The Wheel of the Year cont. - Ostara
Next in order, we have… Ostara. Much like the Sabbat version of Imbolc, we find Ostara is commonly believed to have themes of renewal, though this Sabbat also has aspects of balance taking more prominent focus, Much like Imbolc, it is also believed by Wiccans to be a time for purification and renewal. The imagery used by Wiccans is primarily centered on two things. Hares and eggs. Much like with the Yule-Christmas dichotomy, many Wiccans claim that aspects of “ancient pagan practices” survived into the modern Easter, which they claim is a Christian version of Ostara. One such example is that painting eggs was an ancient druidic practice. Ostara is also traditionally celebrated on the 20th of March.
You may be wondering why I have yet to bring up the traditional equivalent of Ostara. I have not brought it up because it. Does. Not. Exist.
The concept of Ostara is based on Ēostre ( Proto-Germanic: Austrō(n) (Old English: Ēastre, Northumbrian; Ēastro, Mercian and West Saxon: Ēostre, Old High German: Ôstara, Old Saxon: Āsteron)) a hypothesized West Germanic spring goddess. The name can be found in a Germanic month (Northumbrian: ĒosturmōnaÞ, West Saxon: ĒastermōnaÞ, Old High German: Ôstarmânoth) and is such – once more – hypothesized to be the origin of the name for Easter in those countries. There is, however, a slight problem.
There is only a single attestation of Ēostre. The sole attestation of Ēostre is by Bede the Venerable in his 8th-century work, “The Reckoning of Time”, where he claims pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons held feasts in Ēostre’s honor and that the tradition had died out by the time of his lifespan, replaced instead by the Christian Paschal month. Scholars have managed to link the name to a variety of Germanic personal names, and toponyms and discovered (in 1958) over 150 2nd ( more specifically 150 to 250 CE) century inscriptions referring to the matronae Austriahenae found near Morken-Harff. Diachronic linguistic efforts have managed to trace the name to a Proto-Indo-European dawn goddess, H₂ewsṓs (also spelled Hausos) which the Common Germanic divinity figure (that Ēostre and Ôstara might have descended from) would likely have descended from.
Due to the aforementioned inscription discoveries, as well as the linguistic discoveries, it is generally accepted that Ēostre was an actual goddess. When it comes to the possibilities of her worship, Philip A. Shaw wrote about Ēostre in 2011, arguing against a functional interpretation of the evidence found near Morken-Harff, instead concluding that
“the etymological connections of her name suggest that her worshippers saw her geographical and social relationship with them as more central than any functions she may have had.”
Richard Sermon, in a 2022 paper, rejected Shaw’s proposal that Ēostre was a localized goddess, taking particular issue with Shaw’s rejection of dawn-based associations. He argues that Shaw failed to offer
“any explanation as to why his local group-specific goddess would have celebrated at that particular time of year.”
He further elaborates that Shaw sees no reason to doubt Bede’s assertion that the month was named for the goddess, and that Shaw
“finds it hard to believe that Bede would have invented such an explanation”
and yet Shaw seems to ignore the one piece of evidence Bede offered about her cult, that being the timing of her month and her celebrations. Sermon goes further and argues that if we
“accept that the month name combines two elements meaning 'east' or 'eastern' and 'month', then the appearance of the equinoctial sunrise and its nearest full-moonrise, in their most easterly positions on the horizon, provide a logical explanation for both the timing and etymology of Eosturmonath.”
Ultimately Sermon concludes that Shaw cannot have been said to have “done away” with the idea that Ēostre was associated with spring or dawn.
Where the practices of the Sabbat are concerned, it is one that I have only managed to unearth associated symbology of, along with common altar decorations. Said symbols, as was mentioned before, are the egg and the hare. To discuss these symbols, we must discuss them as relating to the festival that Ostara was supposedly turned into. Easter.
Eggs as being symbolic of rebirth and death is not an uncommon association, being found in pre-dynastic Egypt as well as Mesopotamia and Crete, however the association of eggs with Christianity is likely disconnected from this symbolism, at least in part. Krystal D’Costa and Peter Gainsford have both posited that the link of eggs with Easter is due, in part, to Lent. Lent, of course, is the fourty day long period , beginning on Ash Wednesday, prior to the Paschal Triduum, comprised of Maundy Thursday (a feast day commemorating the Washing of the feet (Maundy) and the Last Supper), Easter Vigil (the first official celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection in traditional churches), and Easter Sunday. During Lent, adherents are prepared for Easter through prayer, mortification of the flesh (deadening the sinful aspect of man), repentance of sins, almsgiving, simple living, and self-denial.
As part of the self-denial, adherents are to sacrifice consumption of something for the timespan, traditionally meat and animal produce, along with sexual activities. Per D’Costa and Gainsford, eggs were consumed prior to the beginning of Lent, with a common practice being children going door begging, and being given eggs as special treats before the fasting. When approaching the use of eggs from the point of adoption of symbology, the more likely civilization is not that of Anglo-Saxon peoples, but – as professor of sociology Kenneth Thompson argues – Persia, spreading into the Greek Christian Churches of Mesopotamia, then Russia and Siberia, eventually being adopted by Catholicism.
The reason I have for stating the symbolic disconnect (once more, to a degree) is that the egg is not solelyused as a symbol of the Resurrection, instead also serving as a Trinitarian symbol, as shell, yolk, and albumen are all part of the egg, as Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit are all part of God as the Godhead. We even find practices of coloring the egg being rooted in Christianity, as the Paleo-Christians of Mesopotamia stained them red in memory of the blood that Jesus shed at His crucifixion.
As for the Easter Bunny (also known as the Easter Rabbit, or the Easter Hare) the first recorded instance of a leporine symbol in association with Easter is in 1682, found in Georg Franck von Franckenau’s “De ovis paschalibus” (loosely translating to “About Easter Eggs”), which specifically referenced a Lutheran German tradition of an Easter Hare bringing the eggs for the children, eventually evolving to act as a judge, evaluating whether or not children had been good or disobedient at the start of Eastertide.
Having spoken on the symbols, we must now discuss Easter itself, and the claims that it is a stolen and altered version of Ostara. Firstly, Easter is not observed on the spring equinox. As established by the First Council of Nicaea (of 325) Paschal observance was to take place on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox. While the name might have been derived from Ēostre, the festival itself is linked to the Jewish Passover (Hebrew: Pesach, or Aramaic: Pasach. The bases for Pascha, the original term for the seder.)
The link to Passover is one beyond a simple linguistic one, however. The Last Supper, of which Maundy Thursday is a commemoration, occurred during Passover. The Apostle Paul, in First Epistle to the Corinthians states “Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” These are, in fact, references to Passover. A requirement in advance of Passover is to remove all leavening and chametz (foods with leavening agents as an ingredient) from the home, as well as the obvious reference to the Passover lamb, which was to be ritually slaughtered and eaten on the first night of Passover with maror and matzo.
Where the prior two Sabbats are concerned, there are at least existing traditions that Wicca could draw from (it does not, but it could). Ostara has nothing. We have no inscriptions, we have no archaeological finds, we have no writings. We have one deity’s name, and that is it. There are no pre-Christian traditions, or even symbology. It is solely Christian imagery that was passed through the lenses of Gerald Gardner and the WCH.