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ostara
Celebrate the spring equinox by coloring eggs, planting seeds, and appreciating the first flowers. Find lessons, recipes, books, and activities for the whole family below.
What is Ostara?
Ostara is celebrated by pagans and witches at the spring equinox, which is the point in the year when the sun crosses the celestial equator and day and night come out nearly equal everywhere on Earth. From that day forward, the days grow longer than the nights in the Northern Hemisphere right up until midsummer.
The written record of the name is short. Bede, an English monk writing in the eighth century, recorded a month called Eosturmonath, named for a goddess called Eostre, and in 1835 Jacob Grimm reconstructed Ostara as the German form of that name. That is the whole record, and the festival carries it lightly.
The Ostara that pagans and witches keep today is a twentieth-century festival, one of the eight sabbats on the Wheel of the Year, celebrated with eggs, hares, and greenery drawn from European spring folk custom. Easter shares the season, and in English it shares the name.
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Ostara Resources for Pagans and Witches
Explore the Wheel of the Year
The Wheel of the Year and the 8 Sabbats
Celebrating Ostara
Celebrate Easter Pagan Style by Honoring the Goddess Ostara
Ostara Recipes and Drinks
Ostara Strawberry Mint Spritzer
Honey Baked Ham a Traditional Ostara Feast for your Family
Springtime Sangria to Ring in the Pagan New Year at Ostara
Ostara Cocktails the Green Meadow Mule
Roasted Spring Vegetables for your Next Ostara Festival
Ostara Salad a Savory Spinach Salad for your Holiday Feast
Roasted Asparagus with Lemon Garlic Sauce
Ostara Bunny Cupcakes for your Pagan Feast
Ostara Homeschooling, Lessons, & Activities
Pagan Homeschooling Resource Hub
Transformation and Rebirth Ostara Homeschool Lessons
Learn About Plant Life Cycles at Ostara Pagan Homeschool Lessons
Ostara Books from Grani Hulda
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Ostara Gifts
Ostara: Learn About Paganism
Ostara: Learn About Paganism
Ostara: Learn About Paganism
For the little witch in your life. Grani Hulda's Learn About Paganism series teaches pagan topics to young children ages 2 to 7. This picture book introduces Ostara. You can buy the Wheel of the Year book set, all eight sabbats with a signed note from the author. Browse the entire Learn About Paganism series.
Sabbat Charm Cord
Ostara: Learn About Paganism
Ostara: Learn About Paganism
Eight charms, one for every sabbat, strung by hand on a cord and tucked in a muslin bag. Hang the cord on the altar, wear the charm of the season, or work the charms into a witch's ladder or knot magic.
Books & Handmade Goods
Common Questions
How do you pronounce 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.
Is Ostara pagan or Wiccan?
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.
What is pagan Easter called?
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.
Can you celebrate Ostara on Easter?
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.
What crystals are associated with Ostara?
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.
ostara blessing
A green Ostara to you, the eggs dyed and the seeds started. May everything you plant take root, may your garden start well in the warming ground, and may the first flowers find their way to your table. Let the birds nest close, let the rain feed and never flood, and let the hare bring her luck to your door. The days are growing longer and brighter now, and whatever you begin grows with the year.
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