OSTARA/EASTER
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moon phases � |
Ostara of Teutonic origin is known as the heathen Goddess of sunrise and of spring-time. The Anglo-Saxon Goddess, was known as Eostra or Eastre.
Ostara is considered by some as a northern form of Astarte and her sacred month was Eastremonath, the Moon of Eostre. The Easter Bunny is much older than Christianity and survives today in Germany and the United States. It was the Moon Hare that was sacred to the Goddess in both eastern and western nations. Based on the myths of Hathor-Astarte who laid the Golden Egg of the sun, Germans used to say that the hare would lay eggs for good children on Easter Eve.
Few people realize today that, in Western Europe, the calendar was changed in 1582 and in England it wasn't until 1752. The beginning of the year was changed by two months, from March 1st to January 1st, and then later was reset by another 11 days. This change to the New Gregorian calendar was decreed by Pope Gregory to correct errors of the older previous calendar which had been the Julian calendar of 46 B.C. This explains why the names of the months of September means 7th month, October means 8th month, November means 9th month, and December means 10th month in Latin. Those same months are now the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th months of the present day Calendar instead! The Celts used to start the New Year on November 1st and the Germans November 11th. At one time it was not unusual for the observance of the old Solar calendar and the new calendar to be in use.
Like all the church's "moveable feasts," Easter shows it's pagan origin in a dating system based on the old lunar calendar. The modern Christian Easter Festival derived its name from a heathen Goddess because of the original name of the month. It is always the first Sun's Day after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. Formerly the full moon represented the "pregnant" phrase of Eostre passing into the fertile season. The Christian festival wasn't called Easter until the Goddess's name was given to it in the late Middle Ages.
The Irish observed Easter on a different date from that of the Roman church, probably the original date of the festival of Eostre, until the Roman calendar was imposed on them in 632 A.D. Nevertheless, the Columbian foundation and their colonies in Britain kept the old date for another fifty years.
The Persians began their solar New Year at the Spring Equinox. As late as the 18th century they exchanged colored eggs representing the symbol of rebirth. After a long cold winter, the day began to lengthen until they were of equal length so that the fowl begin to lay eggs. The eggs were dyed red to represent the life color of blood. The use of eggs was very popular in eastern Europe and in Russia as resurrection charms on grave sites. Even today, the eggs are blown out so that the shell remains and they are dyed very ornately with a combination of using wax to repel and paint the wax free part with sacred geometric patterns. This Art survives today originating in Western Russia, in Europe and the United States.
Just thought you might be interested.
As a pagan it gets very disturbing to realize that christianity has taken old festival/holy days and renamed/reshaped them. It is a method of conquer. A spiritual coup so to speak. A book can be written and prophets may preach but the earth will turn whether the book or the man come into being. The book and the man cannot come into being without the earth.
This is why the forest is my church. The sky is my deity. The night is my soul.
May you walk in beauty.
written at 8:36 p.m.
2004-04-10
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