from sunset tonight (feb 1) until sunset tomorrow (feb 2) is the pagan festival of imbolc. located midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, it was celebrated by the gaels as the liminal transition from winter into spring (liminality is an important aspect in celtic mythology and folklore). it has a interesting history, and possibly is the origin of groundhog day., through a roundabout series of historical syncretisms and cultural adoptions.
this is one of my favorite times of year. even though it's still cold, and most plants are bare and dormant, the days aren't as short anymore, and some of the more precocious plants start to show hints of activity around the next few weeks.
imbolc is associated with the gaelic goddess brigid, patron of poets, smiths, and healers. tradition is to weave a brigid's cross out of rushes on imbolc, to be hung over a doorway throughout the year to protect a home from fire (a force that brigid is tied to).
the most common form of these crosses has four arms, but i prefer the three-armed versions, because of its mythic resonance to a lot of things in celtic paganism- brigid's triple nature, the three realms of land, sea, and sky, the triskele, the triad of gods, ancestors, and spirits, the three cauldrons of poesy, and so on.
this year i'm going to try to actually make one out of rushes i stole from some corporate landscaping, but if you don't have access to rushes, you can make a cute little one out of folded paper! (note: it's also possible (easier, in fact) to make a 4-arm cross out of paper; see this tutorial.)
how to make one!
first cut three strips of paper out. the exact dimensions aren't too important, but you'll want the wi1th of them to be double the desired arm width.
fold them in half the long way. this step isn't strictly necessary, you could start out with strips that are already the desired arm width, and skip the lengthwise fold entirely- but i like to do this, because it makes the cross feel a bit sturdier.
now fold it in half again, this time the short way.
this is the trickiest part- starting from the corner of your crease, fold a little 30-60-90 right triangle. it's helpful to have a reference image up to get the angles right because most protractors aren't this small. here i'm using a geometry book, but any image of a equilateral triangle or 30-60 right triangle will work.
note: it doesn't really matter much, but if you want things to be a bit neater, i recommend folding the triangle from the corner with the lengthwise crease. i'm actually doing it wrong in this image, folding from the corner where the edge "opens up", and doing it this way makes a latter step a little bit more annoying.
now you want to fold the back of each strip "up and over" the triangle, so you end up with a crease at the end of your strip that comes in at a nice 30 degree angle.
now comes the fun part of weaving the three arms into a cross! this is actually pretty intuitive to do, and i'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but if you find that one of your arms isn't slotting neatly into another arm, that just means you put it in backwards. just take it out and flip it around.
and there you go! even though i just used scrap paper here for demonstration purposes, you can get creative with the colors of the arms, or paint/draw on your cross, or write poetry on it, or all sorts of things. green is a traditional color associated with brigid's crosses, due to them normally being made from rushes, but with paper you can really have it be any color. you could even mix and match the arm colors.
thanks for reading!