St. Brigid – Joerg's Ramblings

St. Brigid or just Brigid – Truth or Myth?

On Thursday 01 Feb is Brigid’s Day and the following Monday is a new public holiday in Ireland since 2022.

Brigit or Brid was possibly a celtic goddess. Also possibly, she was a woman that lived from 451-525 and who founded a monastery in Kildare. And also possibly the whole thing is complete invention. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigid_of_Kildare

St. Brigid is one of three national saints of Ireland (St. Patrick, St Brigid and St Columba/Columcille), but she was never canonised (made a Saint by the Catholic Church), but instead was a “popular Saint” and allegedly in 1969 her name was removed from the list of saints (mylesdungan.com/2019/02/01/fake-histories5-was-saint-brigid-a-canonised-saint-of-the-roman-catholic-church/. This seems to be confirmed by archive.org/details/CalendariumRomanum1969/page/n85/mode/2up)

Her Feast Day is the 1st of February, but as a non-Saint she can’t really have a feast day. St. Bridget of Sweden who still is a Saint has her feast day on 23 July or 08 October, not on 01 Feb (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridget_of_Sweden) (Some people thought that the two Brigid’s have the feast day on the same day, but that is incorrect.)

Somehow St. Bridget got linked to Imbolc (probably through her Celtic goddess connection), which is the celtic festival of the start of the brighter half of the year, which is NOT the same as the start of Spring.

So on 01 Feb is the feast day of a woman/god that probably never existed, who is not a saint and therefore can’t be a national saint of Ireland. And spring starts on 01 March as Met Eireann keeps confirming, not on 01 Feb. Yes, Imbolc is on 01 Feb, but Imbolc is not the start of Spring. Uff, a bit of a mess!?

Confused? No need to be! Many “truths” in life are inventions of our imagination (or someone’s story telling). ;-)

The only slightly annoying thing is that because of this flawed story, a bank holiday that should be in warmer September was put in the first week of cold February. ;-) But at least it’s another public holiday!

Picture by Culnacreann – Own work, CC BY 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3500722)

Skirts for the boys? – Gender Neutral School Uniforms

St. Brigid’s National School in Greystones has decided that from September “gender neutral school uniforms” will be introduced, which means that boys will be allowed to wear skirts and girls are allowed to wear trousers.

The change was “entirely student-led” the school says and after a trigger from the students, the school checked with the parents and then decided to go ahead with the change.

On Facebook (and probably in society) this approach is praised by some and ridiculed by others.

In my opinion, it is loooong overdue to allow girls to ditch the nonsensical skirts in cold Ireland. In fact, I think everyone should be allowed to wear whatever they want, but that might still be a step to far.

Growing up in Germany where school uniforms don’t exist, I still find it odd that schools in Ireland still have school uniforms in 2019. I had many discussions with friends about this topic and understand that the opinion is that a school uniforms reduces the pressure and competition for students to wear “cool” clothes, but uniforms are part of adult life and I think we should give our kids the chance to live their individuality as long as they are in school.

The new approach in the National School in Greystones is at least a little step in the right direction. People panic about boys suddenly wearing skirts and – you know what – this is stupid argument! I would bet money on the fact that it is extremely unlikely that any of the boys will suddenly wear skirts, but why did it take until 2019 to let the girls wear trousers if they wish to? It is time to change!

However, there is still a problem in my eyes: Why do schools force kids to wear ties? Pupils in St. Brigid’s National School have to wear green ties, no matter if they are boys or girls. Can we PLEASE simplify the uniforms and make them child compatible.

www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2019/0620/1056436-st-brigids-national-school-greystones/

www.independent.ie/irish-news/education/weve-had-a-few-negative-calls-wicklow-school-on-decision-to-introduce-genderneutral-uniform-policy-38238725.html

Tag: St. Brigid

St. Brigid or just Brigid – Truth or Myth?

Skirts for the boys? – Gender Neutral School Uniforms