About Ostara - By Rel Davis


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Regrettably, there is a lot of ignorance among a lot of neo-pagans! One point
is the oft-repeated statement that "the ancients celebrated the wheel of the
year" with eight holidays, the "quarters" and the "cross-quarters."

Actually, the wheel of the year celebrations are entirely modern. In most of
the world, the "ancients" knew nothing of the eight holidays.  In fact, south
of the equator, they make no sense at all.  Midsummers would take place toward
the end of December!

Our Celtic ancestors celebrated some festivals similar to the modern ones, but
they borrowed the "quarters" (the equinoxes and the solstices) from the Roman
invaders.

Three examples:

First:  Harvesthome is usually celebrated at the autumnal equinox (around
September 21) by modern neo-pagans.  The German version of this is the
Oktoberfest, celebrated the end of September and the first week of October.
This is because that is the time the bulk of the harvest is completed.
Harvesthome originally was celebrated locally at that time -- when the bulk of
the harvest was done.  Only our scientifically minded moderns associate it with
the autumnal equinox.

Second:  Yule is often celebrated at the winter solstice.  This is completely
wrong.  The word "solstice" literally means the "standing still" of the sun
(which is around December 21).  The word Yule is from the Old German word "Jul"
meaning "a turning wheel."  Yule is the time the sun "turns" in the sky and
begins to climb up again.  This would be around December 25, when the turning
would first become apparent to the naked eye.  The Roman festival of Sol
Invictus (the "unconquerable sun") was on December 25, as were the birth of
Mithra (the Persian sun-god) and the Norse Yule.

Third:  (And now, at last, we get to Ostara!)  Ostara is often celebrated in
ignorance as the vernal equinox.  Ostara (or Eostre, or Easter) was the
Teutonic lunar goddess who was born each year at the vernal full moon (the next
full moon after the vernal equinox.)  Her symbols were the egg and the bunny
(if you look at the full moon you can plainly see an image of a rabbit leaping).

Each month, the moon goddess Eostre died (at the new moon) and stayed dead for
three days.  (There are, of course, three days to a new moon.)  At the full
moon, she came to full life (pregnant) and gave birth during the three days of
the full moon.  At the spring full moon (Ostara), she was said to give birth to
all the glories of springtime -- flowers, baby animals, new leaves, etc.

If any of this sounds familiar, the whole thing was borrowed by Christianity
for its own "Easter" celebration!

For pagans, Ostara is a time of joy in a renewed springtime.  It was the
ancient time of planting -- as it still is in many parts of the world.

My grandfather was a profligate (in the words of rural Georgia a century ago.)
He was kicked out of the Glenn, GA, Baptist church for "blasphemy and
drunkenness" and he was forced to leave his home town over a scandal involving
a shooting.  But he was also a good farmer.  Every year he would plant his
crops on the "first full moon after the spring equinox."  He would begin
planting early in the morning and work through the night (under the full moon)
until all his fields were planted.  Other farmers would work only in the day
and take a week or more to plant what Grand- dad did in two days.  His crops
always came in.  He claimed the full moon helped the seeds to germinate.  My
father (a Baptist minister) said it was only because he planted everything
timely. Either way, my grandfather followed an ancient tradition.

Ostara was the time of planting.  For us, it can also be a time to plant seeds
of growth, to begin new ventures and re-institute old relationships.

Let's give up a lot of that nonsense about the "quarters" of the year.
Remember, these were primarily of importance to the patriarchal solar cultures
that destroyed the earlier, lunar Goddess civilizations.  Keeping these
"holidays" only perpetuates the solar-male supremacy myths.

Blessed be.