To the editor:
Re Judy Isacoff’s recent column, “Turning the corner to spring,” I wanted to credit the tradition from which this reference came: the Celts. Once thought to have occupied much of Europe, this Earth-honoring tradition was gradually pushed to the hinterlands of France, the British Isles, and Galicia in Spain.
The cross-quarter days do fall between each Solstice and Equinox, and as one would expect of a culture grounded in the rhythms of nature, honor the changes of the seasons, and people’s hopes and fears for their livelihood. Imbolc, February 1, honored the first stirrings of spring, when ewes would give birth and people’s thoughts began to turn toward the next planting season. Groundhog Day is a corruption of this celebration. The next “Feis” will be Beltane, May 1, when spring has truly arrived, and we see the spin-offs in other celebrations that have overtaken that day. Then Lughnasadh, the harvest celebration on August 1 that marks the end of summer. And, the most sacred, Samhain, on October 31, a liminal day of honoring our ancestors and the beginning of the Celtic New Year.
We have lost so much in the transformation of these ancient days of honoring, giving thanks, and celebration, now trivialized and commercialized, as is so much of our impoverished culture.
Bonnie Campbell
Lenox
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