In moderate winter climates, February is the month when signs of spring begin to appear; snowdrops, crocuses and groundhogs arise from their wintery hibernations. Celtic Imbolc on Feb 1st and Valentines Day on Feb 14th are pre-spring holidays with pagan roots that honor fertility. This is the time when lambs are born and some birds find their mates. Chinese New Year, a two-week pre-spring festival of good fortune family and fertility usually coincides with these western holidays.
 
In Southern California where I live, February opens with the spiked orange flowers of aloe vera plants that hummingbirds and bees love, followed by the bright yellow flowers of acacia trees and masses of green grasses in the moist areas.  And yes, we are sissies when it comes to winter, since 50 degrees is cold to us. We spend our one- month winter of January praying for rain, not shoveling snow.
 
Although our culture pulls us into commercial celebrations for these holidays, our deeper instinctual longing to mark the changes in Nature can remain unconscious. But making conscious our ancestral desire to honor and bond with Nature at these times can bring us gifts of energy renewal and a sense of being part of something transcendent to our small selves.
 
Keeping these Nature-themed holidays on a regular basis provides an underlying structure to our lives that intimately connects us to the natural world and expands our sense of relationship beyond the human. There is a special joy that comes from group festivities linked to Nature, which strengthens humility and gratitude and reminds us of our dependence on Mother Earth.
 
We’ve been celebrating seasonal festivals with family and friends for over thirty years and it has been both transforming and stabilizing.  Our festivals include live music, poetry, singing, homemade seasonal food and lots of good cheer as we welcome Nature’s changes and one another.
 
Green Spring Blessings, Shanti