X - Pussywillows

I knew that Christian religious holidays kept remnants of pagan holidays as a way of converting people from the pagan religions.  For example, Christmas occurs around the same date at Yule; Easter was named after a fertility deity.  I was pretty surprised, though, to find out Ground Hog's day also had pagan beginnings.  I knew Feb. 2 was around Imbolc - a pagan celebration held 1/2 way between winter solstice and spring equinox.  Cailleach, the Gaelic hag in charge of winter, goes out on this day to gather enough firewood for the rest of the winter.  If she intends to make the winter last a good bit longer, she causes the day to be bright and sunny so she can find enough wood.  Therefore, if the day was overcast, people said she didn't need much more wood and  winter was almost over.  The story is too close to the groundhog winter prediction tale we have today to not have influenced it in someway.    Personally, I'm still hung up on the nomenclature for Cailleach.  You get a little older and suddenly it's not Queen, Princess, or Goddess - it's Hag, Crone, or Witch.