Inevitable Spring

As a Gaelic Polytheist, rather than an eclectic, Ostara is not my holiday. My spiritual focus is on the four Gaelic “fire holidays” of Imbolc, Beltane, Lughnasadh, and Samhain. The quarter days are, by and large, not represented in the lore as being significant religious celebrations, beyond their reckoning in the passing of the seasons as Solstices and Equinoxes.

This, however, doesn’t make them unnoted and unnoticed. Local markings of the movement of the cosmos certainly had their place, but there really wasn’t much on a widespread scale that pronounced “This! This is an important day. Let’s have a festival or something!”

Ostara is, as far as scholars can say, connected to Ēostre, who was likely a West Germanic goddess of springtime and the dawn. It’s all pretty loosey-goosey, and the only attestation to her in English is from the Venerable Bede in the 8th Century. It seems likely, however, that there could be a linguistic connection to the Christian holy day of Easter.

And Easter, I did grow up celebrating. I was brought up in the Christian church, albeit one of the more progressive denominations. Easter meant something in that context, apart from eggs, candy, and bunnies. At its center, there is the theme of things that have been dead or dormant are alive again. To be sure, in the Christian context, it is centered on the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and that new life then spreads to all believers in some profound metaphysical and spiritual ways.

When we lived in Alaska, the Equinoxes (Equinoctes?) took on incredible significance. The Spring Equinox, of course, is that moment in our astronomical journey around the sun, when daylight and darkness are more or less even. Living that far north, it was when the light started shifting in a serious way, five or six minutes a day. That meant that dawn and dusk changed by 30-45 minutes a week! The effect on the community was palpable. Everything brightened, not just the days themselves. People’s moods changed. It was a happier community all around.

For my purposes, the upcoming Spring Equinox is a welcome time. The world is lighter and brighter for all of us. I’ve always contended that it is hospitable and polite to honor, respect, and esteem the deities of other hearth cultures and pantheons, even if I might not worship them or actively seek a closer relationship with them. So Happy Ostara, everyone! May the inevitable spring bring us all abundant light and life!

--Beth