perceived as being naïve – but I’ll take the hope and optimism, however short lived it might be. It’s a lot better than the alternative.
January is usually a depressing month. We wait patiently for a post-Christmas paycheck, a chink of light in the dark mornings and evenings, for the new year to get going. This year, I thought that January would never end.
Usually February 1, St Brigid’s Day, provides a lift – the light is beginning to grow stronger and remain with us for a little bit longer each day. I have already heard references to ‘the stretch in the evenings’.
The beginning of February heralds the beginning of the Celtic spring, which usually means growth, hope, excitement and rebirth. I really hope that February 1 this year will bring that same sensation.
I find it encouraging, exciting and refreshing that St Brigid’s day is being reclaimed and celebrated as a day to honour Irish women. Brigid is a goddess who bridges the pagan and the Christian, winter and spring, water and fire, masculine and feminine.
There are many contrasting stories about Brigid. She was the daughter of a druid, she was a high priestess, she was a leader, she helped the sick and the poor. She had a big cloak. She is the goddess of healing, she provides inspiration to women of Ireland and beyond to develop and express all their gifts. She is Ireland’s matron saint.
It has been inspiring to see her spirit be re-energised and reclaimed in such an empowering way.
For the past four years, HerStory has celebrated Irish women past and present by beaming their illuminating, iconic landmarks throughout the island of Ireland. In past years, the image of Lillian Bland – the first woman in these islands to build, design and fly an aircraft – illuminated the Ulster Museum, while the Titanic Centre was lit up with the image of Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, the physicist who discovered the pulsar, a highly magnetised, rotating, compact star.
The illumination is happening again today, with images including mother and baby home victims, heroines and heroes of the coronavirus pandemic, Black Lives Matter and Brigids of the world.
I remember learning to make St Brigid’s crosses as a child but never fully understood who she was, or knew much about her. If you need a break from home schooling on Monday, the Irish Secretariat in Belfast is hosting three great online sessions to celebrate St Brigid’s Day. The Armagh Rhymers are hosting a St Brigid’s cross-making workshop which is suitable for children from age four. Entertaining education is always guaranteed with the Rhymers.
The storytelling duo The Makey Uppers will tell the story of St Brigid in a newly commissioned theatre piece. Their session is called ‘Brigid’s Cross – and she’s going to tell you all about it’.
This is a retelling of who Brigid really was, and promises to present a powerful, uplifting and fierce tale of Brigid – who was much more than a quiet girl in the corner plaiting reeds.
Just as St Brigid’s feast day heralds spring, this piece will leave you awakened and ready to face the new dawn. All events are available to watch on the Department for Foreign Affairs Youtube channel.
There are many more traditions associated with St Brigid. It’s believed that a piece of cloth left on the door handle on the eve of St Brigid’s Day will possess healing properties for the rest of the year.
We are supposed to open the door on February 1 and allow Brigid into the home. This makes no sense to many people, I’m sure, but this year above others, it brings a sense of hope. Hope that a time to heal just might be on the way.
