Ostara is observed on Sunday, March 20th, 2022.

Ostara / Alban Eilir / Spring Equinox (Pagan, Wiccan, Druid) – March 20, 2023

Ostara marks the moment in the wheel of the year where the light that was rekindled at Yule balances the darkness… and then overtakes it.

 Ostara is celebrated via rituals and spells that focus on balance and fertility by modern pagans and magic users. These can be reinforced with the presence of a full moon just two days prior the equinox. 

Many cultures celebrate the spring equinox.

The Ancient Romans celebrated Cybele, Mother of the Gods and her consort Attis.

Mayans honor the serpent deity Kukulkan. As the sun sets on the equinox on the great ceremonial pyramid, El Castillo, Mexico, its “west side … is bathed in late afternoon sunlight. Long shadows seem to run from the top of the bridge north ladder of the pyramid at the bottom, giving the illusion of a snake with a diamond back.” This has been called the “Return of the Sun Serpent” since ancient times.

Persians continue to celebrate the equinox as Nowruz, or the new year.

The Symbols of Ostara 

The Hare

According to the tradition of Celtic, the hare, a symbol of the moon and the Goddess are the totem of moon goddesses. The goddess most closely associated with Hare is Ostara.  Rabbits are nocturnal, associated with the moon, die every morning and come back to life every evening. It is a symbol of the rebirth of nature in spring. Both the moon and the hare are said to die daily to be reborn – hence the Hare as a symbol of immortality. Because of the pregnant ability of the hare, it is considered as a major symbol of fertility and abundance.

The Egg

Eggs and all nuts contain potential for new life. It symbolizes the rebirth of nature, the fertility of the Earth and all things. In traditions, the egg is a symbol for the whole universe. The ‘universe’ egg has a balance between male and female, light and dark, in egg yolk and white.

The Serpent/Dragon

According to some myths, Eostre/Ostara has connected with snake or dragon. At this time of year, solid energy or Kundalini is bursting positively!

Other Symbols of Ostara

Colors: Green, yellow, lavender, pink, blue

Crystals: Peridot, moss agate, sunstone, aquamarine, amethyst, rose quartz 

Flowers: Crocus, violets, daffodils, forsythia, tulips, clover

Trees of Ostara: Birch, Ash and Older

Animals: Rabbits, birds, lambs, chicks

Incense:  Violet, honeysuckle, narcissus, and lemon

Plants: Rhubarb, asparagus, peas, lettuce

Herbs: meadowsweet, cleavers, clover, lemongrass, spearmint, and catnip.

Deities:   Isis, Estotre, Adonis

Ostara is a first day of spring. This is a time when Persephone returns to the earth after ruling 6 months in the underworld. A time of great promises and new growth, a time for personal changes. 

Ostara is believed to be the day when the goddess Mother Earth grew up and joined the Sun god in a sacred marriage. It is a time when the goddess transforms from her maiden stage, the innocence of childhood into adult passion, with the potential for reproduction and growth, as well as the readiness to be reborn. 

OSTARA: THE SPIRIT OF THE DAWN

The story goes like this. Ostara, the spirit of the dawn, loved little children. One day, she turned her pet bird into a hare to amuse a group of kids. The hare kept its ability to lay eggs, and on Ostara’s feast day, he would go from house to house, leaving brightly colored eggs in the nests of moss and grass crafted by little ones and left outside for him.

Though many celebrate the spring festival on the vernal equinox, Ostara’s feast day occurs on the full moon following the spring equinox, not on the equinox itself. 

The hare has strong associations with the moon, so he ventures out when the moon is fullest. Waiting until the full moon to celebrate Ostara is as appropriate as celebrating it on the equinox itself, and it gives you the opportunity to include any full moon observances into your celebration.

At Ostara RISE AT DAWN

Ostara is a goddess of spring and dawn – a goddess of a new beginning. Her name is related to the “east”, where sun rises.

Ostara represents dawn and rebirth, and the time most auspicious time to Ostara is the early morning. Raising at sunrise gives you the opportunity to bask in the gentle quiet of the new day, to witness the symbolic rebirth of the sun, and to listen to the spring birdsongs.

Sunrise Meditation

Take a moment to sit and meditate to see what the beginning of spring brings into your life, and practice gratitude for the coming abundance. 

GET OUTSIDE

Being outdoors is an important way to welcome spring. Take a walk and note the new flowers, the budding trees, and the birds returning. Collect flowers and other spring plants for your altar, where appropriate. Twigs from budding trees are wonderful, but be sure to harvest them responsibly. Take dogs and children with you should you have any.

If you have a garden, this is a good time to plant spring vegetables and flowers. Peas, radishes, and salad crops love the cool temperatures of early spring. What a wonderful way to celebrate new life!

WEAR A FLOWER CROWN

Wear a flower crown and write down your intentions for growth and renewal.

PREPARE YOUR ALTAR

Set up your altar as soon after you come back after your morning walk. Put spring flowers on your altar (primrose, crocus, daffodil or any flowers you just gathered on your morning walk). Decorate your altar in spring colors: the pale green of new leaves, and the soft pinks and yellows of sunrise. A chalice or bowl is an excellent way to symbolize the feminine power of the Make sure you fill bowl or chalice with blessed water. Sprouting seeds are a perfect symbol of spring, and if you have a few new seedlings for your garden, placing them on your altar is a great idea. Eggs are sacred to Ostara, so brightly decorated eggs are great for your altar.

Display images or statues of hares in honor of the Goddess of Fertility. 

DECORATE YOUR HOUSE

Open all windows in the house and let fresh air renew the energy in your home. To attract pease, fertility, and abundance, decorate your home with potted daffodils and tulips. Let the smell of flowers awaken the magic of the season. Outside your home hide a few colors eggs to bring life and fertility. Give your home a thorough spring cleaning. As goddess of new beginnings, Eostre exalts you to clear away the old and make a way for new opportunities and possibilities.

Ostara: Planting the Seeds

At Ostara, plant hers, chives, onions, and lettuce, and every plants that are good for your region. As your plant, kneel upon the soil with a sign of gratitude. 

Ostara is a time of perfect balance between light and dark with center of gravity tipping toward the light. The spring equinox is the moment we know that the winter time has passed. It brings eggs and seeds, chicks and bunnies, present and future abundance. 

Nature bursts with a new life and we ensure that no matter what life will continue. The work of a season is turning the soil and planting the seeds. While gardening, you can propel your vision thinking of what comes to fruition. As we overturn inner soil, we see the richness beneath.

Ask yourself what talents and strengths you forget you possess. Focus on how your gifts can support your future dreams. What seeds are you currently planting? Don’t focus on your past struggles, but focus on your brilliance in having survived.

Involve some plant magic by adding Calendula petals to your breakfast tea.

Those big sunny blossoms of calendula are a symbol of energy and potential, so drink it in!

Bonus plant magic: Burn a sprig of Rosemary as a purifying offering.

PREPARE A FEAST

Springtime foods abound at the Ostara feast! This includes fresh spring vegetables, like peas, fava beans, sprouts, lettuce, and asparagus. 

Honey is a great addition for Ostara feast. I will use lavender honey. 😉

Eggs and foods made from eggs are also an excellent addition to the table, including deviled eggs, custards, and baked bread puddings. 

Seeds stand for the planting season and the greening world.  Flower seeds, such as sunflower seeds or poppy seeds, are especially appropriate.

Fish is also an excellent thing to serve. Fish symbolizes the female principle.

Dairy products are also appropriate, since livestock offer up plentiful milk during the spring.

Add a little extra magic to your celebration by incorporating Elder flowers, a symbol of prosperity and protection. (Sipping elderflower juice tastes like being initiated into the fae realm.)

Chicken or duck is a popular spring food because birds that don’t start laying may be eaten instead.  Both of these birds symbolize abundance and fertility.

Lamb stands for innocence and gentleness.  Lambs are born in very early spring so they represent the season — but there’s more meat on them now.  Lamb chops and leg-of-lamb are popular.

Rabbit or hare is traditional Ostara fare.  At this time, the animals become more active and visible, thus easy to catch.  They represent speed and fertility.  They are also sacred to the Goddess.

Dairy foods are readily avaiilable in spring as cows, goats, and sheep give abundant milk.  Sometimes you can even find butter in the shape of lambs!

Green vegetables mark the return of fresh foods.  Early choices include asparagus, lettuce, peas, and sprouts.

Edible flowers add color and interest, also representing spring.  These include lilac, viola, chive, clover, sweet woodruff, and violet.

Ostara Foods and Recipies

Lets get creative with our Ostara celebration foods and experiment with using colors, flavors, and herbs. 

Easy roasted tri-color cauliflower (1 purple, 1 orange, and 1 white) with herbs and lemon can be a nice addition to a typical menu. Add chopped parsley, chopped basil, 11/2 tsp chopped thyme, zest of 1 lemon and juice of 2 lemons. Bake it in oven for 40-50 minutes. 

Ostara bread

You will need:

3 cups strong white flour

500 mls buttermilk

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

3 teaspoons ground almonds (optional)

3 tablespoons golden syrup

Juice of 2 lemons

1 beaten egg for glaze

Sprinkle with soft brown sugar

Puree the almonds and flour together in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and pour in the buttermilk/lemon juice and golden syrup. Now for the mixture – mix together with a wooden spoon or with your hands – to your liking. 

As you do, think about the emerging life we celebrate at this time and add in the hopes, ideas, and wishes you have for the coming year. Repeat three times:

‘Out of the Earth towards the light, new beginnings begin flight…’

Turn the dough onto a lightly coated table and roll into a circle.

Use a sharp knife to lightly cut the bread in half to represent the Equinox.

Beat the omelette and sprinkle the sugar on top.

Bake in medium oven for about 20-25 minutes. When you share this bread with friends or family, you can invite them to add their wishes to the loaf before it is shared by everyone.

Bake a Cake

Say:

Vernal Equinox Cake

Spring tide is rising

Rotating life cycle

Explosive energy that makes magic fly

Reincarnation is learning.

Spring and moon magic and frenzied March rabbits, mating and combining, spawning and hatching and all the energy is there. This cake is the richness of spring, of the equinox from the rich darkness of winter. It is a type of egg cake, put in a white tall tin like flowers in spring and the light reflected from the moon.

The cake could be simply decorated with a light white icing with primrose and ranunculus petals.

You need:

4 eggs, separated

1/2 teaspoon cream tartar

3 tablespoons cold water

12 oz – bread sugar – 375gms

Smidgen less than 1/4 pint – boiling water – 125ml

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

A little salt

8 oz – sifted flour – 450gms

Few drops of vanilla essence

Grated peel of 1/2 lemon

Grease and line an 8-inch DEEP cake tin and, importantly, preheat the oven to gas line two, 300F/150C.

Start beating egg whites with cream of tartar until stiff, then set aside.

In a cauldron or large bowl, beat egg yolks and cold water for at least five minutes.

Think and talk about all the things the spring and the Vernal Equinox means to you, gradually whisking in the sugar and then boiling water, your yolks will become whiter and whiter.

Now, add the salt, baking powder and flour, beat well, add the lemon and vanilla and stir well and slowly until the egg whites can be lightly kneaded and turn the mixture directly into a box.

Bake the cake for an hour and a half; do not peek for at least 45 minutes.

This cake is coated with high tin so it is very light and white, bringing the breath of the fresh air of spring.

Ostara Eggs Hunt Fun Game

Have your friends come over for an egg-dyeing party, with a price for the most creative egg. the eggs can be decorated with runes or other Pagan symbols or anything the imagination conjures up.

Ostara eggs can be a great tool for the guidance. Mark eggs after you dyed them with blight colors with runes or other divination symbols, then hide them around the house for your friends to find. 

Advise the seekers to keep their minds focused on their questions while engaging in a fun and challenging game. Note how the symbols fall together as the hunt progresses. You can charge the the symbols with bright spring energy by saying simple spring goddess name chant over them:

EOS, Eostre, Ostre, Eostar, Ostara. before eating the eggs, to plant energies within,blessing yourself, your family and friends with the spring energy and new beginnings!

Discuss Traditions and Read Tales of Ostara

Tell your friends the myths and celebrations that are customary for Ostara traditions.

Rupert’s Tales: The Wheel of the Year – Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, and Ostara and Demetre and Persephone 

Start New Projects During First Full Moon After Equinox

Ritual

If you have any new venues or projects you have been waiting to start, do it now. Ostara is a good time to begin anything.

To bless a new venture, write it down on a peace of paper and place it in a cauldron.

Leave it overnight. Then place it in a potted plant and forget about it.

Spring Cleansing

Spring cleansing is a great way to start, as it gives you the chance to clean away what you no longer need from the last year in favor of things you will need in the new one. Be sure to cleanse your space in whatever way feels most meaningful to you. 

For smoke cleansing, our Herbal Renewal incense is perfect, with its fragrance of renewing rosemary & lavender.

Magical Sweeping with Heather

For a plant magic boost, do your sweeping with heather.Think of a besom – a bundle of twigs tied around a large stick – which was traditionally made of Heather. When sweep, do not let your besom touch the floor.

Ending of Celebration

Before the celebration ends, as a sign to thanks Ostara, light a pale green candle. Add flowers and hers to your candle magic.

Ostara celebrates fertility and readiness to flourish, and can be seen all around us in the colors of flowers and colors of magic.

Outdoor Celebration

You can celebrate Ostara outside in nature, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Place a festive altar, decorated with flowers. You can perform magical rituals in honor of the goddess Ostara, pronouncing special words and ringing the bell and lighting incense.