Ostara and Easter have much the same meanings ... but since today marks Ostara and the First Day Of Spring in 2024 ... I'm going to limit this post to Ostara (except the origin of the spelling of the word) and when I post the Easter blog on the last day of March, I'll go into the way that Ostara morphed into the Easter celebration as we know it, today. These are the two Goddesses you’ll often hear associated with this holiday: Ostara and Eostre. The Spring Equinox occurs today in the Northern Hemisphere ... September in the Southern Hemisphere..
The goddess Ēostre/Ostara
Many cultures celebrate the arrival of Spring, including the Hindu festival of Holi, Druids celebrate Alban Eiler, and some Roman Catholics celebrate Carnival. The historical origin of Carnival is also obscure. It possibly has its roots in a primitive festival honoring the beginning of the New Year and the rebirth of nature, though it is also possible that the beginnings of Carnival in Italy may be linked to the Pagan Saturnalian (remember that fun time?) festival of ancient Rome.
The Teutonic (Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family) Goddess of Spring and the dawn, whose name is spelled Oestre or Eastre. (The origin of the word east, the direction of the rising sun, comes from various Germanic, Austro-Hungarian words for dawn that share the root for the word aurora, which means “to shine”) Modern Pagans have generally accepted the spelling Ostara (Oh-star-ah), which honors this Goddess as the word for the Vernal Equinox.
As the sun becomes stronger, there is a sense of joyful abundance. With the end of the cold, dark months, ancient Pagans no longer needed to store and ration foodstuffs. Often the tastiest cured meats were presented to the spring celebrations and feasts as a sign that the people no longer needed to stockpile food.
Ostara 2024 is all about celebrating balance, growth, and new beginnings. Winter has finally ended, and each day slowly gets a bit warmer. Tiny little buds are pushing their way up through the earth and blossoming into a rainbow of colors. Birds, squirrels, and other critters scurry about, and you wonder if they feel the same hope and anticipation you do during the Spring season.
If you remember the blog post I wrote a while back about the Goddesses and their animal associates, you will remember the hare, or rabbit, as being one of those animal friends. The equinox was recognized worldwide as a time for renewal, rebirth, and revivification.
Ostara and the egg she carries are symbols of fertility, of new and continuing life. Some descriptions say Eostre herself is hare-headed, and the Goddess of rabbits and birds. The hare is also associated with the moon in many cultures, due in part to its nighttime eating habits and in part to the image of one on the moon. Whether Eostre herself is hare-headed or her attendants are hares, she is strongly associated with the hare—and later its cousin the rabbit for obvious reasons.
The hare is an evident fertility symbol that is undeniably tied to the Vernal Equinox, March being the rutting time of the hares. It is quite a spectacle in the European countryside. It is said that the typically shy, quiet hare becomes fanatical and fervent. They run for miles and can even become aggressive and appear quite mad, hence the English and French expressions—“As mad as a March hare.”
Eggs also represent fertility and the promise of new life. The Celts (under a broad definition of Indo-European, not as a racial grouping but as a grouping of people with similar religious practices, culture, and language) often dyed the eggs red to symbolize the menstruation cycle. While dying the eggs, women and children would think carefully about their hopes and wishes for the coming year. They would then bury the eggs alongside a seedling in the ground to sustain and feed the plant through its growing season. As the plant grew, the hope or wish would also take root and come to fruition at the end of the year.
Optimism and joy fill our hearts as each day grows lighter and longer. It suddenly feels like our goals and dreams are achievable, and we go after them with ferocious intent. Now is a beautiful time to choose which of your Winter intentions you’d like to focus on. Embrace this time of fresh beginnings and inspiration!
The Equinox also means balance. Literally, in Latin, it means “equal night” and so the day and night are each twelve hours long, and we can look forward to longer and longer days. The popular legend about balancing eggs on their end at the equinox is always a fun experiment. I have successfully done this in years past within minutes of the equinox itself, but as shortly as five minutes afterward, the egg fell over and could not be rebalanced.
Another popular tradition is making hot cross buns, which seem to have Pagan roots. There are mixed reports on the symbolism of the cross on the hot cross buns. Some suggest that the equilateral cross symbolizes the four quarters of the moon, others suggest that it expresses the uniformity of the seasonal year, and still others suggest that it expresses the equilibrium of the equinox day—equal day and equal night.
I can remember this as my first jump rope rhyme of childhood ... 'Hot-cross buns, hot cross buns, Hot-cross buns! One a penny, two a penny, Hot-cross buns! If you have no daughters, Give them to your sons; One a penny two a penny, Hot-cross buns!' I guess it had more meaning than we knew.
Spring has been celebrated and recognized for many years worldwide with deities or structures. Many cultures honored the astronomical timing and positions during the Spring Equinox.
The ancient people of Ireland built large monuments to celebrate the solstices and the equinoxes, which the Druids later used. In Salem, New Hampshire, five different 4,000-year-old standing stones are believed to have been erected by Native Americans or European migrants. One of the five stones aligns with sunrise and sunset during the Spring Equinox and the Autumn Equinox. It’s known as America’s Stonehenge. Several deities are associated with Spring, including Persephone, Aphrodite, Venus, Cybele, Freya, Cerunnous, Min, and many more.
Try conducting a ritual ceremony for Ostara 2024 and the Spring Equinox by immersing yourself in the traditions of your family heritage ... or start a family heritage of your own. For instance, my family practices divination. Having our roots planted firmly (I'm a transplant on the West Coast in California) in the South, food was always a big part of our culture, and I have taken to candle magick to divine past, present, and future.
My son, Dallas, and I also plant seedlings on the First Day of Spring. We gaze into the flames of Spring-colored candles and read the resulting wax as it drips down the candles and onto the candle holder for signs of what the future could hold and what presence may have been with us during our divination. I don't cook much anymore, but if I did, I would cook a special dish, such as a vegetable and grain-based dish.
Ostara is also a great time to do anything that may bring love and joy into your life and the lives of others.
Darkmum
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