Ostara

Ostara marks the Spring Equinox, which happens between March 19th -23rd. This year it began yesterday evening (20th).

Ostara takes its name from a European pagan fertility goddess called Eostre and it's also the root of the Christian festival of Easter. Interestingly, when Christianity absorbed many of the 'old ways' they became fixed dates such as Christmas Day (Yule) or All Saints Eve (Samhain). But Easter - despite attempts to bind it to a date to celebrate Christ's resurrection - proved to be elusive and is still, to this day, calculated using the older lunar calendar. Thus, here in the northern hemisphere, the date of Easter is always the first  Sunday after the first Full Moon following the Vernal Equinox. In 2023, therefore, it falls on April 9th.

Incidentally, the various Full Moons that happen throughout the year all have names. Here's a handy guide taken from the website of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich (if you want to know more about why each Full Moon has a name, click here):

But Ostara is more closely tied to the Equinox itself. It marks the beginning of Spring and the return of new animal and plant life. It celebrates fertility and the beginning of abundance with animals emerging from their burrows and fresh birds' eggs and edible green plants appearing in the hedgerows. After surviving a harsh Winter, it was a time of celebration. And for early farmers it would also see the swelling of their pregnant livestock with new births anticipated. It's perhaps no surprise that two of the symbols most closely associated with Easter are the bunny and the egg - two potent totems of fertility.

The symbols and sightings associated with Ostara are eggs, honey, sprouted greens, rabbits and hares, lambs, and spring flowers such as  clover, daffodils, crocuses and tulips. It's around the time of year when I start to hear the first woodpeckers and skylarks too.

The whole world is coming back to green life.  

A conker with ambition!

Jakob Grimm, in his Teutonic Mythology, described Ostara/ Eostra as the 'Goddess of the growing light of Spring'. He explains that she is most often personified as a maiden old enough to bear children, but not yet a mother. She is dressed in white and wreathed in flowers or new greenery, and she is joyous and often dances. The 'White Maiden of Osterrode' is said to appear with a large batch of keys at her belt, and she gathers morning dew or takes water from natural brooks because washing with it was said to restore youth. 

We don't all rely directly on the land to sustain us now but, in modern day living, Ostara is still a good time to start taking action on the ideas and goals you started thinking about around Yule and Imbolc. 

What you plant during Ostara will be ready to be harvested during the coming summer months. 

Have a blessed day.