9.9.13

Easter, Eostara and Persephone, Goddess of Spring

Easter

The other Christian holiday that is usually mixed up with this witches’ sabbat is Easter. Easter, too, celebrates the victory of a god of light (Jesus) over darkness (death), so it made perfect sense to the Christians to date the resurrection of Jesus during this season. Ironically, the name Easter derives from the name of the Teutonic lunar Goddess, Eostre (from whence we also get the name of the female hormone, estrogen), whose primary symbols were the hare (both for fertility and because her worshipers saw a hare in the full moon) and the egg (symbolic of the cosmic egg of creation). Christians have been hard-pressed to explain how these images relate to their religion. The Eostara, Eostre’s holiday, was held on the vernal equinox full moon. Of course, Christians don’t celebrate full moons, so they designated the following Sunday as Easter. If you’ve ever wondered why Easter seemed to move all around the calendar, this is why: Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. In face, if Easter Sunday were to fall on the Full Moon itself, Easter would be postponed to the following Sunday!

Eostara


In recent years, some pagan traditions began referring to the spring equinox as Eostara. Historically, this is incorrect. Eostara is a lunar holiday, honoring a lunar Goddess, at the vernal equinox full moon. Therefore, the name Eostara is best reserved to the nearest esbat rather than the sabbat itself. Some of the same groups also misappropriated the term Lady Day for Beltane, which left no good folk name for the spring equinox. When Eostara was misappropriated for the spring equinox, a chain-reaction of displacement was completed. Needless to say, the old and accepted folk name for the vernal/spring equinox is Lady Day. Christians sometimes insist that the title is in honor of Mary and her Annunciation, but pagans and witches will smile knowingly.
http://www.goddessgift.com/goddess_names_list.htm
http://www.magickalwinds.com/info/2011/03/19/all-about-eostreostara-and-the-origins-of-easter/

Eostre (Old English. Old Germanic: Ostara. Proto-Germanic: Austro) is identical to Greek Goddess Eos and Roman Goddess Aurora (Encyclopedia Mythica, article: Ostara). Her other counterparts are the Dawn Goddesses Zorya (Slavic), Ushas (Indian Vedic).
In primitive agricultural societies natural phenomena, such as rainfall, the fecundity of the earth, and the regeneration of nature were frequently personified. One of the most important pagan myths was the search of the earth goddess for her lost (or dead) child or lover (e.g., Isis and Osiris, Ishtar and Tammuz, Demeter and Persephone). This myth, symbolizing the birth, death, and reappearance of vegetation, when acted out in a sacred drama, was the fertility rite par excellence.(The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001)
http://www.truthontheweb.org/easter.htm

Spring Equinox Witch

Spring Solstice Witch breathes in the fresh fragrant spring air, a time when the earth blooms in its renewal. She is surrounded by delicate apple blossoms, rabbits, tulips and daffodils as well as delicate lil robin eggs tucked in carefully crafted nests. On the standing stones is a symbol for life emerging from the earth and she has tucked under her hat a red Anemone in honor of Persephone.


Solstice Witches - set of all four prints by artist Jane Starr Weils in her Etsy Shop:
A special set offered of all four solstices and all the elements that are a part of each. Spring is rebirth and renewal. Summer of faeries and magick. Autumn of fall harvests, pumpkins and black cats. Winter of rest, renewal. All show a general sun and moon placement for that season.

Persephone, Goddess of Spring

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