Saints SZN
They all come marching in like spring
It’s saint szn. From Saint Brigid to the marching saints of mardi gras to the folklore of St. Patrick to the madness of St. Peter (and almost Mary).
All those saints mean spring is here today!
At least, according to space nerds.
Today is the vernal equinox, or the day perfectly balanced between day and night. Light and dark. The maginot line of the equator has been breached and the sun’s invasion of the northern hemisphere is tipping the balance. (a.k.a. We all get to photosynthesize longer for a few months.)
But, while your calendar will tell you today is the first day of Spring, it’s really just the first day of a spring.
For meteorologists, it has been spring since the beginning of the month. Which explains why I always think of seasons as quarters of the year that nicely align with our pope’s calendar. March 1 was also St. David’s Day. Or George Herbet’s Day. Or maybe St. Maruta. And also a whole bunch of orthodox saints, but they didn’t get celebrated until a few days later, or earlier.
According to the sun (and the Celts, and pagans), spring started on February 1(ish). My assumption here is that the equinoxes roughly mark the midpoints of the seasons instead of the starting points. (Also, I’m not listing more saints, I’ve given you plenty of links to figure that our for yourself if you want.)
For the Gaelic amongst us Feb 1 was Imbolc, a.k.a. Saint Brigid’s Day (and now all the saint stuff makes sense…maybe). Our girl Brig is 1 of 3 Official Saints of Ireland™, along with ol’ Patty boy (the third is some guy named Columba (not Colombo)). She apparently made a dude’s eyes explode, turned water into beer, fleeced a king for some real estate, and controlled the weather, amongst other things.
Imbolc is also when they tried to figure out if they were going to get stuck with more winter (sound familiar?).
Imbolc was believed to be when the Cailleach—the divine hag of Gaelic tradition—gathers her firewood for the rest of the winter. Legend has it that if she wishes to make the winter last a good while longer, she will make sure the weather on Imbolc is bright and sunny, so she can gather plenty of firewood.
A hag gathering firewood is way cooler than a scaredy-cat groundhog. (Why are all spring divination days about wanting bad weather in order to predict better weather? That’s a rabbbit hole for another day.)
And then, of course, there is the spring of plants. The spring of place. The spring of location. The season of blossoms, blooms, and new growth. The technicolor season of renewal and rebirth.
There may even be your personal spring.
But, whichever way you slice it, spring is here. So pop a Claritan, open a window, and put some flowers in your hair. Or not, you do you.