Imbolc is the spring festival celebrated in some of the lands around the Irish Sea. Halfway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, 1st February also marks St Brigid’s Day.
The following day, 2nd February, is Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ in the Temple. It’s roughly forty days after Christmas and marks the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary: traditionally women were ‘churched’ 40 days after giving birth, regarded as somehow ‘unclean’ until blessed by a priest.
Both Imbolc and Candlemas are therefore light festivals, ritually invoking and anticipating a lessening of the dark.
Minutiae 