Ostara
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| Ostara | |
|---|---|
| Also called | Egg Day |
| Observed by | Neopagans Wiccans |
| Type | Pagan |
| Date | Vernal Equinox (Roughly March 20) |
| Celebrations | Celebrating the new life and fertility of the land |
| Related to | Easter Vernal Equinox |
Ostara is a modern Neopagan holiday.
Contents |
[edit] Origin
It is loosely based on several holidays which were celebrated around the Vernal Equinox, and has a strong relation to many known Pagan religious observations. The name goes back to Jakob Grimm, who, in his Deutsche Mythologie, speculated about an ancient German goddess Ostara, after whom the Easter festival (German: Ostern) could have been named. Grimm's main source is De temporum ratione by the Venerable Bede. Bede had put forward the thesis that the Anglo-Saxon name for April: Eosturmonath was named after a goddess Eostre; see Eostre for more information on the etymology.
[edit] Festival
Ostara is one of the eight major Wiccan holidays or sabbats of the Wheel of the Year. Ostara is celebrated on the Vernal Equinox, in the Northern hemisphere around March 21 and in the Southern hemisphere around September 23, depending upon the specific timing of the equinox. Among the Wiccan sabbats, it is preceded by Imbolc and followed by Beltane.
"The Festival of Ostara at the spring equinox marks the end of winter and the beginning of the season of rebirth (spring), and is celebrated by a blot in honor of Frigg and Freya and/or the disir, the collective of female fertility deities."[1] The "blot" is a celebratory meal (also known as "cakes and ale") that is believed to be shared with the the God/ess.
In the book Eight Sabbats for Witches by Janet and Stewart Farrar, the festival Ostara is characterized by the rejoining of the Mother Goddess and her lover-consort-son, who spent the winter months in death. Other variations include the young God regaining strength in his youth after being born at Yule, and the Goddess returning to her Maiden aspect.
Wiccans use the term "Cakes and Ale" rather than blots, which is what Heathens and other Norse or Anglo Saxon religions do.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Mattias Gardell, Gods of Blood, p.159
