What is Ostara spring equinox?
Ostara is the second of three spring festivals with Wheel of the Year. Coming between Embolic and Beltane, this is a time to celebrate the balance between the tightness found during the seasons. Although it is still cold in many places, this is the official start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere – the Vernal (Spring) Equinox, a time of direct equality between light and darkness.
What is the date of spring equinox pagan 2021?
Although usually celebrated on March 20, the exact moment of the Equinox varies from year to year. This is because of the inconsistency between the Gregorian calendar and the actual orbit of the Earth around the Sun. Equinox also appears at various local times, so depending on where you live, it may fall on the day before or the day after the date listed on any given calendar. For this reason, the March 19-21 date range is often quoted in Wheel of the Year sources.
In Wiccan mythology, the rising sunlight is evidence of God’s transition from infancy to maturity. Likewise, the Earth is warming and more fertile as the Goddess comes with the full power of her Maiden feature. The promise of greener, warmer, more abundant seasons is evident as the shoots and flowers emerge from the trees and shrubs, the bees return to pollinate the grass, and the grass fields wake up from their winter sleep. This is a time of childlike purity and wonder as the end of winter finally becomes a reality and being outdoors is also fun. We have not yet fallen in love with the heat of summer, but rather enjoy the balanced power of this Equinox.
Spring equinox pagan gods and goddesses
To honor the power of this time of year, you can decorate your altar with fresh flowers and a small, small plant with water or two. Use flower petals to mark the sacred circle, and then fill your cauldron, if you have one, with fresh spring water to float the leaves. Images of letters, eggs and pastel colors are also traditional decorations. Foods appropriate for Ostara celebrations include eggs, shoots, fresh vegetables, and other seasonal crops such as asparagus and fiddlehead ferns. Ostara customs and spells tend to focus on balance. It is also not uncommon for Spring Equinox cultures to promote regeneration.
How to celebrate spring equinox pagan
As with Embolic, this is a great time to clean up your home and yourself – what habits or ways have you never been shaken from what you would like to give up? This is also a good time to plant the seeds of what you would like to produce in the coming months – both literally if you have a garden, and figuratively by spelling. Before the advent of Christianity in European culture, many pagans celebrated festivals in or near Equinox, often honoring the gods associated with fertility and fertility. One such deity was Ostara (also known as Eostre), a fertility goddess of northern Europe who was worshiped in many Germanic tribes. As part of the strategy for introducing and eliminating pagan religions, Christians eventually adopted the name Easter during their spring holidays, and Equinox festivals gradually diminished.
However, as we know, the Old Religion never disappeared completely – as in Yule, some of the customs now associated with Easter actually have pagan roots. For example, egg painting was a tradition among the Druids and ancient Eastern European cultures, and the rabbit has always been a symbol of fertility. So if you have grown up with these traditional Easter customs, you have already touched the power of Ostara!