Friday feels and a long weekend ahead.
There is something just that bit nicer about having an extra day off for the weekend. It's great that during covid the government added an extra day's holiday to the calendar and while they don't get much right, they nailed this one spot on.
January is a long month and felt even longer than usual this year. It wasn't even a bad month for us but it has really stretched out more than usual.
That's why a bank holiday at the very beginning of February works so well and gives us a slight glimpse of the year ahead and a little break to celebrate the end of winter.
It's funny how the new holidays are so tied into the old holidays. Like Halloween, Christmas and so many other modern celebrations they go back a lot further and have a lot more meaning than what they become in the modern world.
St. Brigid’s Day, celebrated on February 1st, originates from the ancient Celtic festival of Imbolc, marking the beginning of spring and the halfway point between the winter solstice and spring equinox. It signifies a pre-Christian tradition celebrating fertility, the rebirth of nature, and the goddess Brigid, which was later Christianized to honor St. Brigid of Kildare.
Ref: Grok.
The start of spring was always seen as a break in the misery of the winter and the beginning of longer brighter days. Pagans would have celebrated it as a milestone in the year as the days break and the farming cycle begins all over again.
Nowadays we just use it as an excuse to have a day off work but the idea is still good. If the weather is nice we'll hopefully even get out and about for awhile over the weekend and enjoy some spring air.
We don't have a lot planned for it ourselves but will get on top of life before next weekend which will be much busier for the local areas official school opening and my daughters birthday. Both of which we will have a bit to do for so this weekend will be our chance to get everything organized.
There is the usual bit of sport on and a kids birthday party in the morning but neither of those will stress us out too much. I did manage to throw my back out this week which puts a slight damper on events but hopefully a bit of rest for the few days will fix that right up.
I managed to struggle through work for the last couple of days since the boss was away and I needed to keep the show on the road for him or otherwise it would have become a very long weekend indeed.
Either way I'm going to enjoy the little break when we get it.