St Brigid was a Celtic goddess who was later adopted by the Catholic Church as a saint (founding the first Irish monastery in County Kildare). The eve of her feast day each year, it is tradition to fashion a St Brigid’s Cross of straw or rushes and place it inside the house over the door to give protection against fire, hunger and evil to those within.
We honour St Brigid’s on 1st February - also known as the festival of Imbolc, signalling the earth awakening and the beginning of spring. More of that tomorrow - meanwhile the tradition of making a cross from rushes to welcome St Brigid and the return of the light is one worth adopting in your own home, if you don’t already.
We collected these marsh-grass rushes today from a boggy field and used a great YouTube video tutorial to teach us how to craft a cross (Linktree in our bio). It was a calm and satisfying way to spend half an hour or so - for the boys (aged 9 and 7) it was just fiddly enough to be super rewarding.
We hope ours inspire you to give it a try - and leave you with the traditional St Brigid’s blessing:
