Written by Michael Meehan
The celebration will encompass both a feast and a small ritual. Individuals will gather early in order to prepare the celebration area and cook food. Food should reflect the festival with dairy, cheeses and butters playing a significant role. A loaf of oat bread should be made which will be offered solely to Brighid.
Each household should bring an offering dish to be dedicated to (and used only for) the Goddess Brighid. Households should also bring a piece of cloth made of natural fiber (no smaller than a yard) which will be present during the ritual and which will then be taken home to leave out that evening to ask the Goddess to bless and bestow healing powers on (Brighid’s mantle).
The festival should be celebrated in front of the hearth of the home. If no hearth is available, then candles may be used to symbolize the hearth. Images of Brighid, anvils, tools of healing and such should decorate the shrine. An empty chair should be placed next to the hearth for the Goddess Brighid. Each household should place an offering dish near the hearth.
While the food is cooking individuals should gather to make Brighid dollies. The completed dollies, reeds, oat bread and mantles should be placed in four separate baskets. The flametender assembles the peat in the fireplace.
Plates of offerings to the deities of the tribe, the ancestors and the spirits of the land should also be prepared and set aside in the ritual area. A fireproof bowl containing dried juniper should also be placed in the ritual area, along with matches.
When all the food is prepared and all of the offerings are assembled, individuals should take their places – sitting in front of the hearth. Individuals who will carry the four baskets and the individual who will be tending the fire will proceed outside. The firetender should take a candle from the altar with her. When outside, a prayer should be said to the Goddess and the candle should be lit. All of the lights in the house should then be turned off.
The individuals should proceed outside to the front door and the lady carrying the candle should knock on the door and say:
“Go down on your knees, do homage and let the Goddess Brighid enter.”
This should be done three times after which individuals in the house will respond:
“Oh, come in, you are a hundred times welcome!”
At which point the door will be opened and the procession will enter and go to the hearth one by one. The firetender bringing the light enters first with the rest following. The flametender lights the candles on the shrine from hers.
The leader then lights the juniper and blesses the rest of the baskets containing the oat bread, the reeds, the dollies and the mantles one by one. The baskets are then placed near the foot of Brighid’s chair.
The leader then reads the genealogy of the Goddess Brighid:
The genealogy of the Goddess Brighid,
Radiant flame of gold, noble mother of inspiration.
Brighid the daughter of an Daghda,
Son of Elathan and of Ethnui, daughter of Balor, King of the Fomorians,
Son of Buarainech, the cow-faced.
Every day and every night
That we shall say the genealogy of Brighid,
We shall not be killed, we shall not be harried,
We shall not be put in darkness, we shall not be wounded
Neither shall the Goddess leave us in our forgetfulness.
No fire, no sun, no moon shall burn us,
No lake, now water nor see shall drown me,
No arrow of Fomorians nor dart of enchantment shall wound us.
And we, under the protection of our Goddess Brighid shall always be.
After the reading, the flame tender comes forward and says the following:
I will raise the hearth-fire
As Brighid would
The protection of Brighid be
On the fire and on the floor
And on our households all!
(all respond):
And on our households all!
The flame tender now lights the flame in the hearth from the candle. While she is doing this a sung should be sung.
When the song is finished, she will then ask the group:
Who are They on the bare floor?
(all respond): The ancestors, the grandfathers and grandmothers of old do come.
Who is she by our beds?
(all respond): The lovely Goddess Brighid it is.
Who are that watching over our sleep?
(all respond): Nuada, the great Chieftain of our tribe.
Who is that anear us?
(all respond): It is Lugh, he himself it is.
Who is that at the back of our heads?
(all respond): The Deities, the ancestors and the spirits of this land are there.
At this point an individual will come forward and present some teachings or information about Brighid and Imbolc.
After the individual is finished, the lady who has been tending the hearth comes forward and lifts the oat bread in the air and says (all resond in italics):
For the Goddess Brighid
We Honor You!
For the Great Lady of Poetry
We offer you our Hospitality!
For the Lady Who Inspires
We give thanks for your blessings and protection!
For She of the Art of Leechcraft
We Honor You!
For She of the Art of Blacksmithing
We offer you our Hospitality!
For She of Many Arts of Craftsmanship
We give thanks for your blessings and protection!
For the Keeper of the King of Boars
We Honor You!
For the Keeper of the King of Whethers
We offer you our Hospitality!
For the Keeper of Fe and Men
We give thanks for your blessings and protection!
For the Daughter of the Dagda
We Honor You!
For the Wife of Bres
We offer you our Hospitality!
For the Mournful Mother of Ruadan
We give thanks for your blessings and protection!
After this each household is invited to come up and take a piece of bread from the load and place on their offering dishes.
When each household has done this, offerings are made to the ancestors, spirits of the land and the rest of the Gods of the tribe. At the beginning of each verse in the litany of offerings a bodhran may be beaten in order to welcome the deities, ancestors and spirits.
Individuals making the offerings come forward and hold the appropriate offering in the air and say (all respond in italics):
To Lugh Lamfada
We honor you!
Samildananch
We offer you our hospitality!
The Voice of Thunder
We give thanks for your blessings and protection!
The next individual comes forward:
To Nuada
We honor you!
To the Protector of our Tribe
We offer you our hospitality!
To our Deity and Cheiftain
We give thanks for your blessings and protection!
The next individual comes forward:
To the Ancestors of our Spirit
We honor you!
To the Ancestors of our Flesh
We remember you!
To those Ancestors who are forgotten to us by name
Be with us, protect us and guide us!
The last individual comes forward:
To the Spirits of this Land
We honor you!
To all Spirits of Rocks, Springs, and Mounds
We offer our respect!
To all Spirits of the Green World and its Denizens
We strive to be good neighbors
Following the offerings, the diviner comes forward to perform a divination. S/he says:
Brighid, Great Goddess of our tribe who we honor this evening , do you have any wisdom that you wish to impart to us?
The diviner than casts the oghams or performs some other sort of divination and provides the results to the rest of the tribe.
Individuals now gather around the fire and share in a communal meal. Individuals may toast their own personal deities, ancestors or spirits if they feel moved to do so and invite them to join in the celebration. Crosses should be made of the reeds.
To honor the Goddess Brighid, individuals may also recite a piece of poetry, play a song on an instrument, present a work of art for the Goddess and etc.
When the celebration has finished, the group should clean up. Offerings may be disposed of in the flames, or may be placed outside for the Goddess.
Households should then take their crosses, mantles, dollies and offerings home with them. The dollies should be welcomed into the house in honor of Brighid and the crosses hung in the house for protection. The mantle should be placed outside overnight – on the doorstep, porch, windowsill or tied to the door. The offerings should also be placed outside. During the night, we hope that the Goddess will pass by and bestow healing properties upon the mantle as she visits each household.