OSTARA

The Vernal Equinox marks the arrival of spring. Equinox means ‘equal night’ and means that we now have twelve hours of daylight, and twelve hours of night, but the light is gaining, and the days will get steadily longer until the summer solstice, the longest day, after which they will begin to decline again until we reach the autumn equinox, when once again we have equal day and night, but the dark is gaining up until the point of the midwinter solstice.

At the vernal equinox we begin to see shoots of new growth and swelling buds on the trees, the leaves beginning to come out and the natural world is ready to burst into life, with mating birds and animals.

In the past, people would turn to their gods to bless the crops that were being planted, and the ancient rituals surrounding the equinox are concerned with fertility and the return of life.

In many cultures New Years Day was traditionally in late March. Most of the Roman republic and Medieval Europe celebrated New Years in March. It was not until 1582 and the institution of the Gregorian calendar that January 1st became the date to begin a New Year in the Western world.

We know that the equinoxes were celebrated in Neolithic times as several stone circles in Britain and Ireland are aligned to the equinoxes, just as Stonehenge is aligned to the summer solstice. The sun only rises due east at the vernal equinox, and only sets due west at the autumn equinox.

At this time of year, the vegetation god, who had spent the winter asleep or dead underground, was said to emerge from a cave to be reborn [as the seed sprouted in the earth] would grow during the summer months, only to die in the autumn with the harvest, sacrificed so that humans could live.

Five and a half thousand years ago, in ancient Babylon, the New Year was celebrated at the Spring Equinox, a twelve day celebration of renewal and the promise of fertility. It celebrated the marriage of the goddess Inanna and her consort Dumuzi. She was titled Queen of Heaven and Earth, Light of the World and Queen of Earth. His name means ‘rightful son’ and he was also called ‘the good who helped the sheepfolds to multiply, the farmer who made the fields fertile. In the autumn, Dumuzi became the god who was sacrificed with the cutting of the corn. As the grain was cut and stored or made into beer, the god was said to go into the underworld to return next year when the sap rose in the trees and vegetation returned to the earth.

His myth was paralleled in Akkadian lore by Tammuz, died every year at the beginning of autumn, and was reborn in the spring.

Adonis [‘Lord’] was worshipped by the Semitic peoples of Babylonia and Syria, and this worship spread to Greeks as early as the 7th century BCE.[i] Every year, he had to spend part of the year with Aphrodite [the goddess of love], when the land bloomed and the people rejoiced, but when winter came, he had to descend to the underworld and live with its queen, the goddess Persephone.

In the spring a festival of his resurrection was held; the women set out to seek him, and having found the supposed corpse [represented by a wooden image] placed it in a hollow tree, and performed wild rites and lamentations, followed by even wilder rejoicings over his resurrection.

In Egypt, the god Osiris was incarnated on earth to teach people the proper way to live, along with his wife Isis. He was born on 25^th December. Then, in the twenty-eighth year of his reign, Osiris was murdered by his jealous brother Set. Set is generally seen as an evil figure, the personification of the dry desert that surrounds the thin strip of fertile Nile Valley. Set and his followers tricked Osiris into getting into a coffin, nailed down the lid and then threw it in the Nile. This happened on the 17th of the month Athyr, when the sun enters into the Scorpion (the sign of the Zodiac which indicates the oncoming of Winter). The coffin washed up in Byblos, but Set found it and cut his brother's body into fourteen pieces, which he scattered across Egypt.

Isis searched the whole land until she found the pieces, leaving a funeral inscription at each site, all but the fourteenth part- the phallus, which had been eaten by a crab. [1] The body was mummified, and Isis formed a new phallus by magic and, transforming herself into a kite, mated with the corpse and conceived Horus. Isis and her baby were forced to hide from Set until Horus was old enough to avenge his father. They hid in the marshes.

Osiris was a god who chose to become a man to guide his people. As such he was called 'the Good Shepherd' and depicted with a shepherd's crook. As a corn god he died, was buried, and was brought back to life when the Nile floods. As corn he fed his people and was called the 'Resurrection and the Life'. His flesh was eaten in the form of wheaten cakes. Isis was called ‘The Star of the Sea’ and ‘Queen of Heaven’, a virgin who brought forth a son titled 'the Saviour of the World', the hero who brings order back into the universe. Most of her representations show her cradling her baby in a classic Madonna and child pose. The pair was forced to hide from an evil king until the son became a man.

Every year, at Abydos, at the spring equinox, an image of Osiris was placed in a coffin and brought out before the worshipers who saluted it with glad cries of "Osiris is risen."

In ancient Canaan the god Baal was born on 25^th December, which people celebrated by hanging little round balls on trees as symbols of the sun, and giving gifts to one another. Every year he died with the harvest, and was reborn in the spring to much rejoicing.

The Greek vegetation god Dionysus incarnated on earth to show people how to cultivate vines and plants. He had a divine father and a mortal mother, and was born on 25^th December. He died each year and was reborn at the spring equinox, the Greater Dionysia, when vegetation is renewed.

In Phrygia there was a young shepherd called Attis, who was born on December 25^th, the son of a human virgin. He was the consort of the goddess Cybele. Their cult was imported into Rome about 200 BC, and their shrine stood on the present site of the Vatican hill. Each year he died at the foot of a pine tree, and was resurrected at the spring equinox. The festival began as a day of blood called Black Friday and culminated after three days in a day of rejoicing over the resurrection. His body was eaten by his worshipers in the form of bread.

For a thousand years before Christianity, Mithras was worshipped widely among the Persians, Indians, Romans and Greeks, up till around 400 CE. Mithras was born in a cave of a virgin mother, attended by shepherds, on December 25^th and his religion spread with the Roman Empire and nearly took over the known world. He was the known as the ‘Light of the World’, ‘The Redeemer’ and ‘The Good Shepherd’. He baptised his followers and shared a Last Supper. An inscription on the temple of Mithras which lies beneath the Vatican, and which pre-dates Christianity reads "He who will not eat of my body, nor drink of my blood, so that he may be one with me and I with him, shall not be saved," Mithras travelled far and wide as a teacher and had twelve companions. He was buried in a tomb, rose again at the spring equinox, which was celebrated with great rejoicing. He was sometimes figured as a lamb, and his sacred day was Sunday.

It seems that the birthday of Jesus was deliberately fixed to replace that of Mithras in the minds of the population. Fourth century Bishop John Chrysostom wrote: "On this day also the Birthday of Christ was lately fixed at Rome in order that while the heathen were busy with their profane ceremonies, the Christians might perform their sacred rites undisturbed. They call this the Birthday of the Invincible One; but who is so invincible as the Lord? They call it the Birthday of the Solar Disk, but Christ is the Sun of Righteousness."

The cult of Sol Invictus [‘The Invincible Sun’] originated in Syria and was adopted into Rome and held that the sun god was the sum of the attributes of all the other gods. The Emperor Constantine was an initiate of the cult, though he later nominally converted to Christianity and his empire with him, though when he built churches, he also included statues of Cybele and Sol Invictus. In 321 AD he proclaimed that the ‘venerable day of the sun’ [i.e. Sunday] should be a day of rest. The Christian Church, which had previously held the Jewish Sabbath [Saturday] as its day of rest, transferred its sacred day to Sunday in accordance. For the first time, the birthday of Jesus was transferred to 25^th December to align with the birth [and rebirth] of Sol Invictus.

Easter is an annual Christian festival celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ after his willing sacrifice and crucifixion on Good Friday and his entombment for three days. It is held on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox.[ii] In Rome, the rites of Cybele and the death and resurrection of Attis took place on the very spot where St. Peter’s now stands in the Vatican, where the festival of Easter is now celebrated. Indeed, when Paganism and Christianity overlapped, the rites of Attis and Jesus took place on the same date, with Pagans and Christians arguing over which was the original, and which the imitation, even though the rites of Attis had been celebrated in Rome 250 years before the claimed advent of Christianity

The name of the Easter festival is derived from the name of a Saxon Goddess Eastre (Northumbrian Eostre). She was a goddess of fertility and sunrise whose feast was celebrated at the spring equinox. He name relates to ‘east’ the direction of the rising sun at the spring equinox and "to shine" indicating the dawn. Bede says Anglo-Saxon Christians adopted her name and many of the celebratory practices for their Mass of Christ's resurrection. Her chief symbols were the hare (both for fertility and because her worshipers saw a hare in the full moon) and the egg (symbolic of the cosmic egg of creation), symbols still incorporated into Easter celebrations.

Unlike rabbits, hares are native to Britain. Rabbits were introduced by the Romans and the lore of the two animals is very different, as are their habits- the rabbit is a sociable creature, living within large groups, whereas hares are solitary creatures.

Julius Caesar reported that they were among the most sacred animals of the Celts, so much so that killing and eating them was taboo. This restriction was lifted in the spring, when a ritual hunt and consumption was made. Indeed, until the end of the eighteenth century an annual hare hunt took place near Leicester, led by the mayor and corporation together with hunters and hounds. The Hallaton Hare Pie scramble still takes place at Easter in Leicestershire.

The hare represented the coming of spring. It is usually a nocturnal creature that remains hidden during the hours of daylight. However, this is not the case during the mating season when hares can be seen abroad in daylight, behaving in a most peculiar way. They may be witnessed boxing or leaping into the air, giving rise to the expression 'the mad March hare'.

The hare has a reputation for lusty sexuality and fecundity. It is a prolific breeder, even-as observed by Herodotus-conceiving while already pregnant. An ancient belief that the hare lays eggs like a bird is behind the once popular Easter pastime of Hunting the Hares' Eggs. Even now, the Easter Bunny is said to distribute eggs in springtime.

Apart from the breeding season, the hare is only seen at night, by the light of the moon. Should he be disturbed by a nocturnal predator, such as a fox, he will use his great speed and manoeuvrability to escape. The hare, like the moon, stands for birth, growth, reproduction, death and rebirth. Celtic hunting and moon deities were often shown holding hares in their hands.

The egg is a universal symbol of life, creation and resurrection. Wild birds begin to lay their eggs in the spring. The domestic hen ceases to lay much during the winter, and only begins again when light levels increase nearing the equinox. Battery hens are encouraged to lay all year round by artificially increasing light levels.

In many myths, the world hatched from a cosmic egg. Dyed eggs also formed part of the rituals of the Babylonian mystery religions. Eggs were sacred to many ancient civilizations and formed an integral part of religious ceremonies in Egypt and the Orient. Dyed eggs were hung in Egyptian temples, and the egg was regarded as the emblem of regenerative life proceeding from the mouth of the great Egyptian god. Eggs had a religious significance in many ancient civilizations; Egyptians buried eggs in their tombs as did the Greeks; A Roman proverb states, "All life comes from an egg". It’s probably no surprise that Christianity should also adopt the egg to symbolise the resurrection of Christ.

Decorated eggs are a very old aspect of the celebrations of the spring equinox, and later Easter. Traditionally, these were decorated and painted hens’ eggs. The eggs are decorated in several different styles. Boiled eggs are decorated in single colours, usually red, and are called krashanka. These are meant to be eaten, or fed to the livestock, and are dyed appropriately with materials safe for consumption. Krapanka are also boiled eggs, and are decorated with multi-coloured dots. Drapanka are single colour boiled eggs into which a design is scratched with a pin or small knife tip. Lystowka are wrapped in leafs and subjected to a bath of onion skin water, giving a beautiful relief pattern. Depending on the type of leaves used, these eggs may also be eaten as they are boiled in the onion skins. (do NOT use any leaf you are not sure of if you plan to serve these eggs!). The most common and most tedious form of decoration, however, is called pisanki, a batik-method colouring using beeswax, commercial or natural material dyes, and RAW eggs (boiling the eggs first will not only alter the significance of the icon, but will allow water to seep through and ruin the dye, or will alter the design by adhering to cracks formed in the boiling process).

Traditionally, eggs were decorated by women and girls only; now I find that many more men are taking up this ritual as a meaningful expression of the season's celebration. Ages old rituals passed from baci (grandmother) to her family are used for the preparation of the designs. In Eastern Europe they are called pisanki, and the patterns and colours used have different symbolic meanings.

In the Eastern Orthodox Christian church, the eggs are coloured on Holy Thursday after the Divine Liturgy, and a special Easter bread is decorated with red eggs. This bread is taken to church on Holy Saturday, when a special sequence of services takes place. After the service the priest blesses the breads and eggs brought by the people and they take them home to present to friends and relatives.

The eggs are cracked after the midnight service and during the next days. One egg is cracked on the wall of the church (and this is the first egg eaten after the long Great Fast). The ritual of cracking the eggs takes place before the Easter lunch. Each person selects his/her egg. Then people take turns tapping their egg against the eggs of others, and the person who ends up with the last unbroken egg is believed to have a year of good luck. Now we have chocolate ones.

The other animal closely associated with both Easter and the spring equinox is the lamb. The lamb is a symbol of purity, innocence and resurrection. As sacrificial lamb, Christ was crucified to atone for the sins of the world. Depictions of a lamb with a cross symbolise the crucifixion, while the lamb and flag, seen on many pub signs, indicate the resurrection.

Christ was the good shepherd, a title shared by a variety of gods associated with the spring equinox,-

The fleece of a lamb has special attributes. In Greek myth Jason and the Argonauts sailed to discover the Golden Fleece, associated with sun or perhaps the constellation of Aries when the sun reaches the vernal equinox. In Egyptian astrology, the constellation was Seret, a ewe. At the equinox, the pharaoh would sail from Memphis to Thebes to visit the temple of the ram headed god Amun to renew his right to rule as the divine son of the god. In Rome, the spring equinox was the festival of shepherds, and was followed a month later by a celebration in honour of the goddess Pales, patroness of all shepherds.

Our ancestors also observed Ostara as one of the "Fire Festivals," in which a bonfire, torches, or other flames became a focal point of the celebrations. The use of fire is directly symbolic of the sun, and perhaps of Freyr's solar aspects as well, and hence a symbol of fertility. On Easter Eve it has been customary in Catholic countries to extinguish all the lights in the churches, and then to make a new fire, sometimes with flint and steel, sometimes with a burning-glass.

Brands taken from the bonfires preserve houses from being struck by lightning; and the ashes increase the fertility of the fields, protect them from mice, and mixed with the drinking-water of cattle make the animals thrive and ensure them against plague. As the flames die down, young and old leap over them, and cattle are sometimes driven through the smouldering embers. In some places tar-barrels or wheels wrapt in straw used to be set on fire, and then sent rolling down the hillside. In others the boys light torches and wisps of straw at the bonfires and rush about brandishing them in their hands.

In Germany, sun-wheels were made from oakwood, straw, and green branches, and brought to the top of the highest hills. There the wheels were set aflame, and the burning sun-wheel sent rolling down the hill and through the fields of the villages below, literally bringing the might of the sun and the warmth of its rays which thaw the earth into the fields which were to be ploughed and sown. In Britain, brightly coloured eggs were rolled down hillsides on Easter Monday instead.

According to an old belief, the sun dances when it rises on Easter morning. It dances because it rejoices the Resurrection of Christ. Early on Easter morning people used to gather at a lookout spot where they could await the moment when the sun appeared from amid the morning mist. As the golden disk rises, it appears to bow, dance and swing.

[1] Possibly the constellation of the Crab which precedes the inundation.

[i] The mourning for Adonis is mentioned by Sappho about 600 BCE.

[ii] Eastern Orthodox churches sometimes celebrate Easter on the same day as the rest of Christendom. However if that date does not follow Passover, then the Orthodox churches delay their Easter - sometimes by over a month.

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