On Sunday, Carleton’s Druids gathered in the Chapel to celebrate Imbolc, a festival marking the quiet turning point between winter and spring.
Though February in Minnesota remains firmly wintry, Imbolc honors the subtle signs of renewal already underway. “Seeds begin to transform deep in the earth. Sheep and goat lambs are born,” said Reverend Schuyler Vogel, Carleton’s chaplain. “Imbolc honors this tradition and the hope it brings.”
Imbolc has roots in ancient Gaelic seasonal traditions marking the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. Historically observed in Ireland and Scotland, it signaled the beginning of lambing season and the first subtle signs of agricultural renewal. Fire and light were central symbols of the festival, representing both the returning sun and creative inspiration. The holiday later became associated with St. Brigid, one of Ireland’s patron saints, whose feast day falls on Feb. 1. Many scholars see the Christian observance as layered onto earlier pagan traditions honoring Brigid, a goddess linked to poetry, fertility and protection.
Modern neo-pagan and Druid communities have revived Imbolc as part of a broader cycle known as the Wheel of the Year, which includes eight seasonal festivals spaced evenly across the calendar. At Carleton, Imbolc is one of several major Druidic celebrations, alongside Samhain in the fall, which marks the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter; Beltane in the spring, associated with fire and fertility; and the annual Reunion gathering, which brings together alumni and current members to sustain the continuity of the tradition. Together, these celebrations structure the Druid year, anchoring campus life to seasonal change even amid academic terms and Minnesota winters.
The celebration began in the Chapel, where students assembled before processing across campus to Mai Fete Island on Lyman Lake. The walk itself formed part of the ritual – a physical movement reflecting the seasonal shift Imbolc represents. During the walk, one student played the carynx, an ancient brass instrument that can only play fundamental pitches. After gathering on the island, the Druids performed a ceremony in which attendees were asked to find plants to sacrifice to the “mother.” Participants then formed a circle to “invoke the turning of the season.” Afterwards, the high priest distributed the “waters of life” to unite members’ souls to the earth.
While Druids have celebrated Imbolc at Carleton for many years, Vogel explained that the current collaboration with the Office of the Chaplain began in 2023.
“Our office’s role in Imbolc is to support Druids on campus and beyond to ensure they have a meaningful celebration,” Vogel said.
Carleton’s Druid organization traces its origins to the 1960s, when the College required students to attend mandatory chapel services. In response, a group of students founded the Druids partly as a protest against the requirement, seeking both religious freedom and a bit of humor in the process. Carleton students actually founded the Reformed Druids of North America, an organization with over 40 chapters in the USA and Canada. What began as satire gradually developed into something more enduring, a spiritual and community tradition that has persisted for decades.
“The Druids were originally formed in opposition to the forced chapel attendance requirement,” Vogel said. At the time, students were expected to attend religious services as part of campus life, a policy that reflected Carleton’s historical Christian roots.
“It was a different era,” Vogel said. “Mandatory chapel was part of the institutional culture.
The creation of the Druids offered students a creative way to question that requirement while building their own ritual structure. Over time, as chapel attendance became voluntary and Carleton’s religious life diversified, the Druids evolved alongside it. What began as a protest grew into a tradition. That relationship has since evolved.
As Vogel noted, echoing remarks from the current Archdruid during Sunday’s celebration, “the chapel and the Druids are friends.”
That shift reflects a broader transformation in the relationship between the College and spiritual life on campus. Mandatory chapel attendance ended decades ago, replaced by a model centered on voluntary participation and multi-faith engagement.
“Today, our role is to support students in the spiritual traditions that are meaningful to them,” Vogel said. “That includes traditions that began here in unexpected ways.”
For student members, the organization offers both ritual and community.
“Weekly meetings are really fun and chill,” said Khava Lauren ’27. “If it’s nice outside, we’ll go and perform a ritual. Playing the Carnyx is fun too, and takes no experience at all.”
The blend of ceremony and accessibility appears central to the group’s presence on campus. While rooted in ancient seasonal traditions, the celebration remains grounded in the rhythms of Carleton life: students gather on a cold Saturday afternoon, walk together across campus, and mark the promise of spring even as snow remains on the ground.
In a season defined by sitting in your dorm room all day, Imbolc offers a change, a recognition of something already underway that is shifting. Beneath frozen ground, beneath midwinter ball, something new is beginning.
