| Where: | Countrywide & Butser Ancient Farm, Hampshire |
| When: | February 1st and near weekend |
| Time: | All day (Butser 1pm-4pm) |
Imbolc is the feast day of St Brigid and marks the beginning of spring in the pagan year; Brigid was a pagan goddess later christianised and adopted by the church and is also known as Bride and Bridget. Today neo-pagans, Wiccans and Druids celebrate the festival countrywide, and the reconstructed Iron Age village at Buster hots a special afternoon involving blessings, firelighting, storytelling and the passing of the Bed of Bride around the roundhouse. Fire and water are important elements in the festival but it may celebrated in a variety of ways; in the past corn-dolly representations of the saint were carried from house to house in a luck bringing custom.
Helpful Hints
Imbolc Fire Festival celebrates Imbolc every other year (see listing under February Variable Dates). As well as ceremonies organised by Wiccan and Pagan groups throughout the country (and too numerous to list here) there are celebrations for Imbolc organised each year at Butser Ancient Farm on a weekend near February 1st. All of the major Celtic festivals are marked at Butser including the spectacular Beltain (see separate article). Click here for their website and to buy tickets: http://www.butserancientfarm.co.uk/
In 2025 the Butser Imbolc should be on Saturday 1st February from 2-4pm (follow website link above for tickets and full details).
A tasty vegetarian stew with a choice of different breads was included in the ticket price in 2019, and was served around 2pm, with another refreshment break around 3pm.
Photos are at Butser 2019.
Butser Hill Iron Age Farm in Hampshire holds an Imbolc festival.I went to the 2014 day, and it was good fun; there were songs and stories enjoyed whilst sitting around the fire in one of the roundhouses, and mulled fruit juice and soup were included. Butser Hill is brilliant; there are recontructions of Iron Age roundhouses, and also a Roman villa. Going into the villa I was especially struck by a mosaic, which turned out on closer inspection to be made of Lego.