Ostara

The story behind the day

Ostara is a modern Pagan festival of the spring equinox, kept by Wiccans and many Heathens around 20 or 21 March, and marked by Druids on the same day. Its name echoes Eostre, an Old English goddess known chiefly from a few lines of the monk Bede. Whether Eostre was really worshipped is doubted, and the evidence for a feast of Ostara rests on Bede alone. Ostara belongs to the eight-festival wheel of the year, a twentieth-century creation.^[1–7]

Origins

The main evidence for Eostre is a passage by the monk Bede, who wrote in 725 that the English month of April, Eosturmonath, was named for a goddess Eostre in whose honour feasts were held, and that the name had passed to the Christian Paschal season. Researchers at the University of Exeter note that whether she existed at all in pre-Christian England is disputed, and that Bede may have exaggerated or even invented her; an encyclopedia entry on Anglo-Saxon paganism suggests that Bede deified the word eostre on analogy with Februus. The Troth, a Heathen organisation, adds that the evidence for a feast of the goddess Ostara comes entirely from Bede.^[1–3]

What it marks

In modern practice Ostara marks the balance of day and night at the spring equinox and the new beginnings of the season. In a reference entry on Wiccan sabbats, Eostar is an auspicious time for new beginnings, with eggs and rabbits as symbols of the earth's fertility; the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids describes the equinox as the time of equal day and night, when the forces of light are on the increase.^[4]

How it came to be

Easter is popularly said to take its name from an Anglo-Saxon spring goddess, Eastre, an idea that goes back to Bede. In the Wiccan wheel of the year the spring equinox is called Ostara. That wheel dates only from the mid twentieth century, when Gerald Gardner is said to have adapted eight older festivals into the sabbats of Wicca.^{[5, 7, 9]}

How it is kept

an altar with eggs and spring flowers — An altar with eggs and spring flowersIllustration · AI-generated

Wiccans and Druids mark the equinox, around 20 or 21 March, with ritual, and Heathen groups hold a feast around it. The Troth says that Heathens may hold a blót on the equinox or wait for signs of spring. The Asatru Alliance keeps Ostara as a High Feast on the spring equinox, and the Asatru Folk Assembly lists it as Austra on 20 March.^{[6, 8]}

Across traditions

Wiccans call the spring equinox Ostara or Eostar, Druids mark it as the equinox festival of equal day and night, and Heathens keep it as Ostara or Austra. The names are modern, and no source shows an ancient equinox festival of this name.^{[3–5, 8]}

Sources

Each statement above was checked against published sources; the verdict says whether it stood as written, was corrected or was hedged.