Donal Hickey: Mild weather on the way if you spot a hedgehog at this time of year
If A According Irish On Mild Stays It’s Senses Good He As Sign Out From To Way — Weather Weather The Hedgehog Emerging A Lore, Hibernation
Around now, hedgehogs should be emerging from winter hibernation, depending on the weather. Stepping out gingerly, the spikey fellow gives himself a good shake, glances around, and sniffs the air.
If the weather is inclement, he returns immediately to his refuge underground, which he will not leave until the elements are kinder. According to Irish weather lore, it’s a good sign if he stays out as he senses mild weather on the way.
St Brigid’s Day, on February 1 — with the bank holiday celebrated on February 5 this year — is a significant date. And not just because it honours Ireland's most esteemed female saint: it’s the beginning of spring and, effectively, the start of the farming year.
Traditionally, farmers hoped for good weather as they prepared for the sowing of crops. In coastal areas, fishers expected an abatement of storms and rough seas to enable them to get out and cast their nets again.
Kevin Danaher, a native of Athea, County Limerick, was an eminent folklorist and an insightful student of country people and their ways. He recalled a belief that St Brigid promised good weather at this time.
All signs were carefully noted. Wind direction on the eve of her feast was an omen of prevailing wind during the year ahead. The actual feast day should show signs of improving weather, though an exceptionally fine day was regarded as an indication of poor weather to come.
“Rain in February, however, was not unwelcome as it softened the soil and brought an early growth of grass. Proverbially, a rainy February gave token of a fine summer," wrote the late Dr Danaher in his book .
Like many feasts and calendar events in Ireland, St Brigid’s is believed by scholars to have a mixture of pagan and Christian origins, given the association with new growth and fresh stirrings in nature.
A widespread, surviving custom linked to the feast is the making of St Brigid’s crosses from straw or rushes. Until about 30 years ago, the
cross, of which there are many different, regional designs, was RTÉ’s logo and seen nightly on our TV screens.
Schoolchildren continue to fashion popular crosses of the type used by RTÉ — a simple enough design made by doubling rushes over each other to form an overlapping cross. A rarer cross, featuring a cross within a circle, has been found in parts of counties Cork and Tipperary.
The crosses were hung in homes and in buildings housing farm animals to honour the saint and invoke her blessings and protection
Lines from a 300-year-old poem reveal:
“St Brigid’s cross hung over the door Which did the house from fire secure."