30 days of Ostara; Day 1

Ostara is the Wiccan name for Spring Equinox. The name has been modeled after Easter, being another name of the same Goddess; Ostara, Eostre, Easter, Ester, Astarte. The Christians have named their version of the Jewish holiday Pesach Easter, because that is what they celebrated, and replaced with the new symbolism and ideas. Pesach is in all practicality the Jewish celebration of Spring Equinox, the spring-time New Year, Rosh Hashanah being the Autumn New Year. The Jews do not celebrate equinoxes, but have a fixed date for their celebrations. They follow a moon calendar, which makes the date "fluctuate" in the Roman sun calendar, so the Christians have adjusted their date for Easter by the moon and the old Spring Equinox celebration that the Christian holiday replaced.

Ostara is not one of the Big Four (Beltane, Samhain, Imbolc and Lughnasadh) but it is one of the Big Eight, and I think it should get at least the same amount of attention as another  "lesser four", Yule (or Christmas, as it's more commonly called :->) To me all the eight are important, and in my mind the "lesser four" are more important than "first days", "Big Four", because those have been calculated after the Sun days. I have always felt the equinoxes and solstices are important.

Ostara falls on 20th of March this year, so there's 30 days to Ostara from today.

To give Ostara the honor and appreciation it deserves, I will be posting something Ostara related every day to Ostara;
- Ostara lore
- Ostara recipes
- Ostara crafts, "ornament a day" and ideas for Ostara decorations

I am going to make a "December Daily" album for Ostara, documenting my 30 days to Ostara and Ostara itself in a 30 pages mini album with one photo on each page.

Here's a list of Ostara activities you could try during the 30 days of Ostara. Document your experience with photos, dried flowers and such.

About scrapbooking: designing with dots and stripes. I'm mad about dots and stripes :-D

How to make Jordan almonds yourself from scratch.The nests in the next picture are filled with Jordan almonds. Really cute :-)

Here's how to dye eggs with natural dyes. In Hungary they then scratch the design on the egg, revealing the white shell from under the dye.
Here's a little more suggestions about what to use as dyes, and also about the color symbolism. Also other Ostara recipes.
Dyeing eggs with teas (Interestingly, hibiscus gives blue too)
These Easter eggs with natural dyes are really pretty...
Dyeing eggs with leafs and flowers printed on

You should also remember that different hen breeds lay different color eggs... you can have pale blue and green, even pink eggs without dyeing them. Then, of course, these eggs end up different color when you dye them. The dye charts are made for white eggs.

If you wish to join me, I'd appreciate it. :-) Leave a link to the comment section to your blog, and I'll put up a link in my blog :-)

I would also appreciate ideas and links, so if you have something, anything, related, it would be nice if you posted it.