Cross quarter days are the mid points between solstice and equinox. Roughly coinciding with the changing seasons these auspicious occasions have been venerated in this country and beyond for ever. In James Frasers “The Golden Bough” , an exploration of magic and religion, the author hypothesis that the start of summer and the end of autumn were the first to be marked by our ancestors as these correlated with the movement of cattle herds from low ground to high ground and the others were later recognised.
As a time of change and renewal Imbolc at the start of February is a recognition of the transition from the dark inward looking months of winter and the turning towards the light and with it new growth and transformation. Perhaps the exact traditions and customs have been eroded and the context irrevocably altered but the event is nonetheless as significant now as it ever was. Somewhere in us is still this desire to resonate with the change. Irregardless of seasons blending or climate crisis the solar interaction is unchanging. Not exact, not unchanging, but eternal.