The spring equinox (C.21st March), the point when light overcomes darkness, the sap rises and all the land is fertile. This is a creative time, to do, to change, to put into action all the plans begun at Imbolc, it is a time to sow seeds, both literally and metaphorically, and I've been busy, busy, busy sowing a gerzillion different kinds of seeds for our soon-to-be veggie garden! I love seeds, I love that there is nothing to see one day and the next there is a lil' shoot peering up at you, and the next it's doubled in size again...anyways, I digress..
Ostara, day of the Saxon dawn goddess Eostre (Easter), it is the dawn of the year and on this day light and darkness are perfectly balanced, 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night, before the sun tips the scales and light floods our paths once more (hopefully!). It is the festival of fertility, symbolised by eggs and bunnies, rampant little fellows that they are...this makes much more sense symbolically speaking than the story my headmaster at school told me when I was teeny which was that we have easter eggs to represent the cave that Christ was entombed in prior to his resurrection, and that rabbits were the first thing he saw upon leaving said chocolatey tomb, hence the Easter bunny... (the Christian festival of Easter alway falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, something which is so absurdly Pagan sounding that it makes me giggle!)
We didn't do our usual Ostara gathering this year, instead we merged our festivities with mother's day as we'd already planned to feed our mummies a delicious leg of salt marsh lamb, and didn't fancy doing 2 big lamb fests in a row that weekend! So we cooked our Ostara feast on the Sunday...Hmmmm, lip smackety yumminess! Nettle soup -nettles gathered that morning from our jungle of a garden, sometimes it pays not to weed for a while :-), followed by roasted salt marsh lamb and assorted seasonal veg, and then a deliciously decadent and sickly dessert which I don't know the name of, but I believe is Greek in origin, it's basically layers of whipped cream, Greek yoghurt and muscavado sugar, left overnight to go all gooey and scrummy. I like to serve it in easter egg 'bowls', isss gooood...
This year the first day of spring passed in quite a mellow and relaxed way, but as it was my first ever mothers day, I don't feel too bad about it!
Traditional symbols of ostara & other associated bits and bobs:
Colours: sunny yellows & pretty pastels
Flowers: daffodils & primroses
Gods/Goddess: Eostre Symbols: painted eggs and bunnies
Foods: lamb, eggs, dairy produce, currant buns.
