The 2026 Full Snow Moon will peak on at 5:09 pm EST. on Sunday, February 1st.
Coincidentally, the Full Snow Moon falls on the cross-quarter day Imbolic.
Celebrating the first signs of spring, lighting bonfires on the feast of St. Bridget. Spring and Lambing season would begin so and to mark this occasion dairy food were included in most meal. Other activities included spring cleaning, lighting candles to encourage the sun's return, planting seeds, and setting goals for the year are a part of Imbolic's traditions.
The 2nd full moon of the year is sometimes called the Bear Moon, possibly because a temporary rise in temperature, or hunger, causes them leave their den briefly. Groundhogs also will leave their dens in Mid February, at times, but they are looking for potential mates as well as food.
Though i've never heard this charm before,
"Candles lite in the snow there a snowdrop will soon grow"
I like it. Quite soon the snowdrops will break thru the ground under our ancient pine trees and bloom soon there after, a sight i looke forward to each year.
All gentle reminders that as Gaia stirs in her sleep the sun's warmth will start it's return.
February is the month when snow is likely to and accumulate in the Northern hemisphere. This year is the perfect example of that. How i dreaded those long walks to and from school in the February snow, that was before the school buses covered the whole town. In those days little kids held the hands of big kids as they both walked thru deep snow. Now one rarely sees any kid, big or little outdoors.
Hungry Moon, and the Bone moon describe the the famine like conditions. Resourceful ancestors searched for bones and brought them home to boil into what we might now call "Bone Broth" .
" Live with the land, it is not you possession, or your slave ."
Imbolic, the midpoint of winter, the time when Gaia stirs in her sleep, as does the new life with in her. It is not yet time for the new green shoots of Spring to appear, the ground is still frozen and the nights are long and very cold, but promise is showing. Winter is the shortest season with only 89{88.99} days, it feels never ending to me, I miss my garden, I won't miss my heavy coat.
This year the midpoint of winter is on Feb 3rd, but who is counting? ME, I'm counting! The sun is at it's closest point to the sun, the perihelion. Gravity of the sun causes the earth faster at this time because it is closer to th sun in inter than in summer. I know that sounds , shall we say contradictory. Sadly though the suns rays are not very warming, but the produce more warmth that they did a month ago, the plants on my windowsill seem to notice the difference.
The Ground hog assures us that spring will be on time this year, and my fave Weatherman does also. I watch the trees for signs of budding out, I know it is still too early, even the snowdrops haven't broken thru the frosted ground. The Sun however hangs on a little longer each day, that is noticeable now. Would that I could ask one of those long ago ancestors to tell me about how good it felt to see the sun returning, I feel that it was cause for celebration, just as it is to me millennia later.
Imbolc is a holiday with a variety of names,
depending on which culture and location you’re looking at. In the Irish
Gaelic, it’s called Oimelc, which translates to “ewe’s milk.” It’s a
precursor to the end of winter when the ewes are nursing their newly
born lambs. Spring and the planting season are right around the corner.
Imbolc Key Takeaways
Imbolc gets its name from the Irish Gaelic Oimelc, which translates to “ewe’s milk.”
This
Sabbat, which falls on February 2, is often a celebration of the
goddess Brighid, who appears as St. Brigid in the Christian faith.
Other
celebrations that fall around this time include the Roman Lupercalia,
Egypt's Feast of Nut, and Candelmas, the feast of the Purification of
the Virgin.
The Romans Celebrate
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To the Romans, this time of year halfway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox
was the season of the Lupercalia. For them, it was a purification
ritual held on February 15, in which a goat was sacrificed and a scourge
made of its hide. Thong-clad men ran through the city, whacking people
with bits of goat hide. Those who were struck considered themselves
fortunate indeed. This is one of the few Roman celebrations that is not
associated with a particular temple or deity. Instead, it focuses on the
founding of the city of Rome, by twins Romulus and Remus, who were
suckled by a she-wolf in a cave known as the "Lupercale."
The Feast of Nut
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The ancient Egyptians celebrated this time of year as the Feast of Nut,
whose birthday falls on February 2 on the Gregorian calendar. According
to the Book of the Dead, Nut was seen as a mother-figure to the sun god Ra,
who at sunrise was known as Khepera and took the form of a scarab
beetle. She is typically portrayed as a nude woman covered in stars, and
is positioned above her husband Geb, the earth god. When she comes down
to meet him each night, darkness falls.
Christian Conversion of a Pagan Celebration
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When Ireland converted to Christianity, it was hard to convince people
to get rid of their old gods, so the church allowed them to worship the goddess Brighid
as a saint–thus the creation of St. Brigid's Day. Today, there are many
churches around the world which bear her name. St. Brighid of Kildare
is one of Ireland's patron saints, and she is associated with an early
Christian nun and abbess, although historians are divided on whether or
not she was a real person.
For many Christians, February 2nd continues to be celebrated as
Candelmas, the feast of purification of the Virgin. By Jewish law, it
took forty days after a birth for a woman to be cleansed following the
birth of a son. Forty days after Christmas–the birth of Jesus–is
February 2nd. Candles were blessed, there was much feasting to be had,
and the drab days of February suddenly seemed a little brighter. In
Catholic churches, the focus of this celebration is St. Brigid.
Love & Courtship
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February is known as a month when love begins anew, in part to to the
widespread celebration of Valentine's Day. In some parts of Europe,
there was a belief that February 14th was the day that birds and animals
began their annual hunt for a mate. Valentine's Day
is named for the Christian priest who defied Emperor Claudius II's
edict banning young soldiers from marrying. In secret, Valentine "tied
the knot" for many young couples. Eventually, he was captured and
executed on Feb. 14, 269 C.E. Before his death, he smuggled a message to
a girl he had befriended while imprisoned–the first Valentine's Day
card.
Serpents in the Spring
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Although Imbolc isn't even mentioned in non-Gaelic Celtic traditions,
it's still a time rich in folklore and history. According to the , the
Celts celebrated an early version of Groundhog Day on Imbolc too–only
with a serpent, singing this poem:
Thig an nathair as an toll (The serpent will come from the hole) la donn Bride (on the brown day of Bride (Brighid) Ged robh tri traighean dh’an (though there may be three feet of snow) Air leachd an lair (On the surface of the ground.)
Among agricultural societies, this time of year was marked by the
preparation for the spring lambing, after which the ewes would
lactate–hence the term "ewe's milk" as "Oimelc." At Neolithic sites in
Ireland, underground chambers align perfectly with the rising sun on
Imbolc.
The Goddess Brighid
Like many Pagan holidays, Imbolc has a Celtic connection as well,
although it wasn’t celebrated in non-Gaelic Celtic societies. The Irish goddess Brighid
is the keeper of the sacred flame, the guardian of home and hearth. To
honor her, purification and cleaning are a wonderful way to get ready
for the coming of Spring. In addition to fire, she is a goddess
connected to inspiration and creativity.
Brighid is known as one of the Celtic "triune" goddesses–meaning
that she is one and three simultaneously. The early Celts celebrated a
purification festival by honoring Brighid, or Brid, whose name meant
"bright one." In some parts of the Scottish Highlands, Brighid was
viewed in her aspect as crone as Cailleach Bheur,
a woman with mystical powers who was older than the land itself.
Brighid was also a warlike figure, Brigantia, in the Brigantes tribe
near Yorkshire, England. The Christian St. Brigid was the daughter of a
Pictish slave who was baptized by St. Patrick, and founded a community of nuns at Kildare, Ireland.
In modern Paganism, Brighid is viewed as part of the maiden/mother/crone cycle.
She walks the earth on the eve of her day, and before going to bed each
member of the household should leave a piece of clothing outside for
Brighid to bless. Smoor your fire as the last thing you do that night,
and rake the ashes smooth. When you get up in the morning, look for a
mark on the ashes, a sign that Brighid has passed that way in the night
or morning. The clothes are brought inside, and now have powers of
healing and protection thanks to Brighid.
Under the snow and ice there is alot going on , roots and are growing and supplying water and nutrients to trees and perennial plants, bulbs are swelling and preparing to break thru the frozen ground, and mice and other creatures who don't hibernate are raising their young. It still looks pretty desolate and wintery out there, but it surely is not. Soon dormancy will give way to swelling buds and the first snowdrops breaking into blossom. Maple sap will rise and be tapped for maple syrup. And then the Turkey Vultures will be aboard in the landscape, cleaning up what remains of this winters remains.
This post was prompted by the following explanation, simply because it makes so much sense the natural curiosity of animals was the origin of this this belief rather than their ability to predict the weather patterns for weeks at a time.
