Hi witches.
I've been away in the last week but, I'm now back... and the first thing I would like to do is talking to you about Ostara, the also called Spring equinox.
Ostara is celebrated on 21st of March on the occasion of the spring equinox, it is the Sabbath of rebirth, renewal and regeneration.
It is no coincidence that this holiday shares many symbols and practices with Easter, in fact the English term for Easter derives from the Germanic term for Ostara: "Eostre" which means "star of the east", she was the Germanic and Saxon goddess of fertility, in fact the goddess Eostre is the goddess who is celebrated during this celebration.
Spring marks the renewal of nature, by association the Ostara festival is associated with our spiritual, physical and emotional renewal.
In the Mediterranean population, spring is associated with a moment of fertility, in the Nordic population, on the other hand, the fertility festival takes place in Beltane due to the obvious climatic differences.
The universal symbol of this moment of rebirth and renewal has always been the egg.
In fact, eggs represent both the potential for new life and tangible proof of the equinox.
The hare or rabbit is also an important symbol of Ostara, an animal sacred to the Goddess Easter but it was also associated with the goddess Aphrodite and the goddess of the Hunt and the Moon of the Nordic peoples.
Ritual activities: cleaning (the typical Easter cleaning), spiritual, physical and emotional renewal, rebirth, regeneration.
Colors: all light colors, including pink, yellow, white, blue.
Stones: all the stones in the colors listed above, aquamarine, heliotrope
Drinks: milk, honey, flower-scented drinks
Incense: all the scented flowers
Oils: those possible with herbs listed below
Herbs: Daisies, violets, broom, dandelion, jasmine, rose and all the herbs that arise in this season, jasper, betony, Irish moss.
Food: chocolate, milk, eggs cooked in all ways, typical sweets, ricotta, seasonal fruits, yoghurt or chocolate cakes, shortcrust pastry biscuits
Gods: all the goddesses of fertility, the young goddesses, the goddesses of love, black Isis, the Morrigan, Hecate, Cybele, Astarte, Athena, Minerva, Artemis
Symbols: Eggs, rabbits, new objects, colored ribbons, doves
Spirits of Nature: goblins of the lakes, the beings of air and water that arrive with the spring rains and thunderstorms
Animals: puma, porcupine
Activities:
- Typical cleaning of this period, the so-called: Easter cleaning. Clean up your room and fix it up with what fengshui says.
- Throw the old away and everything that you don't use/don't need (or give it away to someone who needs it), everything that weighs on you, people in particular, maybe those people who have hurt you, throw away everything that is negative.
- Absolute purification of the house, of people, objects, etc.
-Decorate the eggs and display them on the windowsill, in a basket in which you will also insert some food for the birds, or take them to nature and leave them there in honor of the goddess Eostre, offer them to her as her bunny did with her.
- Have your children draw lots of bunnies and colored eggs
- Have a nice lunch in the middle of nature
- Walk in the middle of nature trying to see the rebirth of the first shoots
- Photograph a sprout, write on the pic your wish or something you want to be born from now on and always carry it with you (give a photo of a sprout to your loved ones as well)
- Make small baskets with the typical foods of this festival and give them to your friends and relatives
- Take some woods and create a garland, insert colored ribbons, flowers, everything you find in nature
- Plant seeds of plants that grow during this period
- Take some lemon peel and have your children do a sun on a billboard which they will then hang in the room
- The peels of the eggs that you will not use, crumble them and put them in the soil of your plants
- Buy a seedling and take care of it
- Go around the parks, woods and clean them from garbage
How to decorate the altar
- Decorate the altar with colored eggs, ribbons and anything colorfull you can put on it
- Candles of light, pastel colors
- Insert a bowl or a vase with soil inside of it where during the ritual you will insert seeds and called Eostre to bless them for a future growth
- Pink tablecloth or light colors
- Have lunch on your altar with typical sweets, perhaps offering something to the gods and blessing what you are about to eat
- Light the jasmine incense
- It would be more appropriate to be able to celebrate outside so that we can create the circle with earth and have lunch outside so that you can offer something to the wandering animals
This is all witches... I hope this new article will help you to know more about Ostara, if you have any questions or anything to add, please leave a comment below, it would be my pleasure discuss it with you :D
Blessed be and Happy Ostara
Stay tuned, soon a tutorial about how to decorate the eggs will be available.