Imbolg Inspiration

 

It's almost time for Imbolg (more commonly called Imbolc and also known as February Eve), the 1st sabbat of the new calendar year, and the 2nd/3rd on the Wheel of the Year. As I mentioned in my Celebrating Yule/Christmas post, some people think of the year as beginning and ending at Samhain (Hallowe'en), so they consider Samhain as the New Year, while others count Yule as New Year.


Note: for those in the Southern Hemipshere it's Lammas time! Check out these posts for celebration ideas:

https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2017/07/lammas-celebration-ideas.html

https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2018/07/celebrating-lammas.html


Imbolg is celebrated on 2nd February (Saturday this year), or from the night of 1st Feb to the night of the 2nd (sundown to sundown). Or some people would celebrate from 31st January to 1st February, which is why it's also called February Eve. If you go by the scientific time, Marietta of Witchy Words mentions it's at 9.01pm CST on 3rd February, and 3.01am in the UK (making it Sunday). I believe the energy of it is active around that time anyway, so you could celebrate at the time that feels best to you. :)

Imbolg is also known as Candlemas, although that is more of a Christian festival based on the pagan ones. It's the first spring festival and marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring (or the beginning of the end of winter really, since we still have a few weeks to go). 

It's also a fire festival and the feast of Bride or Brigid (pronounced something like "Breed") the Irish Fire Goddess, who became Christianised as Saint Brigid. The Irish Gaelic word "Imbolc" or "Imbolg" is thought to translate as "in the belly" meaning the ewes who are pregnant at this time of year. There is another word "Oimelc" which is said to mean "ewe's milk". 

Imbolg is a cross-quarter day, meaning that it's in between a solstice and equinox. It's between Yule aka the Winter Solstice and Oestara/Ostara aka the Spring Equinox in March.

Christmas Vanilla Roll Cake + New Year Gingerbread

This Christmas (or rather Christmas 2018 now since we're in a new year!) I baked a Christmas vanilla roll cake, which I first made in 2013. The recipe is from a trEATS affair (formerly Roxana's Home Baking). You can find the recipe here: http://atreatsaffair.com/christmas-vanilla-roll-cake-recipe/

You roll it up like with a  chocolate Yule log or Swiss roll. (Roll cake is just another name for Swiss roll, really). I don't think the cake itself came out as nice this time, but never mind! The buttercream was nice. This time I used multicoloured sprinkles. And I ate it with Nestle Carnation topping (evaporated milk) again because it can be a bit dry. I made the roll on Christmas Eve and the topping on Christmas Day. Here's a pic:

Yule 2018

It was Yule aka the Winter Solstice on Friday (21st December) and as I mentioned in my Celebrating Yule/Christmas post, I celebrated with a chocolate Yule log. This year's was a Belgian chocolate one from Tesco (think it's new) and was quite nice. Here's a pic:

Celebrating Yule/Christmas

Yule, also known as Midwinter and the Winter Solstice, is nearly here. It's on 21st December (Friday) this year. (The date varies but is always around the 21st). The Winter Solstice is when the North Pole is furthest away from the sun, and the actual time it will happen this year will be around 10.23pm UK time (GMT). To find the time in your country visit this link: https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/winter-solstice.html


It's the final sabbat of the calendar year, but the 1st/2nd in the Wheel of the Year seasonal cycle. I say 1st and 2nd because while Samhain is the end of the old year, it's also thought to be the start of the new. Some people start with Samhain as the beginning of the Wheel, others start with Yule. I tend to think of Samhain as both really (the last harvest festival of the year but also the start of a new cycle) and list it first. You can read more about it here: http://paganism-wicca.yoexpert.com/sabbats-and-holidays-13108/is-it-true-that-samhain-marks-the-witches-new-year-36057.html

Update 13/12/21: Original link not working, but here is another article: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/teaaddictedwitch/2019/12/yule-pagan-new-year/

And here is an interesting article about how the celebration of New Year varies: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/panmankey/2013/11/happy-pagan-new-year/
 

Note: If you're in the Southern Hemisphere it will soon be Litha aka Midsummer/the Summer Solstice. Here are my Litha celebration ideas posts:

(Also a post about no-yeast dinner rolls): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2017/06/baking-no-yeast-dinner-rolls-and.html

https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2018/06/celebrating-litha-summer.html


Last year I did a post about Yule celebration ideas which you can read here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2017/12/yule-celebration-ideas.html


This year I thought I'd write about celebrating both Yule and Christmas, similar to the Celebrating Beltane/May Day and Samhain/Hallowe'en posts, since I enjoy celebrating both. :)

Winter Round-up + Inspiration

A year ago I wrote a post about getting ready for winter, which you can read here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2017/12/getting-ready-for-winter.html

Now winter is coming again, and this year I'm going to do a round-up of previous winter posts and share some links with inspiration for the season. :)

Note: If you're in the Southern Hemisphere you might like this post about celebrating Litha/the Summer Solstice and summer: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2018/06/celebrating-litha-summer.html

 

While I find it easy to be inspired by summer (since it's my favourite season and I like hot weather), I find winter a lot harder! I don't like cold weather and winter can be quite dreary. I like autumn because it's a beautiful time of year, but it seems quite brief really. By the end of November most of the trees in my area had lost their leaves and the lovely colours had faded. 

While we're still technically in autumn, if you follow the astronomical definition of winter which is around 21st December (the meteorological one is 1st Dec), it's starting to feel more like winter now. Some parts of the country have had snow. There hasn't been any in my town yet but in my area they had some. The temperature is 12 degrees Celsius (54 F) today though, so warmer. It's supposed to go down to 7 tonight. Next week the coldest during the day will be about 7, so we're not in proper winter weather yet! This past winter seemed quite long with more snow than usual in the UK and I was ready when spring arrived! It will be nice if we get snow again this year/early next year though.

Bonfire Night Fireworks Photos

Here are a few photos from  Bonfire Night firework displays I went to recently. Although Bonfire Night (also known as Guy Fawkes Night) is on 5th November, people have displays around that date, and I went to one on Hallowe'en (as I mentioned in my Hallowe'en/Samhain 2018 post) and then another one on Friday 2nd November. I didn't get many good pics at the Lancing Beach Green one, so they're mostly from the display in Preston Park in Brighton. They were more varied in colour but I had trouble getting good pictures, and these were the best ones!

Fireworks at Lancing Beach Green

Hallowe'en/Samhain 2018

Last Wednesday it was Hallowe'en/Samhain. As I mentioned in my post Celebrating Samhain/Halloween, I had a pumpkin and made some food and drink. I made my usual Demon's Blood (a Kate West recipe of ginger beer mixed with apple and orange juice, and dyed green), and potato salad which I've done for the past few years. It's based on a recipe from The Kitchen Witch by Soraya, but I did it with spring onion and chives. I made some fire roasted potatoes as well, which is a recipe from last year's Co-Op magazine. (I think it's a Bonfire Night recipe but we're in that season as well, and I did go to a firework display on Hallowe'en itself, since it happened to be that Wednesday!) I'll probably share firework pics in another post. :)


Here's a picture of the pumpkin and pumpkin lantern (both have tealights inside):

Came out a bit blurry but nice effect!