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This is the Spring Equinox, when the day finally catches up with the night, and then begins to outrun it. But for a moment of betweenness, light and dark are in perfect balance.
It would be appropriate to celebrate at the crack of dawn. Since that’s unlikely, then try for early afternoon, when the sun is shining strongly.
We still can’t see spring, but we can feel it. Now the sap is running strongly. In Central and Eastern Canada the sap-buckets and lines are out, catching the sweet flow from the maple trees. What makes the sap run is a balance of bright sunshine during the day (the promise of spring), followed by cold, clear nights (winter still hanging on).
If you move the snow back a little in your garden, you can see a few things that are already green. Jumping-jacks, those miniature perennial pansies, are always ready to get a head-start. Some other perennials are green and ready to go, too. And you can almost feel the crocuses, tulips, hyacinths and daffodils stirring underground.
Ostara is the name of a German goddess. Eostre is another version, and obviously is the root of words like estrus and estrogen, those terms having to do with feminine fertility.
The Farrars (in Eight Sabbats for Witches) say that Eostre is probably derived from the related names Ishtar and Astarte, the ancient Goddess of the Middle East. Those names in turn come from Isis, the Mother Goddess of Egypt.
We get Ostara or Eostre from the Mediterranean because, the Farrars say, the Equinoxes weren’t celebrated by the Celts originally, but adopted by them later following contact with the Romans. (However, the first people of Britain, predating the Celts, apparently did mark them, as evidenced by the alignments of the stone circles they built.)
And, of course, the name Easter is derived from those Pagan goddess names. The time to mark Easter comes from an already-established custom of celebrating the resurrection of life on earth at this season, as personified by various Pagan deities, like Persephone and others. (However, Easter is not fixed entirely by the Equinox, but by the moon in relation to it.)
Ostara is also called Lady Day, for the time when the youthful goddess, returned from her time underground (or sleeping, or in seclusion), meets the youthful sun god, and they marry. Nine months later, she gives birth to the new sun.
During winter, from Yule until now, the earth was in the element of Earth.
Now, at the Equinox, we move out of Earth and into the element of Air, which lasts until Midsummer. The earth is moving up out of herself, upwards into the air. She releases all the seeds buried inside her so they may start to sprout and reach up into the air in the form of plants.
At the same time, the sun is moving from the astrological sign of Pisces (Feb. 20 — March 19), a water sign, into Aries, a fire sign.
Earth is stirring under the winds of spring. The sun is leaving depressive Pisces (will winter never end?) and coming into his own. To round out the picture, check an astrological calendar to see what sign the moon is in on the day you celebrate.
Everything’s moving, changing. Yet it looks much the same outside. The snow is still high. (Everywhere but the West Coast!) The winds of spring blow cold and damp. But summer is coming, it’s really coming. We feel warmed by the thought. Ready to burst out of our long hibernation, like the eager seeds seeking the light, like the chick stirring inside the egg.
St. Patrick’s Day is on March 17. This celebrates the “rebirth” of Ireland from Paganism into Christianity. However, St. Patrick is associated with the clover, whose triple-leaf was sacred to Ireland’s triple goddess long before worship of the Christian triple-god arrived in that island. (Especially lucky is a four-leafed clover, which the Farrars in Eight Sabbats suggest you could associate with the four quarters that make the balance of the wheel.)
Easter, of course, is the major feast of the Christians. Ironically, it’s a popular feast for non-religious people too, featuring the old Pagan fertility symbols of rabbits and eggs.
It used to be a custom to wear new clothes for Easter Sunday, especially flowery hats and bright colors. This is to celebrate the resurrection — but not just of Christ, but, in the older concept, of resurrected Nature after her long burial under the snow.
As life on earth is (apparently) resurrected in spring, so are many deities through the eons. Persephone (sometimes called Kore) is perhaps the best known today. In the legend she spent six months underground, living with Hades, its king, and returns to the upper world at the equinox to bring fertility back to the land.
In earlier versions of the Greek myth, it was Apollo, the sun-god, returning from the mysterious north, to restore order after the chaos of winter under the rule of Dionysus.
Or, in another version, Dionysus was the spirit of all vegetation who emerged from the earth in springtime in riotous splendor, and then died at harvest, with priestesses of the Goddess presiding over the rites.
In those earlier versions, the Goddess remains with us, though in seclusion, and it is the God who goes through the cycle of death and rebirth. Similarly with the British idea of the battle at each Equinox between the Oak King (Summer) and the Holly King (Winter). At spring, of course, the Oak King wins the battle — and the Goddess’ hand in marriage. (The oak is a symbol of summer because that’s when it has its leaves. Holly is a symbol of winter because it keeps its green when the other plants are bare and dead-looking.)
The ritual should feature flowers on the altar (forced spring bulbs would be nice). The celebrants should wear bright clothes.
And, of course, eggs should feature prominently.
Eggs were central to Pagan celebration of spring in northern Europe, especially in Germanic and Slavic countries. People of the Ukraine are particularly noted for painting intricate designs, and have raised egg-painting to a fine art.
In Germany colored eggs are used for decoration in various ways, including being hung on “egg trees”. Easter eggs didn’t feature as strongly in the Celtic countries in the past, but they are nearly universal now. They’re certainly an important symbol in the U.S. and Canada.
An Ostara ritual could feature egg-painting or dyeing. That’s great fun for children, almost as much as searching out candy eggs that have been hidden around. However, painting eggs is a long, messy procedure, better done as an activity on its own. The finished eggs, of course, could be featured in the ritual.
Brightly colored plastic eggs that come apart are available in stores around Easter time. You could use these in a ritual. Get together a selection of small symbolic items, like shells, pebbles, bits of paper (and write slogans on them, like in Chinese fortune cookies), acorns, what-have-you. You can choose items that have significance for you and put them into an egg. You can keep your egg to take home with you, or perhaps exchange with somebody. Or hide it and see who finds it.
We all need a lift at this time of year. Despite spring arriving officially, that’s in the heavens. Down here on the ground, it’s going to take another little while.
But this is a time to take stock. The day and night are balanced for a moment in time, before the turning of the wheel takes us into the growing light. It’s a time to think of whether we are balanced in our lives. Do we give as much as we take?
You might say that there are times when we need more, and don’t have a lot to give. But perhaps at those times we would do well to try to do something for someone else. It distracts us from our own troubles, and it gets a flow going. (Give and you shall receive.)
But there are always times in our lives when things are going really well for us, and then we can put out into the world more than we take back.
This is also a time to think of how we can keep in better balance with Nature. We’re coming out of a season when we needed to use a lot of wood, oil and electricity, just to keep alive. But in the coming months we can work to put something back into Nature. We can plan to plant trees. Or we can compost to return nutrients to the soil. Or work on our dwellings to conserve energy during the next cold season.
And, of course, it’s time for gardeners who start their seedlings indoors to get to work.