Ostara Lore
Once long ago, a hare wandered
through the forest, pondering on what to give his beloved goddess, Eostre.
While wandering, he came upon a fresh new egg. He was very delighted,
since eggs were a fairly rare thing indeed. As much as the little hare
wanted to eat the egg, he decided to give it to Eostre.
"But wait!" the little
hare thought to himself, "My Lady Eostre can have as many eggs as She
likes, whenever She wants, for She is a Goddess and can do those
things!"
So the hare decided he needed to make the egg as beautiful as
Eostre herself. He took the egg and began to decorate it. He painted
the egg with all the colors of Springtime, and added many beautiful symbols that
were sacred to Eostre.
When the egg was finished, the hare presented it to
Eostre. She was so pleased with the little hare's humble offering, that
she asked him to go out and share this delightful egg to all the world,
especially the children, who are also symbols of springtime. So to this
day, the hare's descendents honor Eostre's request and deliver decorated eggs to
all the world's children on the Spring Equinox
.
In the Mabinogion myth cycle, this is when the God of Light conquers his darker twin. The Goddess who has become the Maiden again since Imbolc, welcomes her Child and soon to be spouse. She watches him grow proudly. Pagans of old would light fires at dawn for protection of crops to come, renewed life, and cures to aliments they battled with over the hard Winter months.
The Roman Catholic Church adopted
two holidays from the pagan celebrations. The first being the Annunciation of
the Blessed Virgin Mary, when the angel Gabriel told Mary that she was to give
birth to the Son of God (fixed date of March 25th). It was fixed at this date
because it needed to be the exact and perfect nine months to December 25th, when
the Child was said to be born. Even though she was birthing the Son of God,
she's still human. For this reason many Christians seem to think that any
mention of "Lady Day" refers to this Christian Holiday, when it is
referring to Ostara if coming from a Pagan mouth. If you take a closer look this
mythology was used before Christian times. The Goddess returning to her Maiden,
a.k.a. Virgin (in this case meaning the original 'unmarried'),
was already established in Celtic lore. This is the time that the Young God and
Maiden mate and conceive a child that will grow to become the Dark God. See any
similarities yet?
The second holiday that gets
inappropriately combined with Ostara is Easter. Not so surprisingly, Easter is
also a celebration of life over death as Jesus rises again; just like the God of
Light rises again to defeat the God of Darkness. Does Easter seem to have an
oddly familiar ring to it? That's because it is derived from the Teutonic
Goddess Eostre, (which incidentally is where we also get the name
"estrogen" from -- yep, the female hormone), who's symbols were the
Egg and the Rabbit... exactly where the Easter Bunny and Easter Eggs came from.
Rabbits are a symbol of fertility (as in 'doing it like bunnies!' in reference
to sexual habits) and Eggs are a symbol of creation. As stated before, Her day
is Eostara, the night of the Vernal Full Moon. The Church doesn't do Full Moons,
but Easter is on the 1st Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox each year, and that's
why it is never set on the calendar. Furthermore, if Easter Sunday did happen to
be the Full Moon, the Church was very pointed in being sure it was moved to
the Sunday after so there would be no suspected associated with
"wicked" Pagan holidays.
Another not so striking similarity between Celtic mythology and Christian
mythology: Jesus, after being killed on Good Friday, 'descends into Hell.' After
the third day he rises again and proceeds to Heaven. Many Celtic myths of old
speak of the Goddess descending into the Underworld for three days, continuing
the Trinity trend. Furthermore, it is said to coincide with the Vernal New Moon,
which is not visible for three days, both the day before, the day of, and the
day after. These myths had existed for many thousands of years before the coming
of Christianity. Furthermore, similar "Harrowing of Hell" stories are
all over folklore and other cultural traditions (including King Arthur).
The Goddess transfers her fertility
to the Earth and takes on the Maiden aspect. The God grows to maturity and will
soon become the Goddess' lover at Beltain. For most Wiccans it is a celebration
of fertility and growing Light.
Other Names: Eostre's Day, Spring Equinox, Vernal Equinox, Alban Eiber, Bacchanalia, Lady Day
Symbols: Eggs, New Moon, Butterflies, Cocoons
Colors: Silver, Green, Lavender, Grass Green, Robin's Egg Blue, Lemon Yellow, & Pale Pink
Deity Types: Youthful and Virile Young Gods and Goddesses
Activities: Dyeing Eggs, Looking for Spring Growth
Taboos: none known
Animals: Rabbits, Cougar, Sea Crow, Sea Eagle, Hedgehog, and Boar.
Mythical Creatures: Merfolk and any other Air or Water beings.
Stones: Amethyst, Aquamarine, Bloodstone, & Red Jasper
Plants: Roses, Strawberries, Seasonal Fruit Plants, Violets, Honeysuckle, Easter Lily, Dogwood, Daffodil, Iris, Irish Moss, Jonquil, Apple Trees (blossoms specifically), and Alder.
Deities: Eostre, Ostara (who can also be connected with Ishtar and Astarte), the Green Goddess, Lord of the Greenwood, Aries, Artemis, Athene, Black Isis, Astarte, Cybele, Hecate, Luna, Mars, Minerva, the Morrigan, the Muses, Persephone, Adonis, Dagda, Pan, Aengus Óg.
Foods: Hard boiled eggs, Honey Cakes, First Fruits of the Season, Nuts, Seeds, Leafy Veggies, and of course Chocolate! Click here for Ostara Recipes!
Drinks: Lemonade, Egg-Nog, Anything that you can whip up from the seasonal fruits and berries.
Easter Bunny
Ostara comes from a
Latin name for the Spring Goddess Eostre, for whom Easter was
named.
In
fact, the story of the Easter Bunny which delights children so much in America
comes from the legend of a
humble little rabbit's dealings with the Goddess Eostre. As the legend goes, a
lowly little rabbit wanted so much
to please his Goddess that he
laid sacred eggs in her honor and decorated them in beautiful rainbow colors.
When the rabbit presented Eostre with his gift, she was so pleased that she
desired for all humans to share in her joy and asked the little rabbit to go
throughout the world distributing the little gifts.
This is the time of
year when we decorate eggs, and the bunny hides them. The basket full of
decorated eggs symbolizes the womb full of fertility almost ready to burst forth
onto the Earth. During Ostara, eggs are decorated and used as altar decorations
to honor the Goddess and the God, as well as carried as magical talismans for
fertility. As sacred objects of life and fertility, eggs are also given as
cherished gifts.
The Great Rite, symbolic of the sexual union between Goddess and God and of the
physical and spiritual union between all men and women, began to be enacted on
the day of Ostara. The positive effects of this rite, a form of sympathetic
magic, helped to bring fertility to the people, the land, and their animals.
Day and night are equal as Spring begins to enliven the environment with new
growth and more new born animals. The enigmatic egg is a powerful symbol of the
emergence of life out of apparent death or absence of life.
In Wales, Ostara was
known as Lady Day and signified the official return of the Goddess from her long
winter hibernation. Many of the myths associated with Ostara concern trips by
deities into the mysterious underworld, and their struggle and eventual return
to the land of the living.
Many people feel "reborn" after the long nights and coldness of winter. The
Germanic Goddess Ostara or Eostre (Goddess of the Dawn), after whom Easter is
named, is the tutelary deity of this holiday. It is she, as herald of the sun,
who announces the triumphal return of life to the earth.
Witches in the Greek tradition celebrate the return from Hades of Demeter's
daughter Persephone; Witches in the Celtic tradition see in the blossoms the
passing of Olwen, in whose footprints flowers bloom.
Lady Day may also refer to other goddesses (such as Venus and Aphrodite), many
of whom have festivals celebrated at this time.
In fall, Persephone
is stolen away by Hades, Lord of the Underworld. Demeter, driven almost to
frenzy by the abduction of her precious only daughter (a younger form of Demeter
herself), blasts the earth and refuses to let anything grow until her daughter
is restored to her.
Unfortunately, it isn't so simple. Persephone (or Kore, "the maiden"), is also a
death goddess, and she has found in the underworld that her mate, Hades, is not
entirely offensive to her. Despite knowing better she has eaten three
pomegranate seeds, a potent blood-red symbol of female power, so no one can
compel her to return to her mother and the pleasures of girlhood.
She still loves her mother, however, and eventually a deal is worked out.
Persephone will return to the above world for either a third or a half of the
year, depending on the different variations of the legend. In spring, she
re-emerges and Demeter's delight is so great that she allows the earth to burst
forth into bloom. Hades, his time of power being the fall and winter, retreats
for a time until the next Equinox, in fall, when he will again abduct Persephone
and continue the unending cycle.
