Imbolc and how we celebrated

imbolc is about the returning sun, the increasing of light!. Its also about the earths first stirrings, the earth awakening , its the snowdrops and the crocus pushing through the earth into the light.

willow (my little person, she is 3 ) and i went on a few walks, woodlands parks and other green spaces to see if we could find the snowdrops to see the earth changing.
To let her feel it for herself
we would then do pictures when we returned home.

Another craft idea to celebrate imbolc was to make a "candle crown". These were originally a wreath with real candles of light within them. For safety reasons we made our crown with pretend handmade candles! we made a yellow strip of paper and measured willows head, we then made some long strips and decorated them in yellow/golds and reds and made them look like lit candles. We then wore our crowns when we had our meal!

You can also make a "circle of light" with candles made from the cardboard in the loo rolls, decorated to look like candles!

To celebrate the sun , we did paperplate suns, painted yellow and decorated, then we added willows hand prints to the outside to form the suns rays!

The pre school willow attends were very interested and asked how they could celebrate with the children, so they too did sun plates and a huge sun between them , which will hang up in the preschool!

For older children there is a Brigit doll and a bridie cross to hang on the door!
http://www.goddessandgreenman.co.uk/imbolc_candlemas
The above link also gives a recipe for imbolc cake!. a brilliant idea to do with children.....anything with seeds in is fine as this represents new growth!

Make a bird feed hanger to feed the birds at this cold time
http://www.rspb.org.uk/youth/makeanddo/activities/birdfeeder.aspx