ostara

Ostara is pronounced oh-STAR-ah. The German-style OSS-tah-rah is also heard, and neither will raise an eyebrow in a pagan circle.

Ostara is a pagan festival, and it is also one of the eight sabbats of the Wiccan Wheel of the Year. Wiccans celebrate Ostara at the spring equinox with the same seeds, eggs, and feast that other pagan and Heathen households set out, so the difference sits in the ritual around the day rather than in the day itself.

The pagan festival closest to Easter is called Ostara, and it is kept at the spring equinox. The name is a nineteenth-century pagan adoption of a month name recorded by the eighth-century monk Bede, so the spring customs run deeper than the label even though the label is modern.

Yes, a household can celebrate both Ostara and Easter, and most mixed families do. The two feel connected because they share a season, a set of symbols, and in English a name. They differ on the calendar: Ostara is fixed to the equinox while Easter moves with the moon, so the two never share a day and nobody has to choose. A full guide to celebrating Easter pagan style covers the family side of the question.

Crystals associated with Ostara are the stones of spring light: lemon jade, rose quartz, green aventurine, and moonstone are the ones most practitioners name. Lemon jade leads at Grani Hulda's table and is the stone set into the Ostara wand, where it carries the pale yellow of the first warm days.