An Post issues stamp set for St Brigid and Imbolc festival
An Post has issued a striking set of stamps on the feast day of Saint Brigid also marking the pagan festival of Imbolc which are both celebrated today.
The stamps are by Louth based artist Yoko Akino, with design by Oonagh Young of Design HQ. Both saint and goddess are associated with fruitful harvests, and a specially designed First Day Cover envelope includes both stamps and imagery of a fertile meadow and oak sapling, a lovely keepsake this St Brigid’s Day. The stamps and First Day Cover envelope are available at anpost.com/shop and in selected Post Offices nationwide.
The ‘N’ rate St Brigid’s stamp (€1.40), which covers postage across Ireland, features the St Brigid Cross, acknowledging the continuing relevance and influence of St Brigid who led a large monastery in Co. Kildare and became one of Ireland’s three patron saints. She is said to have used a cross made from rushes in the deathbed conversion of a pagan chieftain.
The ‘W’ rate stamp (€2.00), for worldwide postage, features a fire motif symbolising Brigid’s divine, creative and healing powers. The Imbolc festival celebrates the goddess Brigid’s feast day, mirroring the Christian feast day of St Brigid. Known as a triple goddess in Celtic Tuatha Dé Danann mythology, Brigid is one of the few pagan figures to endure after Christianity came to Ireland.
Irish Stamps Manager, Aileen Mooney, encouraged people to get into the spirit of things, saying: “February is springtime, always a good time to renew connections by writing and posting a card or letter to someone in your life who gives you support and strength, builds your resilience, listens, makes you laugh and is your ally in a sometimes challenging world.”
A renewed and growing interest in Brigid both nationally and internationally, a new annual public holiday and numerous festivals nationwide signal her importance both as a symbol of authority within Christianity and as an inspiring figure of womanhood and empowerment. Brigid’s qualities of compassion, peace-making and courage, and her active role in modelling equality between genders, underline her revival, speaking to issues of our time.