Ostara: history, meaning and simple ways to celebrate

How to read the labels Historical what the old sources say. Later tradition what later writers added. Modern modern practice and my own notes.

Ostara is the spring equinox, when day and night are roughly equal and the light is gaining fast. It falls around March 20 in the Northern Hemisphere and around September 22 in the Southern. In temperate climates, it is the season of sowing, of buds and birdsong, of mud and sudden warmth. Its themes are growth, balance, and fresh starts.

My book The Novice’s Guide to Witchcraft explains briefly where the name comes from and gives a planting practice. This page adds a closer look at Ēostre and the Easter hare, a seed-blessing rite and a five-minute version, a herby egg dish, a sowing craft and an Ostara tarot spread.

When it is (both hemispheres)

Ostara is kept at the spring equinox, when day and night are roughly equal. In 2027 the March equinox falls on March 20 at 20:24 UTC, which is already March 21 in East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. In the Southern Hemisphere, Ostara belongs to the September equinox, on September 23, 2027. Check the exact time for your own time zone.

In the Southern Hemisphere, Ostara falls around September 22, in early spring, while Easter falls in autumn. Many Southern witches enjoy Easter eggs and hot cross buns in autumn as cultural customs and keep their seed blessing for September, when sowing actually makes sense. Choose seeds suited to your local spring. A local nursery or garden center can tell you what to sow in September where you live, and native plants are often the easiest and kindest choice for local wildlife.

History: what is old, what is modern

I label each part of the history so you can see how old it is. Historical means it is recorded in old sources, Folk custom means it is recorded in later village or household practice, Later tradition means it was added by scholars, writers or occultists, and Modern means it comes from today’s witchcraft.

Historical Almost everything we know about the goddess behind Ostara comes from one sentence. In The Reckoning of Time (around 725), chapter 15, the Anglo-Saxon monk Bede lists the old English month names. He says that Eosturmonath, roughly April, was named after a goddess called Ēostre, in whose honor feasts had once been held in that month, and that the English now used her name for the Christian Paschal season. That is the origin of the English word Easter.

Bede is the only early written source for Ēostre, and historians once debated whether she was a real goddess or partly Bede’s own explanation of a month name. Many scholars now connect her name with more than 150 Roman-era votive inscriptions to the Matronae Austriahenae, mother goddesses honored in the Rhineland, found in Germany in 1958, and since that discovery most scholars accept that Ēostre was a real goddess, though very little is known about her. The name itself is related to words for “east” and “dawn.”

Later tradition In the 1830s, the German scholar Jacob Grimm, in his Deutsche Mythologie (later translated as Teutonic Mythology), reconstructed a German goddess “Ostara” from the German word Ostern (Easter) and Bede’s Ēostre. Grimm’s Ostara has no independent ancient source; she is a scholarly reconstruction. Aidan Kelly, by his own account, chose “Ostara” as the name of the spring equinox sabbat in 1974, and the name spread through modern Pagan calendars.

Historical What about the Easter hare? One of the earliest known descriptions of a hare bringing Easter eggs is in a late seventeenth-century medical treatise on Easter eggs by the German physician Georg Franck von Franckenau (usually dated 1678). He describes it as a custom of parts of Germany. A few earlier German mentions have also been proposed. German emigrants later brought the Easter hare, which became the Easter bunny, to North America.

You will often read that the hare was Ēostre’s sacred animal, or that Ēostre turned a bird into a hare that lays eggs. There is no ancient evidence for either claim. The bird-to-hare story first appears in a German publication in 1883 by a writer named Oberle, and it was later repeated as if it were old. Hares do appear widely in European folklore, often as uncanny or witchy animals, but there is no evidence linking them to Ēostre. One famous example: in her 1662 confession, the Scottish accused witch Isobel Gowdie described a charm for turning herself into a hare, and stories of witches taking hare form were common in British folklore well into the nineteenth century. That is a real hare and witch connection, but it belongs to the history of witch trials and folk belief, not to Ēostre or to Easter. [Historical + Legend]

Historical Eggs, by contrast, have an old place in Easter custom. Christians in many countries dyed, decorated, and exchanged eggs at Easter from the Middle Ages, partly because eggs were forbidden during Lent and piled up by Easter. Painted eggs are also part of other spring new year celebrations, such as Nowruz, the Persian new year at the equinox. Eggs are a natural symbol of new life in many cultures; you do not need a pagan origin story to enjoy them.

Symbols, themes and altar

Modern These themes and altar ideas are modern practice. Take what speaks to you and leave the rest.

• Balance: equal day and night as a prompt to look at the balance of your own life.
• Growth: sowing seeds, literal and figurative.
• Fresh starts: spring cleaning, new routines, getting outside.
• Fertility and abundance: in the broad sense of creative and natural abundance.
• Joy: play, color, and lightness after winter.

Altar and home

• Fresh spring flowers: daffodils, tulips, crocuses, primroses (see safety below for pets).
• Decorated eggs, real or wooden.
• Seeds and small pots of soil.
• A hare or rabbit figure, if you like the folklore, knowing it is modern.
• Pastel cloth or candles: pale green, yellow, lavender.
• A bowl of water for the spring rains.
• A pair of objects, one light and one dark, as a symbol of balance.
• Avoid or take care: daffodil and tulip bulbs and flowers are toxic to pets if eaten; lilies, including Easter lilies, are deadly to cats in any part, including pollen and vase water.

A simple ritual

A solitary seed blessing

Modern This rite blesses seeds you will sow, literal seeds and the goals they stand for. It takes about thirty minutes.

Preparation. Choose two or three kinds of seed you can actually grow: herbs for a windowsill, flowers for a pot, or vegetables for a garden. Fast, easy choices are basil, cress, nasturtium, sunflower, and lettuce. Gather small pots, potting soil, a watering can or cup of water, labels, a candle in a stable holder or an LED, and your notebook. Set everything on a table covered with newspaper.

Opening. Ground yourself. Open your space in the way you usually do, with a simple circle or just a pause at the threshold. Say: “This is Ostara, the spring equinox. Light and dark are in balance, and the light is growing.”

Main part.

1. Balance. Light the candle. Hold one hand palm up and one palm down. Say: “Day and night, rest and work, giving and receiving. I seek balance.” Take a few breaths and notice where your life feels balanced and where it does not. Write a line about each in your notebook.
2. Choosing. For each kind of seed, decide what it will stand for. One might stand for a creative project, one for health habits, one for a relationship you want to tend. Write the pairings on the seed labels: “Basil: daily writing.”
3. Blessing. Hold each packet of seeds in turn. Say: “Seed of [name the seed], I plant you for [goal]. Grow strong, and I will tend you.” Feel the seeds’ smallness and their potential.
4. Sowing. Fill the pots with soil, press in the seeds at the depth on the packet, and cover them lightly. Push in the labels.
5. Watering. Water gently. Say: “Rain and sun, soil and care. Grow.”
6. First step. For each goal, write one first step you will take this week. Put the pots on a sunny windowsill or outside, depending on the plant and your climate.

Closing. Thank whatever you honor. Extinguish the candle. Close your space the way you opened it.

Grounding. Wash your hands well; soil can carry bacteria. Eat something, such as the egg dish or honey cake below. Fill in your sabbat page and note when you expect the seeds to sprout.

Afterward. Tend the seedlings. Each time you water them, take a small step on the goal they stand for. Record both in your book.

Safety. Wash hands after handling soil and seeds. Some seeds are coated with fungicide; read packet labels and keep seeds away from children and pets.

Five-minute Ostara

Stand at a window or outside. Look for one sign of spring. Hold one hand palm up and one palm down and say: “Light and dark in balance. I grow.” Name one goal for the season. Plant a seed, or water a plant, as a pledge.

Kitchen and craft ideas

Herby deviled eggs

Makes: 12 halves.

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 3 tablespoons mayonnaise (commercial, made with pasteurized eggs) or plain yogurt
• 1 teaspoon mustard
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh dill or parsley
• Salt and pepper
• Paprika to dust, optional

Steps:

1. Put the eggs in a pan, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat, cover, and leave for 10 to 12 minutes.
2. Move the eggs to cold water to cool, then peel.
3. Halve lengthwise and scoop the yolks into a bowl.
4. Mash the yolks with mayonnaise, mustard, herbs, salt, and pepper.
5. Spoon or pipe the mixture back into the whites. Dust with paprika.
6. Refrigerate until serving.

Allergens: egg, mustard. Mayonnaise contains egg; yogurt contains milk.

Food safety: Use commercial mayonnaise, which is made with pasteurized eggs; do not use homemade mayonnaise made with raw eggs. Keep deviled eggs in the fridge, and do not leave them at room temperature for more than 2 hours (1 hour if it is above 90°F or 32°C). Decorated eggs that have been out on an altar or used for an egg hunt for more than 2 hours should not be eaten.

Eggshell seed starters

Materials:

• Clean, empty eggshell halves (from cooking), rinsed in hot water
• An egg carton
• Potting soil
• Small seeds such as cress, basil, or marigold
• A pin or needle

Steps:

1. Gently pierce a small drainage hole in the bottom of each shell with the pin.
2. Set the shells in the egg carton.
3. Fill each with damp soil and sow two or three seeds.
4. Keep them on a bright windowsill and mist with water to keep the soil moist.
5. When the seedlings have two or three true leaves, plant them out, shell and all; crack the shell gently first so roots can escape.
6. Optional: draw faces or symbols on the shells with a non-toxic marker before planting.

Safety: Rinse shells well in hot water and wash hands after handling raw eggshells, which can carry Salmonella. Keep seeds and soil away from small children and pets.

A tarot spread for Ostara

Modern The spring equinox is a moment of balance between light and dark, so balance spreads suit it. Lay out two columns of cards or runes, side by side.

1. Left, the dark: what I am leaving behind with the winter.
2. Right, the light: what I am moving toward.
3. Left, what steadies me: a resource from the past half of the year.
4. Right, what stretches me: a challenge for the coming half.
5. Center, the balance point: how to hold both.

If you planted seeds in the seed-blessing rite, you can place a card or rune beside the pot and leave it there until the first sprout appears, as a small visual reminder of the reading. Write the date the seeds sprout on the same page as the reading.

Another simple practice is to draw a single card each morning for the first week of spring and write one sentence about how it fits the day. A week of short readings often teaches more than one long one, and it gives you a clear record to review at Beltane.

If you are new to spreads, start with the three-card spread and come back to this one when it feels easy.

Journal prompts

• Where is my life in balance right now, and where is it not?
• What did I plant this Ostara, and what does each seed stand for?
• What signs of spring did I notice today?
• What brought me joy this week?

Safety notes

• Pets: lilies, including Easter lilies and daylilies, can cause fatal kidney failure in cats, even from pollen or vase water. Daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths are toxic to pets, especially the bulbs. Chocolate is toxic to dogs and cats.
• Food: follow the 2-hour rule for eggs and egg dishes. No honey for babies under one year.
• Egg decorating: use food-safe dyes on eggs you intend to eat.
• Soil and seeds: wash hands, and read labels on treated seeds.
• Fire: the usual candle rules apply.

An honest note

Planting a seed at the equinox will not make your goals grow by itself. What it does is give you a living reminder that needs your attention every day. A small pot of basil tended alongside a new habit is a daily reminder to tend both.

Around the wheel

The wheel turns from Imbolc to Ostara to Beltane. The Wheel of the Year page shows all eight festivals together, and the moon pages cover the smaller monthly rituals in between.