If you've read my post, "Girlfriend's Spiritual Growth," you know that I was a Christian but am no longer.  Last year at this time I was just beginning to let go, and just kind of ignored the whole Easter holiday because I didn't want to think about it.  This year, however, I find myself longing for some celebration, of the passing of winter, coming of spring, etc.   I miss having eggs, bunnies, etc., sitting around my house.  I got out my box of Easter decorations this weekend, and realized that although I always associated them with the Resurrection, in fact not one had any "Christian" symbol or notation!  Just pretty colors and cute little animals!

So here is my question:  do you celebrate at this time of year?  If so, how?  What do you call it?  

Thanks!!

Ostara

March 21 -- Ostara -- Spring or The Vernal Equinox
Also known as: Lady Day or Alban Eiler (Druidic)

Ostara is a modern Neopagan holiday. It is based on several holidays which were celebrated around the spring equinox (when day and night are nearly of equal length).

As the days lengthen, the earth thaws and starts its greening after the long, dark, cold winter. These are the early days of spring. Our ancestors would be busy now, making final repairs to their plows, preparing their draft animals to pull them, checking the seed corn to be sure that it was ready to plant. The success of the next year depended entirely on the crop that was about to be put in the earth. Our ancestors knew this, and thus turned to our Gods and Goddesses to ensure the fertility of the earth, the viability of the seed, and the growth and abundance of the crops that would keep them alive through the next hard winter. The rituals that marked the spring planting time are still known by name to us today, called "Easter," or to Asatruar, Eostre, or Ostara in the Anglo-Saxon or Old High German tongues of our ancestors.

The feast of Ostara takes its name from the Goddess Eostre, of whom little is known, except that she must have been a Goddess of spring, fertility, rebirth, and the rising sun. Her name is etymologically connected with both the "east," and with a word for "shining; glorious."

The Ostara worship was so strong in the Germanic lands that the somewhat similar Christian feast of rebirth and renewal was given the Goddess's name. Bede recounts that the Christian Paschal feast was named after the heathen Goddess Eostre, and so this celebration is still named Easter among the Christians. There is no specific date on which the Ostara feast must be held. The three mightiest times at this turning of the year are the equinox itself and the new and full moons following the equinox. It is probably better in general to celebrate Ostara during the waxing moon.

Ostara represented many complex, interrelated beliefs to our ancestors. The sun was reborn from its winter banishment to thaw the earth, making it ready for the plow. People felt reborn as well, escaping from close, snow-bound confinement into the new warmth. The Gods and Goddesses of fertility were active once again in the land, causing new growth everywhere. Women often were showing the first swelling signs of pregnancy, engendered in the winter months when bed meant both warmth and entertainment for they and their men. As the wilds burgeoned with new life, so too would the lands inhabited by man, bearing crops in the furrows, kine in the fields, and salmon in the streams.

Ostara is the brightest and most joyful ceremony of the Teutonic/Celtic year. It is the time in which we celebrate the renewed presence of the Gods and Goddesses of fertility among us, and their marriages which ensure the fertility of the land. We celebrate the end of winter, and joyously exchange the cold for summer's healing warmth.

Fertility
Perhaps the primary function of the rites of Spring is promoting fertility. The timing of Ostara places it after the spring thaw, yet before planting, to maximize the effect of the blessings of the Gods and Goddesses on the fields. Probably the best known symbol of fertility among our folk is the egg. As one would expect, the egg remains the symbol which modern culture associates most thoroughly with Easter. Painted clay eggs (white with black and red stripes) were found in a Germanic cemetery in Worms (ca. 320 CE) as part of a child's burial goods. The egg is, of course, one of the mightiest symbols of new life, fertility, and "good luck." It should be noted that among modern Germans today, Eier or "eggs" is still a slang term for a man's testicles. Eggs were often associated with the spring fire rituals that enhanced men's virile power. In the Norse-settled islands north of Scotland (the Orkneys and Shetlands), it was the custom to rub a bull's testes before going out to gather eggs from the cliffs, saying, "I rub the bull's eggs, and I get the gull's eggs ..." The bird's eggs and the other generative organs (ovaries may be assumed as well as testicles) hold the same store of aldri and hamingja; they are the very source of life.

Eggs are still used today in a number of fertility rituals. In Sweden, eggs were thrown over the field during plowing. In Germany, they were hurled in the air before the sowing began "to ensure that the grain would grow as high."In the Orkneys and Shetlands there were certain traditions concerning the Easter eggs. On several days during the Easter season, "Boys went around ... with a mitten begging eggs and would get one or two from each family.... On Sunday a lot of them lit a fire in the hills and boiled their eggs near some plain green, threw up their eggs to see which ones would be longest unbroken, and then ate them." The height of the throws and the "luck" inherent in the unbroken eggs were taken as predictors of the growth of the crops and the luck of the year.

The Christian religion adopted these emblems for Easter which is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. The theme of the conception of the Goddess was adapted as the Feast of the Annunciation, occurring on the alternative fixed calendar date of March 25 Old Lady Day, the earlier date of the equinox. Lady Day may also refer to other goddesses (such as Venus and Aphrodite), many of whom have festivals celebrated at this time.

Traditional Foods:
Leafy green vegetables, Dairy foods, Nuts such as Pumpkin, Sunflower and Pine. Flower Dishes and Sprouts.

Herbs and Flowers:
Daffodil, Jonquils, Woodruff, Violet, Gorse, Olive, Peony, Iris, Narcissus and all spring flowers.

Incense:
Jasmine, Rose, Strawberry, Floral of any type.

Sacred Gemstone:
Jasper

Special Activities:
Planting seeds or starting a Magickal Herb Garden. Taking a long walk in nature with no intent other than reflecting on the Magick of nature and our Great Mother and her bounty.

Sources- Kveldulf Hagan Gundarsson and Gunnora and Akasha, Herne and The Celtic Connection

Don't you just love finding out all this COOL stuff?  This is the first year I've been able to start "putting it all together".  From my own christian roots, I knew then that many of Easter's influence came from "the pagans", but it wasn't until recently that I've learned that ALL OF IT is pagan, and I'm enjoying every minute of it this year!! (Rabbitdance)