Today, February 1st, is the start of Spring in the old Celtic and Gaelic calendar. It was the Celtic feast of Imbolc,  which centred around the lighting of fires. This was a celebration of the lengthening days and the early signs of Spring, a sigh of relief that the winter was finally beginning to end. It is the time for getting rid of the old and beginning again, the start of a period of planting, growth and birth. We can start again. We are not trapped by our past but have choices. The days are beginning to lengthen, the sun’s light beginning to warm the earth.  These ideas were taken into the Christian calendar with the celebration of light which is February 2nd, Candlemas. Traditionally,  we light a candle on these days, symbolizing that a milestone has been passed in our difficulties and in the long winter. Light overcoming darkness, warmth replacing cold, new growth beginning to appear. We look forward in hope.

For last year’s words
belong to last year’s language
and next year’s words
await another voice.

And to make an end
is to make a beginning

T.S. Eliot