(This festival fell on the 1st of August in 2009, in the Southern Hemisphere. For information on the Southern Wheel of the Year, click label at end of post.)
This festival is also known as Brigit's Day, Imbolc and Candlemas.
Last year (2008) was my first Bride's Day. I went to a great open circle in Sydney run by Druidry Down Under. This year I have been rather unwell and just had a low-key ritual at home.
I set up my altar with symbols of the maiden goddesses of Scotland, England and Lithuania (my ancestral cultures) and lit a big white candle.
The golden wattles were just beginning to show unopened blooms on Bride's Day. The wattle makes a good native flower emblem for Bride's Day and I found a few sprigs of opened blooms and put them on my altar.
My ritual was very simple and informal. I buried a handful of seeds I saved at Lughnasadh to symbolise the time of sowing. I meditated on the archetypal maiden goddesses. And I carried a lighted candle into the corners of all the rooms of my house to symbolise the growing light of the light half of the year.
That was it. I find my altars and rituals and festivals get simpler as I understand them more.
The Southern Wheel & the Wuruma Wheel
Bride's Day is not marked on the Wuruma Wheel but is similar to Wuruma Spring, which is held around the middle of August.
The next festival on the Southern Wheel is Vernal Equinox at 7.19am on the 23rd of September 2009.
Wuruma Wheel explanation & dates
Southern Wheel explanation & dates
