Ostara

Spring Equinox Fact Sheet

OSTARA (pronounced O-STAR-ah) is one of the Lesser Wiccan Sabbats, and is usually celebrated on the Vernal or Spring Equinox right around March 21 (although because of its origins, may instead be celebrated on the fixed date of March 25). Other names by which this Sabbat may be known are Oestara, Eostra's Day, Rite of Eostre, Alban Eilir, Festival of the Trees, and Lady Day.

Deities honored during this festival are those of the maiden goddess and the youthful, warrior god. The Sabbat takes its name from Eostra (Ostara), the Goddess of the Dawn, the Saxon Goddess who heralds the triumphant rebirth of the Sun and the return of the greening season. Hellenic traditions celebrate the return of Persephone, Demeter's daughter, from Hades. Some sects see this as the time of courtship between the God and the Goddess, whose relationship will then be consummated at the following Sabbat of Beltaine.

The name for this Sabbat actually comes from that of the Teutonic lunar Goddess, Eostra. Her chief symbols were the bunny (for fertility and because the Ancient Ones who worshipped her often saw the image of a rabbit in the full moon), and the egg (representing the cosmic egg of creation). This is where the customs of "Easter Eggs" and the "Easter Bunny" originated.

When the Catholic Church preempted this rite, as with so many others, it kept the essence of the Sabbat, but appropriated its essential properties for Christ. There are two Christian holidays which get mixed up with the Vernal Equinox. The first, occurring on the fixed calendar day of March 25th in the old liturgical calendar, is called the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (or B.V.M., as she was typically abbreviated in Catholic Missals). 'Annunciation' means an announcement. This is the day that the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was 'in the family way'. Naturally, this had to be announced since Mary, being still a virgin, would have no other means of knowing it. (Quit scoffing, O ye of little faith!) Why did the Church pick the Vernal Equinox for the commemoration of this event? Because it was necessary to have Mary conceive the child Jesus a full nine months before his birth at the Winter Solstice (i.e., Christmas, celebrated on the fixed calendar date of December 25). Mary's pregnancy would take the natural nine months to complete, even if the conception was a bit unorthodox.

The other holiday which gets mixed up in this is Easter. Easter, too, celebrates the victory of a god of light (Jesus) over darkness (death), so it makes sense to place it at this season. Ironically, the name 'Easter' was taken from the name of a Teutonic lunar Goddess, Eostre (from whence we also get the name of the female hormone, estrogen). Her chief symbols were the bunny (both for fertility and because her worshipers saw a hare in the full moon) and the egg (symbolic of the cosmic egg of creation), images which Christians have been hard pressed to explain. Her holiday, the Eostara, was held on the Vernal Equinox Full Moon. Of course, the Church doesn't celebrate full moons, even if they do calculate by them, so they planted their Easter on the following Sunday. Thus, Easter is always the first Sunday, after the first Full Moon, after the Vernal Equinox. That is, of course, unless a full moon falls on that date; at which time, the Easter Sabbath falls on the following Sunday. If you've ever wondered why Easter moved all around the calendar, now you know. (While they were forced by an unchangeable astronomical event into keeping the essential date of the original Pagan Sabbat, it seems that having the Holy Easter Sabbath on a full moon was simply too much for the Church to abide!)

Another mythological motif which must surely arrest our attention at this time of year is that of the descent of the God or Goddess into the Underworld. Perhaps we see this most clearly in the Christian tradition. Beginning with his death on the cross on Good Friday, it is said that Jesus 'descended into hell' for the three days that his body lay entombed. But on the third day (that is, Easter Sunday), his body and soul rejoined, he arose from the dead and ascended into heaven. By a strange 'coincidence', most ancient Pagan religions speak of the Goddess descending into the Underworld, also for a period of three days.

Why three days? If we remember that we are here dealing with the lunar aspect of the Goddess, the reason should be obvious. As the text of one Book of Shadows gives it, '...as the moon waxes and wanes, and walks three nights in darkness, so the Goddess once spent three nights in the Kingdom of Death.' In our modern world, alienated as it is from nature, we tend to mark the time of the New Moon (when no moon is visible) as a single date on a calendar. We tend to forget that the moon is also hidden from our view on the day before and the day after our calendar date. But this did not go unnoticed by our ancestors, who always speak of the Goddess's sojourn into the land of Death as lasting for three days. Is it any wonder then, that we celebrate the next Full Moon (the Eostara) as the return of the Goddess from chthonic regions?

Naturally, this is the season to celebrate the victory of life over death, as any nature-lover will affirm. And the Christian religion was not misguided by celebrating Christ's victory over death at this same season. Nor is Christ the only solar hero to journey into the underworld. King Arthur, for example, does the same thing when he sets sail in his magical ship, Prydwen, to bring back precious gifts (i.e. the gifts of life) from the Land of the Dead, as we are told in the 'Mabinogi'. Welsh triads allude to Gwydion and Amaethon doing much the same thing. In fact, this theme is so universal that mythologists refer to it by a common phrase, 'the harrowing of hell'.

However, one might conjecture that the descent into hell, or the land of the dead, was originally accomplished, not by a solar male deity, but by a lunar female deity. It is Nature Herself who, in Spring, returns from the Underworld with her gift of abundant life. Solar heroes may have laid claim to this theme much later. The very fact that we are dealing with a three-day period of absence should tell us we are dealing with a lunar, not solar, theme. (Although one must make exception for those occasional male lunar deities, such as the Assyrian god, Sin.) At any rate, one of the nicest modern renditions of the harrowing of hell appears in many Books of Shadows as 'The Descent of the Goddess'. Lady Day may be especially appropriate for the celebration of this theme, whether by storytelling, reading, or dramatic re-enactment.

Ostara is a time to celebrate the arrival of Spring, the renewal and rebirth of Nature herself, and the coming lushness of Summer. It is at this time when light and darkness are in balance, yet the light is growing stronger by the day. The forces of masculine and feminine energy, yin and yang, are also in balance at this time. At this time we think of renewing ourselves. We renew our thoughts, our dreams, and our aspirations. We think of renewing our relationships. This is an excellent time of year to begin anything new or to completely revitalize something. This is also an excellent month for prosperity rituals or rituals that have anything to do with growth.

In the Pagan Wheel of the Year, this is the time when the great Mother Goddess, again a virgin at Candlemas, welcomes the young Sun God unto her and conceives a child of this divine union. The child will be born nine months later, at Yule, the Winter Solstice.

For Wiccans and Witches, Ostara is a fertility festival celebrating the birth of Spring and the reawakening of life from the Earth. The energies of Nature subtly shift from the sluggishness of Winter to the exuberant expansion of Spring. Eostre, the Saxon Goddess of fertility, and Ostara, the German Goddess of fertility are the aspects invoked at this Sabbat. Some Wiccan traditions worship the Green Goddess and the Lord of the Greenwood. The Goddess blankets the Earth with fertility, bursting forth from Her sleep, as the God stretches and grows to maturity. He walks the greening fields and delights in the abundance of nature.

Pagan customs such as the lighting of new fires at dawn for cure, renewed life, and protection of the crops still survive in the Southern Americas as well as in Europe. Witches celebrate Ostara in many ways on this sacred day, including lighting fires at sunrise, ringing bells, and decorating hard-boiled eggs which is an ancient Pagan custom associated with the Goddess of Fertility. In those ancient days, eggs were gathered and used for the creation of talismans and also ritually eaten. The gathering of different colored eggs from the nests of a variety of birds has given rise to two traditions still observed today - the Easter egg hunt, and coloring eggs in imitation of the various pastel colors of wild birds. It is also believed that humankind first got the idea of weaving baskets from watching birds weave nests. This is perhaps the origin of the association between colored Easter eggs and Easter baskets.

There is much symbolism in eggs themselves. The golden orb of its yolk represents the Sun God, its white shell is seen as the White Goddess, and the whole is a symbol of rebirth. The Goddess Eostre's patron animal was the hare. And although the references are not recalled, the symbolism of the hare and rabbit's associations with fertility are not forgotten. The Spring Equinox is a time of new beginnings, of action, of planting seeds for future grains, and of tending gardens. Spring is a time of the Earth's renewal, a rousing of nature after the cold sleep of winter. As such, it is an ideal time to clean your home to welcome the new season. "Spring cleaning" is much more than simply physical work. It may be seen as a concentrated effort to rid your home of the problems and negativity of the past months, and to prepare for the coming spring and summer. To do this, many Pagans approach the task of cleaning their homes with positive thoughts. This frees the home of any negative feelings brought about by a harsh winter. A common rule of thumb for Spring cleaning is that all motions involving scrubbing of stains or hand rubbing the floors should be done "clockwise". Pagans believe this custom aids in filling the home with good energy for growth.

Ostara is the beginning of the fertility festivals. Buds begin to push their way through the earth to reach the strengthening sun's light; animals in the wild feel the ancient instinct to breed; the energies of Nature shift subtly from the torpor of Winter to the exuberant activity of Spring. It is a time of new beginnings, of action, of saying goodbye to the old and making room for the new. We can see this urge reflected in our lives even today. We talk of "Spring cleaning" and "In Spring, a young man's fancy turns to..."; the desire to run the greening fields (or, in our world, walk the parks, fish, and other outdoor activities) vies urgently with the obligation of our workday routines, often resulting in "sick leave days" and spur-of-the-moment "personal days" where the real excuse is "Spring Fever."

Symbols of this holiday include eggs, rabbits, and flowers of all kinds. Modern secular activities such as the dyeing of Easter Eggs are remnants of ancient Pagan traditions. The Anglo-Saxons painted eggs with their hopes and dreams and presented them as a gift to Eostre. These eggs were then buried in the Earth, so that the Earth-Mother would know dreams of her children, in hopes that She would see fit to help them realize their desires. This practice predates Christianity by approximately 1000 years. Rabbits (hares) were the companions of Eostre, and she is still often pictured with a hare by Her side. Because of their well-acknowledged reproductive ability, they are the perfect compliments to the start of a fertility-based season.

In many cultures, the Goddess was known not only as the Goddess of Fertility, but also as the Goddess of Grain. Therefore, special cakes and breads were baked and given to Her in offering. This tradition remained, long after the original reasons were lost, and we still see people baking special Easter breads and cakes today. Other foods traditional to this season include those made of seeds, as well as pine nuts. Also, green leafy vegetables and sprouts are equally appropriate. Some groups create special dishes made of flowers, such as stuffed nasturtiums or carnation cupcakes.

Activities appropriate to celebrate the day include those listed above, as well as randomly collecting wildflowers on a walk through the woods, or buying a mixed bouquet from a florist. The flowers you choose will often reveal your inner thoughts and emotions, and their meanings to you can be divined through books, pendulum, and your intuition.

Some groups set the seeds they'll soon be planting within the sacred Circle of their Ostara rituals. In this way, either a special charging ritual can be done for the seeds, or the seeds can simply absorb the energy of the Circle. They can then be planted safely after the next full moon.

Ritual cleaning is often done, though usually in the secular vein today. It seems people are driven by the need to throw open the windows to our homes and force out all the stale, winter air. Many of us clean the house from top to bottom; sweeping every nook and cranny from ceiling to floor; cleaning out cabinets and drawers, and scrubbing them, too. Often, many choose this time of year to change the liners in drawers, or to put away the winter bedding in favor of the lighter-weight summer linen. Heavy winter clothes are washed, folded, and put away and the lighter weight spring and summer clothes find their way into our closets.

This same mundane ritual of household cleaning can be applied to our inner selves, as well. Use Ostara to clean out all the mental cobwebs and to throw away all the old, negative modes of thought. Throw open the doors to your mind, heart, and soul and let the gentle breezes of Ostara breathe new hope and the vigor of youth into your newly awakening life. However you look at it, it is certainly a time of new beginnings, as a simple glance at Nature will prove.

One of the traditions of Ostara is the colored egg. The egg represents so many things but in particular it signifies birth, and new beginnings, which we associate with the Goddess. Persians first began using colored eggs to celebrate Spring in 3000 BC. On the first day of Spring, they would give each other and egg that was dyed red.

Colored eggs were also used to celebrate Spring by the ancient Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans. Among the Chinese parents of newborn children still present gifts of colored eggs, to their friends, as a sign of new life.

Crusaders returning from the Middle East spread the custom of coloring eggs, and Europeans began to use them to celebrate spring and other warm weather holidays. Germans decorated fir trees with tinted eggs as part of their Summer Solstice festival, and Swedes used gilt covered eggs to embellish Maypoles. Which eventually brings us to Confetti eggs. The history of these eggs have a rather uncertain beginning, however historians have traced their birthplace back to China.

Confetti eggs are known in Mexico as Cascarones and are still popular to this day. A popular notion is that they were brought from that part of Asia to Italy by the explorer Marco Polo. These original eggs were unlike the confetti filled cascarones that we know now. They were filled with a perfumed talcum powder and used as gifts. From Italy the tradition was carried to Spain. Carlotta, the wife of Emperor Maximillian, was so fascinated by the eggs that she brought them to Mexico during her husband's rule from 1864 to 1867.

In Mexico people replaced the perfumed talcum powder with confetti. It was in Mexico that the confetti filled egg came to be known as the cascarón. Though cascarones were popular at one time in Mexico, the tradition eventually faded. It was not until the late 1960s and early 1970s that cascarones regained popularity in South Texas. Presently cascarones are being used for every occasion and their popularity continues to grow.

The point of these eggs was for good luck and good fortune. The colorful confetti showers, after they are broken on or over the head, signifies a new beginning for spring along with blessings of luck for all who are showered with them.

Activities:

Confetti Eggs

Old-fashioned confetti eggs are a lot of fun to make. On Ostara let kids and adults toss the eggs and be treated to a surprise shower of confetti. Consider making this an outside activity, as it tends to be messy. Use biodegradable confetti for outside.

You will need raw eggs, colored confetti, glue stick and tissue paper. We never actually dyed the eggs, we simply used colored tissue paper to cover them

Carefully poke a hole in the bottom of a raw egg and remove the yolk and egg white. The hole can be as large as your middle finger is round. Rinse and dry egg thoroughly.

When dry, put confetti inside the egg. Fill the egg as full as possible. Once the egg is finished, use a glue stick to attach a small piece of paper over the opening of the egg.

They are now ready to break and bring blessings onto your loved ones.

Dyeing eggs, planting seeds (for plants and plans), lighting fires, ringing bells, looking for spring growth, buying a new besom or staff, spring cleaning, planting seeds or starting a Magickal Herb Garden, taking a long walk in nature with no intent other than reflecting on the Magick of nature and our Great Mother and her bounty.

Ostara Factsheet

Date: Spring Equinox--on or about March 21

Lore: This is the day of the Spring Equinox, the first real day of Spring. The Goddess is now fertile and able to be a mother, while the God is reaching toward His prime. Renewal is everywhere and Nature is beginning to burst with life again as the Earth is fully reawakened from Winter's sleep.

Special Time: This is a time to celebrate the expansion that is taking place all around. It is a time to renew ourselves and cleanse ourselves further and keep ourselves pure, and to actually begin something. At Imbolc, plans were supposedly made for the future; this is the time to begin them, to put them into motion. It is a time for giving thanks for the return of Spring.

Activities:Ostara is celebrated by doing prosperity rituals, and by putting the plans made at Imbolc into motion. Many people like to collect wild flowers and ponder what they mean. We take notice of the world's new gifts blooming everywhere. Some like to wear very bright clothes on this day, with lots of flowers in their hair and around their houses, and lots of accessories and decorations. Many take this time to actually plant seeds in their gardens, while others only plant figurative seeds that will come to bloom later. Some like to decorate and eat eggs.

The Ostara season:

Ostara Herbs: All spring flowers, broom, cinquefoil, honeysuckle, iris, jasmine, lavender, lily, peony, rose, sage, violet, willow

Ostara Incense: Jasmine, Rose, Frankincense, Myrrh, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Aloe wood, Benzoin, African violet,

Sage, Strawberry, Lotus

Ostara Colors: Green & Yellow

Ostara Decorations: Colored eggs, Green and yellow jellybeans,

Rabbit decorations, Spring flowers, Butterflies, Violets, Eostre baskets

Ostara Foods: Seeds, Leafy green vegetables, Spiced or flower cupcakes, Candied flowers, Hot cross buns, Fruits, Fruit cups,

Hard-boiled eggs, Deviled eggs, Nuts, Honey cakes, Fish, Ham

Ostara Sacred Gemstones: Amethyst, Aquamarine, Bloodstone,

Red jasper

Spellwork appropriate for Ostara: Growth spells, Spells for improving communication, Group interaction, Fertility, Abundance