THE PATRONESS OF KILDARE

St. Brigid's day, La Féile Bríde, 1st February, is the first day of spring and is one of the quarterly feasts of the folk calendar in Ireland. The feast is associated with a distinct group of beliefs and customs.

The Brigid commemorated on 1st February is St. Brigid, foundress and abbess of the monastery at Kildare, whose life spanned the second half of the fifth century and the first quarter of the sixth century.

The main significance of the feast of St. Brigid would seem to be that it was a Christianisation of one of the (pre-Christian) focal points of the agricultural year in Ireland, the starting point of preparations for the spring sowing. Traditionally, from this day onwards, both farmers and fishermen expected an improvement in the weather.

Brigid was loved by the poor because of how she used to share her bread and apples with them and because of how she assured the people that God had given them dignity and the right to exist.

BELIEFS & CUSTOMS

If, on Brigid's day, the lark should sing, it is accepted as an omen of a good spring.

Hoar-frost gathered from the grass on the morning of St. Brigid's day is an infallible cure for headache.

The brat Bride was put outside the house on St. Brigid's Eve and not brought in until morning. It was believed to have a cure for sickness or pains and a protection against harm.

An Bhrideog - The custom of the brideog, or "biddy", usually consisted of a group of people, called brideoga, or "biddies", going from house to house while carrying a representation of St. Brigid and usually receiving some donation at every house they visited.

(Also taken from the sheet distributed at the visitors center in Kildare town. Compiled by Tourism Students at Kildare College of Further Studies, January 2000.)