Ostara
The spring equinox, when day and night are equal and life returns.
When: the spring equinox, around 20 March in the north and 22 September in the south.
What it is
At Ostara day and night are of equal length, and from now on the light is ahead. The sun rises due east and sets due west. Buds open, birds nest, and what was sown at Imbolc as a thought can now go into the ground. Ostara is the festival of balance and of beginning in earnest.
Where it comes from
The equinox is a fact of the sky, and many peoples have marked it. The Persian new year, Nowruz, has been celebrated on this day for some three thousand years and is kept by hundreds of millions of people today.
The name Ostara is another matter. The English monk Bede wrote around 725 that the month of April had once been named after a goddess Eostre, in whose honour feasts were held. That one sentence is all that is recorded of her. In 1835 Jacob Grimm concluded that the Germans must have had the same goddess under the name Ostara. Whether she was ever worshipped is disputed among scholars to this day.
Eggs and hares belong to Easter and are younger than often claimed. Eggs were forbidden during the fast before Easter and plentiful when it ended, and they have been coloured since the Middle Ages. The hare that brings the eggs is first mentioned in 1682, in south-west Germany. No old source connects either with a goddess.
As a festival of witches, the spring equinox dates from the 1950s, and it was given the name Ostara in the 1970s. It is one of the eight sabbats of the Wheel of the Year.
Ways to celebrate
- Sow: a few seeds in a pot on the windowsill, with one intention spoken over them.
- Colour eggs: with onion skins, beetroot or red cabbage, in colours for what you wish for.
- Find your balance: write two short lists, what in your life needs more light and what needs more rest.
- Greet the east: watch the sun rise on the day of the equinox, exactly in the east.
- Spring clean: open every window, and let the winter air out.
Good to know
Leave wild spring flowers where they grow; many are protected, and some are poisonous, among them daffodils and lily of the valley.
If you gather wild garlic, be completely sure of it. Every spring people confuse its leaves with those of lily of the valley and autumn crocus, and both can kill.
Wash your hands after handling raw eggs, and keep boiled eggs cool if they are to be eaten.
Balance does not mean that everything in your life must be even. Day and night are equal for one day; after that the year leans to one side again, and so may you.