Easter is a Christian holiday that has pagan roots. Pagans have long celebrated the spring equinox which occurs in March.
Spring celebrations were centered around fertility, rebirth, and resurrection. Animals were being born, flowers were emerging, and the world was coming back to life.
Early symbols of this period included eggs and baby animals.
Do Pagans Celebrate Easter?
Pagans do not celebrate Easter, they celebrate Ostara and the Spring Equinox. Spring Equinox celebrations occurred in many cultures all over the world.
These pagan celebrations predate Easter by thousands of years.
Todays modern pagans may celebrate a mix of traditions since many of us have Christian family members or want our kids to participate in local community events. You do you!
Deities that represent springtime and fertility
Ēostre
Ostara celebrates the Anglo/Saxon Goddess Ēostre who’s symbol was the hare. She is honored at the beginning of spring. Ostara is an important celebration in the Wiccan calendar.
Eostre can be traced back to the Teutons, a Germanic tribe in Northern Europe. The Teutons originated in what is now Denmark and joined with the Celts to fight with the Romans for territory around 102 BCE.
In 600 AD an English monk, St. Bede, wrote about the pagan celebrations to honor Eostre.
Ostara celebrates fertility by honoring the Lady and the Lord also referred to as The Goddess and the Green Man. We welcome new life into the world in the form of baby animals being born, green plants growing, and migrating animals returning to our lands.
Freya
The Summer Finding is celebrated by Nordic religions at the spring equinox. Freya is the Norse goddess of love, war, fertility, and springtime.
Freya has a wild boar (hog) who symbolizes strength and virility. It is also a powerful symbol of motherhood.
Check out my article on the Wild Boar Spirit Animal
Tellus
The Feast of Tellus Mater was celebrated in Ancient Rome around April 15 every year. This was in honor of Tellus, goddess of the earth to assure the fertility of recently planted crops.
She was considered one of the top 20 primary Roman deities and is associated with Ceres, goddess of agriculture. Gaia is her Greek counterpart.
Each year a pregnant cow was sacrificed to Tellus on her Feast Day. She was often honored after a birth of a child or a wedding.
Asase Yaa
The West African goddess of fertility, and the harvest. Her symbol is soil and her name means old woman of the earth.
She is honored in Nigeria, Ghana, and other West African countries in April. During this time, farmers ask her permission to till the soil and bring forth new life.
African woman representing Asase Yaa
Did Easter Start As A Pagan Holiday?
Easter is a Christian festival that has its roots in pagan ceremonies. The Christian faiths celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. The day he rose from the dead to join his father God in heaven.
In the early Christian church, important days were fashioned after pagan holidays. This was one way to get pagans to convert to Christianity. In addition, the early Christians were much more in tune with natural cycles than they are today.
In 325 AD a big church meeting called the Council of Nicaea stated that Easter would be celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox. (How’s that for pagan planning!!)
That’s why Easter can occur anytime between March 25 and April 25.
Pagan Origins of Easter Traditions
The Easter Bunny
Rabbits represent fertility as they are one of the first animals to give birth and spring and they have numerous litters. Rabbits are one of the first animals to be out and about when the day lengthens and fresh grasses start to grow.
Eostre was represented by a hare and wildflowers. The rabbit (hare) symbolizes abundance, cleverness, and creativity.
A popular motif among indigenous cultures and Abrahamic religions was three hares in a circle with their ears touching.
Eggs
Eggs are another symbol of new life and fertility. Birds start laying eggs which symbolize rebirth. It was not until the Middle Ages that people began to decorate their eggs.
The egg also symbolizes the universe. The yolk is the sun in the center
Seeds are also symbolic of new life. This was often the time of year where farmers started planting their crops.
Sweets
Today we associate candy with an Easter basket. Our pagan ancestors also liked to celebrate spring with sweetness. While they didn’t have sugar they did have honey.
Many sweet pastries were made with honey.
Hot Cross buns are a popular treat to eat in the spring. They are a type of fruit bread with a t or cross across the top. The first ones were believed to come from Ancient Greece or possibly Egypt.
The Celts referred to it as a Celtic cross representing the four cardinal directions and the natural elements.
In the 1300s a monk baked them and delivered them to the poor on Good Friday starting a tradition.
What is the Spring Equinox?
The spring equinox is a day where the amount of darkness and daylight is exactly the same - twelve hours. Our ancestors considered this balance of time to be quite magical.
The actual day of the equinox fluctuates between March 19 and March 22.
Pagans celebrated this day because it signals the emergence from winter. It is a happy joyous time. Fear from starvation is ending with the rebirth of plants, animals, and warmer weather.
The spring equinox doesn't typically coincide with Easter, however, it’s quite clear that early Christian leaders intended to have a similar meaning for the holiday.
They fashioned Jesus as the Solar deity - the light, rebirth, and resurrection.
Ostara and The Hare
This traditional tale has been told for centuries.
Ostara was late one year to bring spring to the earth. As she arrived she found a baby bird struggling in the cold snow.
Ostara cradled the shivering bird, giving it warmth and love. The bird lived and became her pet but it could no longer fly because its wings had been damaged.
Ostara felt pity for her friend and turned him into a hare which she called Lepus.
Lepus had the gift of being able to run with an astonishing speed so that he could easily evade all the hunters.
Having come from a bird Lepus had the ability to lay eggs. However, Ostara told him he was only allowed to lay eggs on one day out of each year. The spring equinox.
But the hare did not listen and he began to lay an egg every day so that he was revered by the other animals.
Ostara became angry with Lepus and to punish him she threw him up into the skies to spend eternity as the constellation Lepus (The Hare) His constellation remains under the feet of the constellation Orion (the Hunter).
The goddess missed her friend (and some say lover) so she allowed him to come back to earth one day a year. He is allowed to come back and share his eggs on Ostara.
A More Modern Telling of Ostara and the hare
This version comes from The Goddess and the Greenman
Once upon a time, the Animal Kingdom gathered together for a meeting in a flurry of great excitement. There was to be a Very Special Party and a Very Special Guest was coming to visit them. The Very Special Guest was none other than the Goddess herself, and every creature wanted to give her a Very Special Gift.
Now some of the animals were very rich and some were very poor but off they went to prepare their gifts, for only the very very best would do for the Goddess. Hare was very very excited, he dearly loved the Goddess and although he was very poor he had a big generous heart - he was going to give her the very finest gift he could find!
Hare rushed home to see what he could find to give to the Goddess - he looked everywhere, in the cupboards and under the bed but there was nothing, even the larder was empty, he had absolutely nothing to give Her. Except for one thing. On the shelf in the larder was a single egg. And that was it. It was the only thing he had left. Hare gently took the egg out of the larder and lovingly decorated it and took it to the party.
Hare was very worried, all the other animals gave their gifts of gold and silver and precious jewels and all Hare had was the egg. Eventually, all the gifts had been given and Hare was the very very last. Hare very shyly presented the Goddess with the egg. She took it and looked at him and saw the true spirit of Hare. And there and then the Goddess appointed Hare as her Very Special Animal - because Hare had given away everything he had.......
Ways to Celebrate the Spring Equinox
Plant seeds
Take a hike
Help out at an animal shelter
Make flower crowns - Spring flowers include Daffodils, primroses, violets, crocuses, celandine, catkins, pussy willow in profusion. Read my article on Flower Magic.
Ostara Colours - Bright green, yellow and purple
Ostara Altar
Ideas for your Altar
Colored eggs
Seeds
Feathers
Spring flowers
A seedling
Take Away
Ostara is truly a magical time!
Author, Ame Vanorio, is the founder of Celebrate Pagan holidays.
The Hawthorne tree month is an exciting time that embraces fire, male energy, and fertility. The days are longer and it is a symbol that summer is upon us.
Along with ash and oak, the hawthorn is part of the triad of sacred trees and home to the fae. It was called Huath by the ancient Celts and was pronounced Hoh-uh.