Ostara

We see the Mother's soft tints
laid lightly on the earth,
though these are but little hints
of the wonders of rebirth.

Tonight is the vernal equinox, a balance point between darkness and light, where day and night are equal. For the northern hemisphere it marks the entrance in to spring and summer - where light dominates.

For those that don't know, the equinoxes are the points in the yearly cycle where the sun passes over the equator. As with all solar events it has been celebrated the world over for many thousands of years.



In Europe it has always been associated with the goddess of fertility, Eostre or Ostara. This is where we get the word Easter from.

The Christians always aligned their major festivals at times of pagan festivals and merged them so as to get everyne on board. Though for extra significance, they decided that Easter should be on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox. To make things extra confusing they assume the vernal equinox is fixed on the 21st March (when in fact, due to the leap year it moves between 20/21), and it's an ecclesiastical full moon ("what's one of them then?", I hear you cry), which is a full moon according to the church's old tables which aren't absolutely accurate. The upshot of this is that Easter is almost as early as it can get this year, which I always notice as I'll have to make Hot Cross Buns on my birthday this year instead of a birthday cake.

Much of what we consider traditional Easter activities come from our pagan heritage, and the festival of Ostara.



Ostara is the festival of fertility for good reason, it is the birth of spring, when all life jumps from the ground, all is more obviously fertile at this point of the year than any other. At the time of the equinox, the young goddess supposedly mates with The Green Man, becoming impregnated with the Son of Light, Mabon(who is born at Yule), and also the autumn harvest - mirroring the reality that what is sown at Ostara (the vernal equinox) is reaped at the time of the harvest moon, Mabon (the autumn equinox, end of September, Michaelmas in the Christian calendar).



Probably the major remaining pagan symbol of this festival is that of the Easter Bunny carrying Easter Eggs. This comes from an old legend about Eostre, uniting two major fertility symbols, the March Hare, and the Egg.

The March Hare is a fertility symbol as it is essentially nocturnal most of the year round, only to be seen at night, but at Ostara when it is in season it needs to mate and comes out during the day. Hence the March Hare, only being seen in March when it is fertile. [The March Hare is often referred to as the Mad March Hare, as made famous by Louis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland, as it's out and about in daylight where it is at risk.]



As for the egg, well you can't get much closer to a fertility symbol than that.

On to the story...

Eostre was walking one day in Spring, and came across a little bird with an injured wing. Eostre, being a compassionate sort, desperately wanted to heal this young bird. Alas, the wing was too badly damaged to heal completely, and Eostre realised the young bird would never fly again. She wanted to give the bird back its great vigour and mobility, so she thought about it, and turned the bird into a hare!

However, during the transformation the bird, now hare, retained its ability to lay eggs. The hare was so pleased that Eostra had saved it, that it laid a sacred egg in her honour, which it decorated and presented to her as a gift. She was so pleased that she wished all of the world to share in her joy and instructed the rabbit to go out to all delivering these eggs as gifts of life, fertility and love for all.



Around the world there are many traditions celebrated on this day. In ancient Rome and Greece, young men would pick a lily from the Ostara temples and present it to their love, the equivilent of a diamond ring today, with all the connotations attached. In Mexico (and south-western america, especially Texas) they have the tradition of cascarones - painted eggshells, filled with confetti, lavendar, sage, perfume, which you smash over the heads of loved ones, bringing them love and luck for the season. The Slavic people thought the day was so overbrimming with life that death was subservient to the living at Ostara, and ceremonily cast a figure of death into the river to drown him, throwing in flowers after him and singing him on his way downstream. The Norse, from where I am descended from, celebrated the Virgin Goddess at Ostara. For them it was the most fertile night of the year, and as such it was practically compulsory to mate on Ostara Eve. Bring back Norse religion I say. ;)

Anyhow, on this day of life, light, rebirth and renewal, I hope you will all give a little thought to your life, what it is to be alive and recognise that our greatest purpose is that of carrying on the great cycle.

The exact moment of this year's vernal equinox is today, 20th March 2005, at 12:33 GMT. Same time across the world as it's an exact astronomical event.

Look there is a songbird
And over there is a hare
Excitement in our souls so sacred and fare
The signs that are given of a promise fulfilled
The rebirth of all nature
Flowers in the fields