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Celebrating Brigit
Guide to Planning, Preparing, and Presenting

A few pictures from the Festival of Brigit 2004
(click for larger image)

Brigit's Cloak

Unfolding and Reclaiming Women's Ground

In the ancient stories, Brigit asked a rich man for land. He said he would give her as much as her cloak would cover. When she spread her cloak, it covered the Curragh of Kildare where she is said to have built her monastery. The theme is found through many ancient mythologies and we thought it appropriate for this year as the world faces the threat of all-out war.

Brigit as Goddess, saint, and Abbess was opposed to war. She gave away her father’s sword. She would not tolerate weapons near her sacred oak-tree. She mediated between the warring sides. She put clouds between fighting groups so they could not see one another. On one occasion, she put the warring factions to sleep and gave each of them sweet dreams of success. When they awoke, they went home happily.

With Brigit as our model, how can we women struggle to find a room of our own, in metaphor, symbol or reality, to live lives of integrity, justice, honour, and love? How can the metaphor of Brigit’s cloak serve to remind, protect, and encourage us in the journey ahead?

These are the questions that inspire us to celebrate her festival. The Institute for Feminism and Religion comprises community activists, artists, poets, weavers, therapists, religious sisters, singers, dancers and musicians who ground their spiritual search in our ancient traditions for the sake of the present and future. We come from many faith and cultural traditions, and welcome those searching to live lives of integrity through whatever traditions and symbols enable their search.

In this, our third Festival of Brigit to be held in Belfast, our programme will be a little different. Residents can arrive on Friday evening, but we start our programme on Saturday morning and continue through to Sunday lunchtime.

We will continue the theme of Brigit’s Cloak throughout the event. This is the collective aim of the planners, poetically expressed: "At this time of winter’s mystical darkness and the magical light of spring, our aim is to provide a safe tent for every woman to weave a shawl of protection, a veil of mystery, a mantle of hope, a cloak of courage."

Three questions will be taken up throughout the weekend?

1. What is the ground I need to claim?
2. What is holding me back?
3. What resources do I need?

We invite each participant to bring materials to the event to design, create and/or begin the cloak most appropriate for her needs in the coming year. The cloak can be a prayer shawl for meditation, a magical veil for yourself, an altar cloth for our precious images and symbols, a comfort wrap for someone who is ill or distressed, or a protective cloak for those engaged in non-violent resistance: the form will be limited only by imagination and creativity.

Our work together will include meditation, story, theology, and ritual. Experienced women Keepers of the Flame will lead each small Home group (so that we get to make friends very quickly). The whole event will be woven together by Kate Chadbourne (Celtic scholar and musician); Mary Condren (theologian, and feminist theorist); Ann McKay (poet); and Janet O’Hagan (dramatherapist) together with dancers, singers and musicians. Carol Graham (artist) will create a centrepiece and our great team Northern team - Margaret McCullough, Noreen Christian (community and social activists) will hold it all together.

Early Saturday evening we will hold our traditional Brigit’s party and make crosses and brideogs (Brigit dolls). On late Saturday evening we traditionally have a bonfire going into the early hours for hardy souls!

On Sunday morning we will hold our traditional Brigit ceremony. Drawing on elements in old Irish traditions, participants will be invited to draw on Brigit’s inspiration and make their spiritual, personal, and political commitments for their journey in the year ahead. The event will finish with lunch on Sunday.

Click here to read one woman's experience of a past year's festival. Celebrating Brigit in Belfast

For more information, contact the Institute for Feminism and Religion.