Mary Green explores the colours and traditions of February.
F
ebruary is usually a greener month, and the colours you see are usually white on green. Of
course, in this unpredictable climate it can easily be little flecks of green on white snow. But as I walk the footpaths, canals and fields in Febru- ary, I am on the lookout for green and white. Already as I write this in January I can see the new leaves of cow parsley everywhere. These are often the first to show in any number, bright green and feathery. They are edible, tast- ing like cultivated parsley, but you do need to make sure they are cow parsley! This is in the same family as several poisonous plants, so children were traditionally taught to avoid eating it. However, it is really the only
one that appears this early. The white flowers don’t come till months later. Bulb leaves appear in January and
WHITE ONGREEN
February, the first of course being the snowdrop. By February this should be well in flower. Snowdrops used to be called Candlemas bells. Candlemas
is on February 2, a Christian festival based a day after the ancient Celtic festival of Imbolc on February 1, the festival of Brigid. Brigid was one of three forms of the mother goddess in Celtic tradition, and took over at Imbolc from the darker, older incarna-
Ground elder mandarin
Snowy
tion who had ruled the winter. Imbolc is also St Brigid’s Day; Brigid or Bridget being a Christian saint, linked with the Celtic figure. Snowdrops are associ- ated with this date in both traditions. Both Brigid and St Brigid are also associated with fire and candles. The significance of the date is that it
is halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, and therefore marks the start of spring. One of the traditions was that it was also the true end of the Christmas period, when you could safely take down greenery and burn it in the Candlemas flame. It was also in some traditions the time when you could start making love again, after a period of absti- nence through Advent and Christ- mas. Advent was originally a fast (no chocolates in calendars!) thought this has been lost over the years. The rather strange superstition that you had to wait so long after Christmas, which of course was a feast, was prob-
42 The Village February 2017
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