There are no bunnies, colored eggs, or jelly beans in the Biblical version of Easter—so notes Karen Cyson, writing for the St. Cloud (Minnesota) Times. And while you will find those trappings in the neo-Celtic celebration of Ostara, there is no mythological basis for them, other than as generic symbols of fertility.
Nor is there a historical basis of Ostara as a Celtic festival.
Insular Celtic peoples celebrated Beltaine (May 1), Lughnasadh (August 1), Samhain (November 1) and Imbolc (February 1). Neo-Celts added Litha (summer solstice), Mabon (autumnal equinox), Yule (winter solstice), and Ostara (vernal equinox), based on astronomical events that the ancients ascribed to the Sun and correlated to planting and harvest.
Ostara and Ēostre
Widely considered to be the forerunner of the Christian Easter, Ostara is often associated with Ēostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and the dawn.
After all, their names share a common origin. Ēastre (Old English) and Ôstara (Old High German) come from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂ews-, meaning to shine, glow. It is the same origin of the words east and Easter. Furthermore, on the old Germanic calendar, the equivalent month to April was Ōstarmānod, i.e., Ôstara-month, or Easter-month.
Stories abound regarding Ēostre, rabbits, and eggs. The goddess heals a bird, who may or may not become a rabbit; she transforms herself into a bird or a rabbit, or transforms a bird into a rabbit; or rabbits lay eggs in appreciation for whatever it is she allegedly did. These stories have little bearing in true folklore and mythology.
In fact, Stephen Winick, in Ostara and the Hare: Not Ancient, but Not As Modern As Some Skeptics Think, traces the “bird-bunny story” to a 1990 article published in a K-12 school resource by “feel-good writer and frequent Oprah guest Sarah Ban Breathnach.”
Historically, Ēostre is a shadowy figure in Germanic folklore. She first appeared in the writings of the Venerable Bede, an 8th-century Anglo-Saxon theologian and historian in Northumbria (now northern England and southeast Scotland).
As a chronicler of both histories and mythologies, the monk may have documented the celebrations of such a goddess, or he may simply have repeated local stories.
It was Jacob Grimm, the linguist and folklorist of Grimm Brothers fame, who came up with the name Ostara in his 1835 book Deutsche Mythologie. In an early attempt to create an Arian mythology, he named Ostara as a version of Ēostre.
Scandinavian archaeologist and researcher Arith Härger, however, disputes Grimm’s conclusions. In a well-documented video, he lays out that there is no evidence that:
- Ostara and Ēostre are the same entity,
- Ēostre existed in the Teutonic mythology, and
- The early Germanic people celebrated the spring equinox with a festival of Ostara.
Härger suggests, instead, that Ēostre may have been a regional goddess of the spring from Britannia.
Although the correlation of Ostara with Ēostre is unproven, the celebration of spring at the vernal equinox is real.
For those who want to learn more about the neo-pagan celebration of Ēostre, check out All About Ēostre, the Pagan Goddess of Dawn by Scarlet Ravenswood.
Fertility, Transformation, Rebirth
Regardless of her heritage, Ostara is recognized today as a goddess of fertility, transformation, and rebirth—qualities that she shares with other springtime goddesses, like the Roman Venus, Greek Isis, Egyptian Aset, Babylonian Ishtar, or Phoenician Astarte.
Symbols associated with Ostara include the egg and rabbit (fertility and reproduction), as well as cocoons and butterflies (transformation). The colors associated with her are pastel shades of yellow, green, pink, blue, and violet.
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