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My First Ostara

Pysanka I must admit that Ostara snuck up on me. I wanted to go all out for the holiday that marks the important transition from winter to spring, but I just didn’t realize it was coming until it was upon me. This is partly because there’s no Google Calendar option for Pagan holidays, which tripped me up as a person who relies on Google Calendar but which actually makes sense for a few reasons: not all Pagans celebrate the eight sabbats, not everyone who does celebrates them on the exact same days, and not all astronomically significant events fall on the same dates each year. I’ve since created a personalized calendar of Pagan holidays that extends for the next five years or so. (But hey, Google, if you happen to be reading my blog: a solstice and equinox calendar would definitely be helpful!) Because the beginning of spring feels like a big deal to me and I didn’t want it to pass unremarked, I hastily hung my handmade Ostara banner, put out a bowl of colorful eggs, and got to researching.

The vernal equinox, celebrated in the northern hemisphere on March 20 this year, is one of two days in the year when day and night are of approximately equal lengths. Astronomers consider the vernal equinox to be the first day of spring.

Modern Pagans often celebrate the vernal equinox as a day honoring Eostre, goddess of spring, dawn, and fertility. It turns out that historical evidence for a goddess of this nature named Eostre is pretty slim and speculative. She’s first mentioned in a single historical source: De temporum ratione, or The Reckoning of Time, written by the English Christian scholar Bede in the 8th century. Bede claims that pagan Anglo-Saxons celebrated Eostre during Ēosturmōnaþ, the month we now call April. Jacob Grimm, folklorist and one half of the Brothers Grimm, asserts a linguistic rationale for the existence of the goddess in his 1835 book Deutsche Mythologie and is responsible for linking her to the tradition of creating Easter eggs. Another German writer, Adolf Holtzmann, connects the mythos of Eostre to the concept of the “Easter hare” in his 1874 book that also happens to be called Deutsche Mythologie. If you want to know more, I recommend this article from the Library of Congress blog Folklife Today, which takes a comprehensive look at what’s known about Eostre and her associations. As for me and my celebration, I chose to focus on changes taking place in the natural world rather than on a specific deity.

My celebration of Ostara was temporally diffuse, much like the transition from winter to spring itself. I decorated for spring the morning of the 20th but it occurred to me that I had already been getting ready for seasonal change in a number of ways.

First, my partner and I have been planning a garden. We’ve been watching a lot of Big Dreams, Small Spaces and have been inspired to combine Monty Don’s practical wisdom with what I know about native plants and eco-friendly gardening theory. Our rented townhouse only has a patio and a few small, heavily-shaded beds, but our landlord has given us permission to do what we’d like with the space and we’re confident that we can at least grow some herbs and veggies and introduce some plants that will support native wildlife populations.

Second, we’ve been writing pysanky. The creation of colorful patterned eggs using the wax-resist technique is an ancient custom that was and is practiced across Eastern Europe; pysanky is the Ukrainian word for the decorated eggs. Pagans online debate the pagan origins of Easter eggs a lot, but pysanky don’t often enter into the discussion. This is weird to me because as far as I can tell, historians, archeologists, and Ukrainians familiar with their own cultural heritage agree that the practice, now associated with Easter, most likely dates back to pre-Christian Ukraine and incorporates pagan symbolism. Traditional symbols used to decorate pysanky are intended to attract health and luck, ensure good crops, confuse evil spirits, and honor nature. This video demonstrates how pysanky are made and discusses their history and traditions. If you’d like to try writing pysanky, you should support your local Ukrainian shop; I get my supplies here.

Finally, I went on a nature walk. It’s still very cold here in Canada, but signs of spring are starting to appear and I want to make sure I don’t miss a single one if I can help it. I went looking for skunk cabbage, the earliest-blooming native flower in my area, but realized belatedly that I’d mixed up my trails and picked one that doesn’t go through a wetland. I did find a cacophony of red-winged blackbirds, a true sign of spring around here: they’re one of the earliest migrating birds to return. And I saw some very early snowdrops! It was good to get out and appreciate the beginnings of seasonal change.

I would like to plan better and incorporate more ritual into my Ostara celebration next year. I’m sure I’ll have an altar set up by Ostara 2020, so I will be able to engage in devotional activities in a designated space. I plan to spend more time reflecting on the balance of the equinox and honoring the arrival of spring, perhaps by rising at dawn and performing an outdoor ritual. I’d like to decorate ahead of time rather than on the equinox itself! I definitely intend to cook a special meal next year, perhaps one that incorporates eggs and traditional spring foods like asparagus or fiddlehead ferns. And since rabbits are special to me, I might acknowledge their association with the season by leaving an offering for my local lagomorphs. There’s still time for me to celebrate this year, though. Spring has lots of springing to do before it’s fully sprung, the Wheel of the Year doesn’t stop turning once a significant astronomical date has passed, and ritual isn’t just for holidays. In this season of warmth, growth, and rebirth, every day feels like a reason to celebrate.

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