Here in America, everyone is preparing to celebrate the
spring holiday, Easter. The Christian
religion adopted the emblems for Easter which is celebrated on the first Sunday
after the first full moon following the vernal equinox.
The Christian holiday is based on essentially the same
principles as that in the Old Religion. The
manner in which Easter is determined is actually very Pagan.
Ostara
Ostara is the celebration of the Spring Equinox when day and
night balance.
Celebrated around March 21st for Northern
Hemisphere (September 21 in the Southern Hemisphere) Ostara is one of the
Lesser Wiccan Sabbats and is celebrated on the Spring Equinox, most often March
21st, but varies somewhat from the 20th to the 23rd. The variance, as with all Solar festivals, is
due to the differences between the actual astronomical event and our calendar.
Astronomically, the sun crosses the celestial equator at
this time. The light and dark are in
perfect balance, but the light is growing and the Sun is about to burst forth
with new energy. It is the season of
fertility and growth.
The word Ostara is one of the many names applied to the
celebration of the spring equinox on March 21st. For
early Pagans in the Germanic countries, this was a time to celebrate planting
and the new crop season. Typically, the
Celtic peoples did not celebrate Ostara as a holiday, rather they were simply in
tune with the changing of the seasons.
Other names this Sabbat is also called by are the Vernal
Equinox or the Spring Equinox, Oestara,
Eostres Day, Rite of Eostre, Equinozio
della Primavera, Alban Eiber
(Caledonii Tradition of the Druids), Bacchanalia,
Festival of the Trees, and Lady Day.
History of Ostara
Rabbits were sacred to her, especially white rabbits, as she
was believed to take the form of a rabbit. It is from Eostre the word estrogen derives.
This Sabbat is a time to celebrate the arrival of Spring,
when light and darkness are in balance but the light is growing stronger. The forces of masculine energy and feminine
energy are also in balance and this day paves the way for the coming lushness
of Summer. Ostara is a time for the celebration of
fertility and balance, when all elements within and without us are brought into
harmony. A time of new life and rebirth,
as the Earth wakes from her long slumber at the end of Winter. This is the time of planting, children, and
young animals.
Ostara promises freedom form the dreariness of winters, it
heralds the return of hope and dreams.
The Goddess at Ostara
Eostre is the Goddess of dawn and new beginnings. Her name is similar to the word for the
Christian Easter, because it is from her which the holiday adopted its name.
The other Goddess we associate with the Spring Equinox is Persephone,
daughter of Demeter, the Greek Goddess of grain and crops. In the Spring, Persephone comes back from the
Underworld to be reunited with her mother. A part of the Goddess that has been sleeping
all winter reawakens with the warming of the ground of springs. She who has been mother, midwife, and teacher
through the winter now welcomes back her own daughter-self, the Maiden of
Springs. At this time of balance the
Goddess is both Mother and Daughter.
The God at Ostara
The God of Springs is the young God, playful and joyful, the
trickster. He is the spirit of
everything that is joyful, light, and changeable. Born at Winter Solstice, nurtured at Imbolc,
now he's like a young and mischievous child, still wild and new. He is raw, creative energy that has not yet
been harnessed, tamed, civilized. He
sees with clear eyes and does not hesitate to announce that the emperor is
naked. He deflates the pompous and
laughs at self-importance.
The trickster is an important spirit power in many
earth-based cultures. To many of the
Native American tribes, he is Coyote. To
the First Nations of the Northwest Coast, he is Raven, who creates the world. In parts of West Africa, he is Elegba, the
small child-God who as a point of light constantly runs circles around the
universe. To early African-Americans, he
is Brer Rabbit, who tricks his way out of trouble.
In European earth-based traditions, he is the Fool of the
Tarot, who leaps blithely from a cliff as he follows a butterfly, yet always
lands on his feet, because he takes himself lightly. He is spirit taking the
plunge into matter, idea manifesting as form. He is Robin Goodfellow, shape shifter and wood
sprite, child of the Faerie King. He
comes to us in the springs when all of nature is shifting and changing: seeds
poking out sprouts, butterflies emerging from cocoons, tadpoles growing legs
and turning into frogs.
The Spring Equinox celebrates him, but of course, his proper
holiday comes shortly after, on April Fool's Day.
Symbolism
Ostara is a good time to start putting those plans and
preparations you made at Imbolc into action. Start working towards physically manifesting
your plans now.
Symbols used to represent Ostara include the egg (for
fertility and reproduction) and the hare (for rebirth and resurrection), the
New Moon, butterflies and cocoons.
Stones to use during the Ostara celebration include
aquamarine, jasper, rose quartz, and moonstone. Mythical beasts associated with Ostara include
unicorns, merpeople, and Pegasus.
The Colors of Ostara
The most common colors associated with Ostara are lemon
yellow, pale green and pale pink. Other
appropriate colors include grass green, all pastels, Robins egg blue, violet,
and white. White makes a nice accent
with these, though is too stark for an altar cloth representing the season of
growth and fertility.
Traditional Foods
Linking your meals with the seasons is a fine way of
attuning with Nature. Foods in tune with
this day include eggs, egg salad, hard-boiled eggs, honey cakes, first fruits
of the season, fish, cakes, biscuits, cheeses, and honey. You may also include foods made of seeds, such
as sunflower, pumpkin and sesame seeds, as well as pine nuts. Sprouts are equally appropriate, as are leafy,
green vegetables. Flower dishes such as
stuffed nasturtiums or carnation cupcakes also find their place here. Appropriate Ostara meat dishes contain fish or
ham.
Plants & Flowers
Plants and flowers associated with Ostara are Irish moss, Daffodils,
jonquils, tulips, narcissus, gorse, Olive, Peony, Iris, violets, woodruff and
crocus and snowdrops— fill the house with their color after you've finished
your spring cleaning to liven things up and chase away the doldrums of winter.
Incense & Herbs
Herbs associated with springs include meadowsweet, cleavers,
clover, lemongrass, spearmint and catnip.
Rabbits & Hares
One popular legend is that Eostre found a bird, wounded, on
the ground late in winter. To save its
life, she transformed it into a hare. But "the transformation was not a
complete one. The bird took the
appearance of a hare but retained the ability to lay eggs. The hare would decorate these eggs and leave
them as gifts to Eostre.
Rabbits bear young in the springs, and have come to
represent fertility and abundance. Spring equinox is a time for fertility and
sowing seeds, and thus nature's fertility goes a little crazy. In medieval societies in Europe, the March hare
was viewed as a major fertility symbol— this is a species of rabbit which is
nocturnal most of the year, but in March when mating season begins, there are
bunnies everywhere all day long. The female of the species is hyper fecund and can conceive a second litter while still
pregnant with a first. And as if that
wasn't enough, the males tend to get frustrated when rebuffed by their mates,
and are said to bounce around erratically when discouraged.
In some early cultures, the nocturnal hare was actually
considered a symbol of the moon. In
addition to feeding at night, the hare's gestation period is approximately 28
days— the same as a full lunar cycle. The
ancients saw the "rabbit in the moon", yet today known as the
"man in the moon". Hares,
which are bigger and wilder than rabbits, have long been identified with magic,
the springs, and the mysteries.
The "Easter bunny" as we know it first appeared in
16th-century German writings, which said that if well-behaved children built a
nest out of their caps or bonnets, they would be rewarded with colored eggs. This legend became part of American folklore
in the 18th century, when German immigrants settled in the eastern U.S.
Eggs
In many cultures, the egg is viewed as the symbol of new
life. It is, after all, the perfect
example of fertility and the cycle of rebirth. In early Christian cultures, consumption of
the Easter egg may have marked the end of Lent. In Greek Orthodox Christianity, there is a
legend that after Christ's death on the cross, Mary Magdalene went to the
emperor of Rome, and told him of Jesus' resurrection. The emperor's response was along the lines of
"Oh, yeah, right, and those eggs over there are red, too." Suddenly, the bowl of eggs turned red, and
Mary Magdalene joyfully began preaching Christianity to the emperor.
Mary Magdalene and the red eggs aren't the earliest examples
of eggs as a spring symbol. In Persia,
eggs have been painted for thousands of years as part of the spring celebration
of No Ruz, which is the Zoroastrian
new year. In Iran, the colored eggs are
placed on the dinner table at No Ruz,
and a mother eats one cooked egg for each child she has. The festival of No Ruz predates the reign of Cyrus the Great, whose rule (580-529
b.c.e.) marks the beginning of Persian history.
Chosen Activities
Key actions to keep in mind during this time in the Wheel of
the Year include openings and new beginnings.
Symbolically, many Pagans choose to represent Ostara by the
planting of seeds, potted plants, ringing bells, lighting new fires at sunrise.
You can give yourself the gift of a
newly potted plant or take a seed and plant it within. You may want to decorate your altar with a
colorful bouquet of Spring wildflowers. Other
traditional activities include working on magickal gardens and practicing all
forms of herbal work— magickal, artistic, medicinal, culinary, and cosmetic.
Here is a traditional Vernal Equinox pastime: go to a field
and randomly collect wildflowers. Thank
the flowers for their sacrifice before picking them and it is also best to
leave an offering to the plant and/or the Earth for taking the flowers, such as
some milk and honey, or a small crystal. The flowers you have chosen reveal your inner
thoughts and emotions.
At this time in the turn of the Wheel of the Year, when all
things are green and renewed life is all around us, it is a very good idea to
plan a walk through gardens, a park, woodlands, forest and other green places. This is not for exercise, nor should you be on
any other mission. You should make your
walk celebratory, a ritual for Nature itself. Look and listen for the emerging signs of
spring: the fattening leaf buds on trees, the first flowers of spring, the
first Robin. Contemplate the Earth's
movement toward greater light and less darkness. Other activities may include the planting of
your herb and/or vegetable garden.
Alas, as with most other once sacred holidays, today, Easter
is just another huge commercial venture— Americans spend nearly $1.2 billion a
year on Easter candy, and another $500 million on Easter decorations each year.
© 2013 Rosalind Scarlett
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