It’s Easter! It’s Ostara! It’s Spring! And it’s probably a few other holidays that I am unfamiliar with…
I wish I was better rounded in my spiritual knowledge to know if I missed anyone, but alas, Christianity and Paganism are the only two Religions/Spiritual Paths that I am aware of that celebrate this time year. For everyone else (or those I missed) It’s SPRING! That’s enough to celebrate in itself.
So what does this time of year mean to me? Well as a youngin’ (from age 0-13) I was raised Catholic, so Easter meant one major thing… CHOCOLATE! And lots of it! It also sometimes meant a family gathering with my relatives on my mom’s side of the family. Easter always saw mom and dad cooking up a big brunch and my sisters and I enjoying our egg hunt, sometimes finding eggs that were hidden the year before… Easter meant colouring hard boiled eggs with those cute little kits, followed by a week of egg salad sandwiches. Oh and somewhere in there Jesus died and was resurrected…
Then came the neophyte witchy years (from 13 to early-twenties) when I was terrified of doing anything witchy on Ostara for fear of getting pregnant. Yes a little naïve there, but I figured if Ostara was all about fertility, I best be keeping my mojo and energy in check. And of course, there was still the loveliness of obscene amounts of chocolate.
It wasn’t until my later Witchy/Spiritualist years (mid-twenties to present) that I realized fertility can be used in all aspects of life, not just the unplanned pregnancy kind. Now I see it more like “Hey! It’s Spring! Shake off those dirty winter cobwebs, stock up on some majorly depleted Vitamin D, open up those windows and let the stuffiness out and the fresh air in and watch the earth come back to life!”
As for the family celebration aspect, we’ve lost (my sister hates that term, she’s always saying “it’s not like we misplaced them”...lol) some very important and close family members, so holidays lately are more something we just try to get through. Oh, and of course, yet another excuse to eat a variety of different chocolate…
What about you? How are you celebrating this time of year?
