Spring Equinox Celebrations Around the World

The dawning of spring has been observed for centuries in countries around the world. Traditions vary widely from one country to the next. Here are some ways that residents of different parts of the world observe the season.

Egypt

The Festival of Isis was held in ancient Egypt as a celebration of spring and rebirth. Isis features prominently in the story of the resurrection of her lover, Osiris. Although Isis’ major festival was held in the fall, folklorist Sir James Frazer says in The Golden Bough that “We are told that the Egyptians held a festival of Isis at the time when the Nile began to rise… the goddess was then mourning for the lost Osiris, and the tears which dropped from her eyes swelled the impetuous tide of the river.”

Iran

In Iran, the festival of No Ruz begins shortly before the vernal equinox. The phrase “No Ruz” actually means “new day,” and this is a time of hope and rebirth. Typically, a lot of cleaning is done, old broken items are repaired, homes are repainted, and fresh flowers are gathered and displayed indoors. The Iranian new year begins on the day of the equinox, and typically people celebrate by getting outside for a picnic or other activity with their loved ones. No Ruz is deeply rooted in the beliefs of Zoroastrianism, which was the predominant religion in ancient Persia before Islam came along.

Ireland

In Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated each year on March 17. St. Patrick is known as a symbol of Ireland, particularly around every March. One of the reasons he’s so famous is because he drove the snakes out of Ireland, and was even credited with a miracle for this. What many people don’t realize is that the serpent was actually a metaphor for the early Pagan faiths of Ireland.

St. Patrick brought Christianity to the Emerald Isle and did such a good job of it that he practically eliminated Paganism from the country.
Italy

For the ancient Romans, the Feast of Cybele was a big deal every spring. Cybele was a mother goddess who was at the center of a Phrygian fertility cult, and eunuch priests performed mysterious rites in her honor.

Her lover was Attis (who also happened to be her grandson), and her jealousy caused him to castrate and kill himself. His blood was the source of the first violets, and divine intervention allowed Attis to be resurrected by Cybele, with some help from Zeus. In some areas, there is still an annual celebration of Attis’ rebirth and Cybele’s power, called the Hilaria, observed from March 15 to March 28.
Judaism

One of Judaism’s biggest festivals is Passover, which takes place in the middle of the Hebrew month of Nisan. It was a pilgrimage festival and commemorates the exodus of the Jews from Egypt after centuries of slavery. A special meal is held, called the Seder, and it is concluded with the story of the Jews leaving Egypt, and readings from a special book of prayers. Part of the eight-day Passover traditions includes a thorough spring cleaning, going through the house from top to bottom.

Russia

In Russia, the celebration of Maslenitsa is observed as a time of the return of light and warmth. This folk festival is celebrated about seven weeks before Easter. During the Lent season, meat and fish and dairy products are prohibited. Maslentisa is the last chance anyone will get to enjoy those items for a while, so it’s typically a big festival held before the somber, introspective time of Lent.

A straw effigy of the Lady of Maslenitsa is burned in a bonfire. Leftover pancakes and blintzes are tossed in as well, and when the fire has burned away, the ashes are spread in the fields to fertilize the year’s crops.
Scotland (Lanark)

In the area of Lanark, Scotland, the spring season is welcomed with Whuppity Scoorie, held on March 1. Children assemble in front of a local church at sunrise, and when the sun comes up, they race around the church waving paper balls around their heads. At the end of the third and final lap, the children gather up coins thrown by local assemblymen. According to the Capital Scot, there’s a story that this event began ages ago when troublemakers were “scoored” in the Clyde River as punishment for bad behavior. It appears to be unique to Lanark and does not seem to be observed anywhere else in Scotland.

Author

Patti Wigington
Published on ThoughtCo.com

Ostara Magic

Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal as the earth comes back to life. Why not celebrate the themes of the season with a little bit of spring magic?

1. Spring Garden Magic
In the early spring, many of us who follow earth-based spiritual paths begin planning our gardens for the coming season. The very act of planting, of beginning new life from seed, is a ritual and a magical act in itself. To cultivate something in the black soil, see it sprout and then bloom, is to watch a magical working unfold before our very eyes. The plant cycle is intrinsically tied to so many earth-based belief systems that it should come as no surprise that the magic of the garden is one well worth looking into.

2. Serpent Magic and Folklore
Snakes have a long and colorful history in folklore and mythology, as well as in magical practice. Let’s look at some of the amazing customs surrounding snakes in magic and legend!

3. Egg Magic & Mythology
In many cultures and society, the egg is considered the perfect magical symbol. It is, after all, representative of new life – in fact, it is the life cycle personified. While many of us take note of eggs around springtime – the Ostara season is chock full of them – it’s important to consider that eggs feature prominently in folklore and legend all year long.

4. Rabbit Magic & Mad March Hares
Spring equinox, or Ostara, is a time for fertility and sowing seeds, and so nature’s fertility goes a little crazy. The rabbit — for good reason — is often associated with fertility magic and sexual energy.

5. Magical Spring Flowers
As spring arrives, our gardens begin to bud and eventually bloom. For hundreds of years, the plants that we grow have been used in magic. Flowers in particular are often connected with a variety of magical uses. Now that spring is here, keep an eye out for some of these flowers around you, and consider the different magical applications they might have.

6. Children’s Ostara Chant
If you have children, you may want to include them in your Ostara celebrations this spring. Teach them this simple rhyming chant, and clap along as you welcome the season of rebirth!

7. Garden Blessing for Ostara Planting Rituals
Getting ready to till the soil and prepare it for spring planting? Say this garden blessing before you begin.

8. Ostara Prayer for the Resurrection of the Earth
While many other religions celebrate the rebirth of Jesus, for those of us in earth-based faiths, the focus is often on the land and the soil. Celebrate Ostara with a simple prayer for the new life that begins as the earth itself is resurrected.

9. Prayer to Honor the Goddesses of Spring
Many Pagan traditions have goddesses that are associated with the new beginnings of the Ostara season. Whether you celebrate Flora or Eostre, use this simple prayer to honor the goddesses of spring.

Source

Patti Wigington, Paganism/Wicca Expert
Article published on & owned by ThoughtCo.com

Ostara, The Symbolic Change

Ostara is symbolic of the change in the Goddess from Winter’s crone to Spring’s maiden The holiday calls to the youthful spirit within us all, no matter what our age, and celebrates the land’s slow rebirth after the deathlike sleep of winter.

Witches observe the holiday with rituals and feasts, and decorate their altars with the traditional tional fertility symbols of rabbits, chicks, and eggs (no, not actual rabbits and chicks, although you are welcome to try it if you’re feeling brave and don’t mind cleaning up poop).

And if those symbols sound a bit familiar to those of you raised in one of the Christian religions, gions, it is because many of the traditions of Easter were adopted from Ostara. Even the name Easter was taken from a Pagan goddess: Eostre, a Saxon goddess of spring. Think about it: the symbols of Easter all represent fertility (those same eggs, chicks, and rabbits)-much more suitable able for a Pagan holiday than a Christian one. Oh, the things they didn’t tell you in Sunday school …

So adorn your altar with a few beautiful early spring flowers, draw some Pagan symbols on eggs before you dye them, and prepare a feast of traditional spring foods like asparagus and lamb. If you want, you can even plant a few seeds. Then, alone or with other Witches, plant the seeds for the changes you wish to occur in your life during the coming year.

Source

Deborah Blake, Everyday Witch A to Z: An Amusing, Inspiring & Informative Guide to the Wonderful World of Witchcraft

On Tuesday, March 20, We Celebrate….

“Ostara”

by Mickie Mueller

The Goddess Ostara, or Eostre, is the Anglo-Saxon Goddess of Spring, the East, Resurrection, and Rebirth, is also the Maiden aspect of the Three-fold Goddess. She gave Her name to the Christian festival of Easter (which is an older Pagan festival appropriated by the Church), whose timing is still dictated by the Moon. Modern Pagans celebrate Her festival on the Vernal Equinox, usually around March 21, the first day of Spring.

Ostara was an important Goddess of spring to the ancient Saxons, but we know little else of Her other than this. Some have suggested that Ostara is merely an alternate name for Frigg or Freya, but neither of these Goddesses seem to have quite the same fertility function as Ostara does. Frigg, Goddess of the home, wouldn’t seem to be associated with such an earthy festival and Freya’s form of fertility is more based on eroticism than reproduction.

However, Ostara is associated, almost interchangebly, with many different Goddesses. [Again, purely speculation] She is essentially identical to Freya, for She is the Goddess of the fertile spring, the resurrection of life after winter. She was equated with the Goddess Idunna, who bore the Apples of Eternal Youth to the Aesir, and many believe that Ostara and Idunna are the same, or represent the same principle. She is almost certainly the same as the Greek Goddess Eos, Goddess of the Dawn. (Again, following the threefold theme — Eos is the Maiden aspect of the three goddesses Eos /Dawn, Hemera /Day and Nyx/Night.) As Ostara is Goddess of the Dawn, we can understand why sunrise services have always been an important aspect of the spring resurrection/rebirth observances of other cultures.

Eggs and rabbits are sacred to Her as is the full moon [though there is no historical record of this], since the ancients saw in its markings the image of a rabbit or the hare. Pagan Anglo-Saxons made offerings of colored eggs to Her at the Vernal Equinox. They placed them at graves especially, probably as a charm of rebirth. (Egyptians and Greeks were also known to place eggs at gravesites). The Goddess of Fertility was also the Goddess of Grain, so offerings of bread and cakes were also made to Her. Rabbits are sacred to Ostara, especially white rabbits, and She was said to be able to take the form of a rabbit.

One myth says Ostara found a bird dying from the cold. She changed it to a rabbit so it could keep warm. Maybe this is why the Easter Bunny brings eggs to children on Easter. Traditionally German children are told that it is the Easter hare that lays all the Easter eggs.

The Pagan Book of Days for Tuesday, March 20th

Vernal Equinox, Alban Eilir, Ostara, Fifth Station of the Year,Iduna, Goddess month of Columbina commences

Today is also sacred to the Norse goddess Iduna, bearer of the magic applease of life who personifies the light half of the year. She appears on this day as a sparrow, bringing joy to humans

Source

The Pagan Book of Days
Nigel Pennick

Spring Equinox

We kindle fire this day! In the Presence of the Holy Ones
Without malice, without jealousy, without envy.
Without fear or aught beneath the Sun.
But the High Gods.
Thee we invoke: O light of Life:
Be thou a bright flame before us:
Be thou a guiding star above us:
Be thou a smooth path beneath us:
Kindle thou in our hearts within,
A flame of love for our neighbors,
To our foes, to our friends, to our kindred all.
To all men on this broad Earth.
O merciful son of Cerridwen,
From the lowest thing that liveth
To the name that is highest of all.”

–The Book of Shadows (1957)
Gerald Gardner