The celebration signals the middle of the season of long nights and anticipates the upcoming season of light. Celebrants make Corn Maidens from corn and wheat. A wand, usually tipped with an acorn or other large seed, is placed in the bed with the Maiden. The Maidens are generally kept year round as a symbol of fertility. Other interrelated interpretations of the festival center around the Irish Goddess Brighid , known for her healing, smithcraft, and poetry gifts.
Additional interpretations revolve around the birth of lambs and the lactation of the ewes.
Still others celebrate Imbolc as the recovery of the Earth Goddess after giving birth to the Sun God.