Wednesday 1st February was the feast day of Ireland’s female patron saint, St. Brigid. The Gaelic festival coincides with Imbolc, which was a pagan festival associated with the goddess Brigid.
As part of their Horticulture Module, Transition Year students, along with the help of Ms. Holloway, took time out to celebrate the day by making the St Brigid’s cross or Cross Bríde which is a very old Irish tradition. The crosses are usually woven from rushes and placed over doorways and windows to protect the home from any kind of harm. Each year the old one is burned and the new one is put in its place.
The students also had fun creating the Brigid Corn Dolly – a very old custom which involved making a “Brigid” corn dolly that can be placed in a “Bride’s Bed” to bring fertility and good fortune.
Brigid is considered the patroness of poetry, medicine, arts and crafts, cattle and other livestock, sacred wells and the early arrival of spring.
