 Hello people! I'm Ginny Metherill, I'm a fourth generation witch. Today we're back with my ever popular Almanac series looking at what witchcraft you can do when and why for the month of February. As always with these videos what I like to do is first of all give you a general overview of the witchcraft trends that run throughout the month of February and then we'll look at the nitty gritty day-to-day detail and I'll tell you what days you can do which witchcraft on. So with that said let's start straight in with our overview. So February is the shortest month of the year thank goodness because it's also the traditionally the coldest month of the year. I know we are looking towards spring but it's still bloody cold out there and um if you're like me you object to that slightly. I'm not great with the cold and much better when it starts to heat up but however in the northern hemisphere by the end of February we've gained two extra hours of daylight and if you look at the lakes and ponds and streams you'll see them loaded with frog spawn and nutes and toad spawn. It is a month of beginnings and a start of everything. I mean this is of course celebrated by that wonderful Sabbath Festival emulc which I've done a whole video on so if you want to watch it I'll put it up here for you. Go and have a look because it's very good. It tells you all about emulc and how to celebrate it and therefore I will only be talking briefly about emulc in this video. By the end of February the birds are beginning to really start singing in earnest. Barless those flowers of love and prim roses abound and especially with this being leap year our thoughts and hearts turn to love. It is the month of romance. February really is concerned with the beautiful candle musbells or as we know them the snow drop which is a flower of purity cleansing and hope for the spring. The old pagan story about snow drops was when the world was created the snow was transparent and it went around the world asking all the flowers if they would impart their hues to the snow so it could have some colour and they all said no apart from the kindly snow drop and so that is why our snow is white and this is why the snow drop and snow have been friends ever since and they appear in general together. It's quite cute that story isn't it it's a real sweetie I love the fact that the snow and the snow drop are friends because the snow drop gave the snow its colour. The Welsh Celts would use snow drops in order to purify their homes and should you bring them in they're great for cleansing the aura throughout your home and so I recommend it. It was always considered bad luck to bring snow drops into your house before candle mass but I think this was a Christian adaptation of the pagan habit of bringing snow drops into your house for cleansing purposes in order that they could say including do it when we have our purification right because of course candle mass which is on the 2nd of February is the Christian version of our emulg which is a purification ritual. It is very much imbued within February the right of cleansing and purification and in fact the name February comes from the roman febua which means to purify so we're going to be cleansing all this month we have spring cleaning to do we have our self cleaning to do we also have psychic cleaning which we must do it's very important to keep yourself psychically cleansed and you know that's very easily done with a sage stick and incense stick or a ritual bath I like the ritual bars actually because I'll have a bath every single day obviously so at the end of the day I like to get into my bubble bath and sometimes I think no I'm going to ritually cleanse so I like my candles I put out incense sticks I pull salt and essential oils particularly geranium rose into the bath in order to cleanse myself both psychically and physically and it works lovely it's lovely I recommend it and February's stone finally is amethyst which is also a great stone of purification and should you require to purify your other crystals you can often leave them with amethyst and bone them in a singing bowl like this and this will help with their cleansing and impart purity and clarity to all your other crystals amethyst is really an all-round great crystal and for those of you starting out I would always recommend having some amethyst in your collection it doesn't need to be large a small chip will do but it really is the stone of the witch so February as I've said earlier is a month where your thoughts turn to your romantic part enough and words of love are very much in the air this is seen on the 1st of February which is our first date that we're going to discuss because this of course is emul emul is a day of two halves it's a day of the goddess Bridget and the saint saint and Bridget they're both one of the same you know throughout the years they've almost evolved with each other and so you can't really separate the two which is fine by me Bridget was a goddess of fertility the goddess of the spring and so therefore this was celebrated by springly happenings of procreation go out have a lovely time with your partner and that is a great way to celebrate the goddess likewise wonderful things to do on emul because of course to celebrate the time of year and honour her with an altar and I have done so and if you're a member of patreon I tell you all about the symbolism for each object on this altar on that platform just go to patreon.com forward slash Ginny Meddrell and sign in it's only a couple of pounds a month emul because a great festival celebrate it with your loved one rituals of purification rites and for those of you who have a mind to do so go up to Huddersfield and check out the emul festival there it really is quite something the 2nd of February is the end of emul but also the candle mass day which is the christian version of emul you know the rite of purification and this is where they lit a load of candles which is what we also do at emul to be blessed by st Bridget and so I have some candles here very pretty and some snow drops to represent the time of year it is a day when you were supposed to give a pancake to your cockerel and if the cockerel pecked at the pancake and then let the hens eat the rest of it up you would have good fortune for the rest of the year but if he gobbled up the pancake all by himself then you were a bit stuck I think there was other divination to be had as well though with the weather weather divination is very important during February and there is a lot of it this is one of the first divination days and if it's set bright and fair today we will have a bright and fair summer and if it's foul and wet and windy and rainy we will have a foul and wet and windy and rainy summer so fingers crossed for a dry fair day the 9th of February is the night of the new moon astrologers believe that each month's moon takes on the star sign that it appears in this month's new moon is in Aquarius which is a trailblazing sign which is great isn't it so you should set your plans for the coming month so you give way to all your creativity and passion when thinking about the plans for this month because they will have a really good chance for coming off it is also the day that the chinese new year starts and we're in the year of the dragon and the dragon is also a trailblazing sign very quick thinking very powerful very successful and full of luck and fortune you want to be born in the year of the dragon i always think the year of the dragon is one of the finest signs to be born in the chinese zodiac and so good luck to you let me know in the comments below if you were born in the year of the dragon i wasn't i was either a pig or a rat and in fact i think i spent all my years thinking i was a rat and then realised that my birthday fell before the chinese new year started and so therefore i was actually a pig anyway that's me the 12th of february is the day that traditionally the catkins appear on the older trees it's known that you should take a twig of the older tree into your home and this will prevent and deter fleas from appearing because of course it is beginning to be flea time of year and someone who such as myself is beloved by fleas i think that you know if the animals have a flea it's going to jump off an animal and bite me and ignore the rest of my family it's only me who gets bitten because i taste delicious so i'm taking in a lot of older catkins today in order to deter them from biting me the 12th of february is also colub monday which is the day you're supposed to eat colub i have no idea what a colub is but have some delicious the 13th of february is therefore shrove tuesday and shrove tuesday in this country is known universally as pancake day that's what we do we eat pancakes and have pancake races and other races it was really common i'm not quite sure why but the tradition in the uk is to hold village sports now what this would be would be the towns and villages would get together and the whole town or the whole village would play football or hurling or uh skipping or something and he's quite dangerous or rugby and this is not a sport you know you join in lightheartedly there are no rules no boundaries they have to get a ball over into a goalpost of some source quite energetic and exciting whole towns and villages would do this it's still practiced in certain areas of the uk in the north they particularly like football-based games and in the south we like hurling type games so the 12th to the 14th of february are also known as borrowed days these borrow the days from the month previous so the 12th to the 14th of february should be really cold and horrid and this will mean that our summer is going to be hot and warm now however if they borrow some hot days from january because this is where the days come from then we're going to have a terrible summer so look out 12th to the 14th of february and make sure that we're having a nasty time and shivering by our hearts because then we're going to have a beautiful summer sun and now we come to the 14th of february which is one of the busiest days of february for those christian witches out there it is ash wednesday however this ash wednesday is signified by several strange customs which varying parts of the uk like to enjoy one of which is jack a lent jack a lent is a man made of straw and dressed in old cast-off clothes who's paraded around the villages and then he's finally taken to the village square and hung whereupon the villages may then pelt him with stones and mud and rotten tomatoes to their hearts content and apparently this has some practice in pagan roots but nobody knows why it is also the birds wedding day now i'm sure you have heard me speak about this before but it is very sweet it is traditional the day when birds choose their mates so should you wake up on the morning of the 14th and see a bird out of your window or out of the front door or wherever that bird signifies who you're going to get together within the future a black bird means you'll marry someone charitable a robin means you'll marry a sailor a goldfinch someone rich a sparrow someone poor a duck you will be homely it will be a happy and homely marriage as is a dove that will be a happy and loving marriage so there's i mean there's millions of them if you see an owl i think it's the worst one where you know i think it's going to end in divorce i can't remember but there is a lot of traditions so watch out for what bird you first see on the morning of the 14th the birds wedding day as we all know the morning of the 14th is also valentine's day which is when our thoughts turn to love valentine's day is a much much older feast than the christians give it credit for they say it's all about some valentine who was a fifth century pagan priest i think who was then became christian however it is based on a seriously much older festival not least of which is dedicated to fertility and it is a day for fertility the welsh would celebrate this by giving their loved one a welsh a love spoon which is a pure charm this is witchcraft from the elders my mother gave me one when i married to mr meserville and i treasure it mightily because it is a very beautiful part of my kitchen decoration valentine's day is also a traditional day for love spells and here is one that i picked up in a very old book of mine which i thought i'd read out to you should you wish to try it let me know down below in the comments whether it works so take two bay leaves and sprinkle them with rose water place them on your pillow in the evening when you go to bed put on a clean nightgown turned inside out and lying down say softly in dreams let my true love see and my valentine come to me and apparently you're going to get some love so there we go quite nice spell that one isn't it let me know if you do it the 16th of february this year is known as kissing friday and this is where all my feminist hackles rise up it was traditional on this day that a man could go out and ask any woman for a kiss and if she refused him he was allowed to pinch her bottom quite frankly you would go a bloody great slap round the chops from me if anyone did that to me i think i'm asking i think it's just dreadful i don't agree with it don't do it ye men out there i think it's wrong obviously you can ask anybody you like for a kiss but if they say no you're not allowed to pinch their bottom well not without their express permission they might just want their bottom pinched as opposed to a kiss the 20th of february is the night when the sun moves into pisces now pisces is apparently governs the feet and so you should observe the feet in this month if you have foot related problems you know take care of them now the calendar of shepherds this is an almanac from 1604 will tell you how pisces behave the man born under pisces shall be a great goer a fornicator a mocker and covetous not so sound very nice does it he will say one thing and do another he shall trust in his sapience he shall have good fortune he will be a defender of widows and orphans that's quite sweet he shall be fearful on water but he will pass through all his adversities and live until 72 the woman shall be delicious familiar ingests pleasant of courage fervent a great drinker sounds like me already she shall have sickness of her eyes and be sorrowful by shame needlessly her husband will leave her dear it's not great is it and she shall have much trouble with strangers she should travel much have pain in her stomach and she'll live 77 years but both men and women shall live faithfully well that's quite nice they can't be that bad so even though the man is a fornicator um he shall live faithfully so well well i wouldn't mind being married to a faithful fornicator would you the 24th of february is the night of the full moon this is known as the snow moon the chased moon the lent moon the cold moon again it's reflecting all the festivals that are happening around this time this moon is the first moon of spring however and so for this moon it does have a very special and seed-like energy which is quite powerful so i recommend making moon water on this day because you'll be using moon water in the weeks to come and it's great for all sorts of different spells and potions and finally we come to the leap year the 29th of february this is a day when traditionally women can propose to men but if you bought and put on a red petticoat and then flashed it at your suitor before asking them to marry you they would be so overcome with the red petticoat that they'd say yes if the suitor refused the offer of marriage from the woman they had to buy her some new gloves by easter presumably to cover up the fact that she didn't get married the scots believe that if you're born on the 29th february is rather unlucky however you do have the added benefit of being called a leaping which i think is rather cute you're leaping and finally it is thought that broad beans and other such staple crops grow the wrong way in a leap year but nobody actually knows what the wrong way means in this context and it was quoted in quite a lot of gardening almanac right up until the 1900s so if you know what the wrong way is for a broad bean to grow well will you let me know because i'd be quite interested so that is my almanac for the month which part did you like the best and do you have any traditions that you would like to share with me if so leave me a message in the notes below don't forget to look at my patreon patreon.com forward slash jenny meatherill there's plenty on there that you can look at and otherwise please don't forget to like and subscribe because that's what i need from all of you good people to help keep me going i love subscribing if you subscribe it means i can keep making these videos for you and i will see you next week