Ostara

[Snippety]

Just to wish a happy Ostara this week to all who celebrate. DH has the day off for the Equinox on Thursday, as his company are very progressive and let him take all the christian bank holidays as days in lieu to have off on our festivals. We're planning a lovely family day out at the zoo, a big roast dinner and a small ritual to plant our ideas for the summer ahead.

whats ostara/?????????????>>

Hi

It's the Pagan festival held at the Spring Equinox - and where the word Easter, egg hunts, bunnies etc originated.

I am a Norse Pagan so for me it is celebrating the Goddess of the Earth, Nerthus and the God of the sea Njord, but for a more generalised explanation see here:

www.joellessacredgrove.com/Holidays/sabbats.html

My husband is an eclectic occultist so we have a general family fun holiday, and I dress my altar with appropriate greenery

thanks x

Ostara is a celebration of the Spring Equinox. The name comes from the goddess Ostara or Eostre. Many of the practices that are now associated with Easter, even the name Easter itself stems from the ancient pagan practices of the Spring Equinox. For example, planting eggs in the ground for fertility, and the associates with rabbits and chicks. In the Wiccan belief system, Ostara is the time of the year when the Maiden Goddess and Young God are wed. Ostara is a celebration of new beginnings, growth, love, and fertility. Since Ostara is also the Spring Equinox it also marks a return to balance, as the light and dark are once again in balance as they were at the Fall Equinox. It marks the changing of nature from winter to spring and growth that culminates with the bounty of summer. It is one of the eight Sabbats.

West Yorkshire as a number of Moots for Pagans to meet. Leodis in Leeds, Elementals in Wakefield and Morley moot in South Leeds.

Many pagans just call it the spring equinox though :)

This is a truly ancient thread!

Some call Christmas, Xmas. some call Samhain, Halloween I am not sure what your point is.

If it is an ancient thread, why read it and maybe after a time threads should be closed.

This thread is 11 year old!!

My goodness. Mumsnet must have large data storage capacity!

I thought I'd lost a few weeks somewhere