I think it’s alright to accept Ostara as a neopagan holiday since there isn’t any other well known holiday that pagans can celebrate all together like Ostara but definitely wouldn’t say that it was stolen or it was an actual ancient pagan holiday without much evidence or solid proof. You can also definitely celebrate the spring equinox and not call it Ostara use fertility goddesses and gods. It’s very interesting and I love this video! Great job! ❤
Lol, no one should be angry at you for stating historical findings (or "lack there of"), but I understand that happens all the time. Either way, this information is at least important to know whether people decide to take it to heart or not. I've always celebrated the Spring Equinox and had trouble differentiating it from Ostara at the beginning of my practice, but my celebration was always with the times of the seasons and changes of nature instead of deity work. Even now, I've learned a lot here regarding Ostara and Easter. It's clear that we all need to do more research, and dig as deeply as possible into the history of our practices, instead of just getting comfortable with what we hear because it makes us feel good. Thank you for being one of those people and choosing to share it with us. Have a blessed Spring Equinox, everyone. 🌻🌸🌹🌷🌼🌺 or Ostara, Easter, whatever you decide to celebrate. As long as you're not hurting anyone.
I think some Neo Pagans cling to the idea that certain holidays have a long and storied history to fulfill some need for validation in their beliefs. It’s as if our practices aren’t ancient, they’re not valid. I use the wheel of the year and its celebrations to reconnect with the cycles of nature. Regardless of how our ancestors celebrated the change of seasons, they were much more finely tuned to the rhythms of the cycles of nature and life. Many of us in the first world are so disconnected to that, and I find reflecting on the changes of the seasons helps me connect to the mindset of my ancestors. To me, these celebrations don’t need to be ancient to have power. Excellent video and your pronunciations are fine. I don’t think there’s anyone living who knows exactly how ancient people pronounced those names/words! Take care.
YES! I had to research the Sabbat for my work with Sabbath Social last year. I found very little information except what I found from Bead and then the brothers Grimm. I must admit I was a little disappointed. I guess I don't get too hung up on the holidays or sabbats anymore and what they are called. I do not believe that Christians "stole" all the holidays from pagans which is an unpopular opinion. At the end of the day we are all pretty much celebrating the same thing. New beginnings, spring, new life, the return of the sun/son which gives us/the earth life. I celebrate the Spring Equinox and Easter, but I do acknowledge Ostara because it is something so many celebrate and I don't like to be their buzz kill LOL I grew up Christian, Catholic to be exact. I love that you did this video. It is important to know what we are celebrating and why. I think the hare or the rabbit represents fertility because they are so very fertile and this is the time that the land becomes fertile again. The "resurrection story' is said to be the greatest story ever told, but there are MANY different religions that have a similar story. I think they key word here is story.
Easter derives from Ēostra; the Anglo-Saxon name variation of the West Germanic goddess of dawn (definitely *not* fertility and likely not Spring either). I do have to disagree with you on that no one knows the etymology of the holiday Easter. The etymology of her name comes from the Indo-European root word *hewsôs, meaning “to shine, glow red” - a reference to dawn. In Proto-Germanic, the name has been reconstructed as *Austrô(n). To the early Germans, she was Ostara, from which modern German gets “Ostern” for Easter. Ēostra’s name has also given us the name of the cardinal direction “East”, many placenames in England, and even a few female first names (none of which I believe are used anymore). Some will claim that because Ēostra’s name only appears in one written source; a text from the works of the Venerable Bede, that he invented her, and this Germanic deity never existed. The place and personal names based on her name in the areas she was worshiped however, completely contradict this claim. In addition, the Brothers Grimm, more famous for their collecting of fairy tales, also conducted important work in the burgeoning field of Folklore. The brothers surveyed the local people all around Germany and in neighboring German speaking regions. Through his study of oral history, they discovered that the goddess Ostara was to be found in nearly *all* German speaking areas. The folklore recorded by the Grimms demonstrated that people miles and miles apart retained shared cultural memories of the same goddess. If Bede invented her in England, then how did illiterate peasants in Germany know of her over one thousand years later? Either she was genuinely worshiped, or Bede had an excellent PR team! Bede was born during the early stages of the Christianization of England, when the names of the Anglo-Saxon gods and goddesses would have been common knowledge, and still worshiped in many places. The highly respected father of English history would have been unlikely to invent a goddess of that name. He would have been "called out" on it had he done so. Furthermore, a number of English place names of Saxon origin, such as Eastry in Kent, Eastrea in Cambridgeshire and Eastrington in East Yorkshire, are derived from Ēostra. The Indo-European root of this name is cognate to other dawn goddesses in Europe; for example, the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, has the same root. There are many names of gods and goddesses that still survive in the oral traditions, but are either not evidenced, or very sparsely evidenced in the written tradition. The fact that Ēostra does not appear in the written corpus, does not exclude her existence. The Norse Vanir, for example, appear in only three written sources. The Egyptian ritual of the Five Gifts of Hathor only survives in the oral tradition of Egypt; it is very poorly documented in actual texts. Further, Ostara (in another form, ‘Austra’) was verified in 1958 with the discovery of more than 150 Roman-Germanic votive inscriptions to the matronae (female deities) Austria-hena near Bonn, Germany which were dated to the 2nd century AD, well before the Christian era in that part of Europe. The evidence of her existence appears to be rather strong. In addition, the mere fact that in the very places she was most prevalent (Anglo-Saxon England and northwest Germany), the name for the pre-Christian spring celebration is still called by her name (Easter and Oster) and was not overtaken by English and German forms of what in Dutch is “paask”, (Easter - derived for Hebrew “pesach” - Passover) strongly speaks to her existence. Clearly, this was not someone merely 'invented' by Bede as some would suggest. It would seem that such a deity did exist in the Anglo-Saxon and northern German pantheon. To your point though, the idea that these two names might be ‘kennings’ is indeed intriguing. Agree on the Easter traditions of the lamb, eggs and hare/rabbit - completely Christian and date to early Medieval Europe, not an ancient pagan past.
For as much as I love learning about the Indo-Europeans, most people think it's proof putting it out there as solid evidence of something spanning all the way back to prehistory, and they fail to recognize that Proto-Indo-European is a reconstructed language and nobody knows whether the reconstructed language is actually correct. To reconstruct the language, it was done through extrapolation back into the past based on the languages we have now in the modern day with nothing to go on, except for what we have now but nothing to verify it from the past within archaeological record or documentation from that time period. In other words, we can take a word, title, or name we have today in the modern day, and extrapolate it into reconstructed Proto-Indo-European. There's no guarantee Eostre, or as the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European would put it, "hewsos", even existed within myth that far back. However, that being said, it's a known fact the Indo-Europeans did influence nearly everyone on the planet. The Greeks had a Dawn Goddess, so it would follow naturally, the Northern Peoples of Europe would also have a Dawn Goddess (i.e. Norse means North, referring to the whole of Northern Europe from Britain to Norway and Sweden to Iceland, rather than just a single small region of Northern Europe). For example, for anyone who has studied Indo-European, unlike Eostre, it's a known fact and accepted in academia that with 99% certainty Zeus existed in the Indo-European culture. The reason for this, whether a Christian would accept this fact doesn't matter, is the fact that Genesis 1:1 is nothing more than introduction to what you're about to be told rather than the event taking place rate then and there while Gen. 1:2 is the Babylonian creation myth. Moving back to Gen. 1:1 for a moment, the name El or Elohim is actually not a name, but rather a word that actually means "god" which is why it's translated that way. A placeholder, and more importantly capitalized in English to let you know that the most important deity from your pantheon is supposed to go in there, and more specifically the Heavenly Father. You may see that title as Christian, but that title spans back far beyond even the Ebers that branched off the Canaanite tribe, and moreover Yahweh is not the Heavenly Father and nor is Jesus the son of the Heavenly Father. Yahweh reveals what his name means in Exodus 34 (i.e. my name is Jealous). So, yeah, Yahweh's name means "jealous". And Yahweh was not just the Jealous God of the Canaanite pantheon, but furthermore and more importantly, he's the Jealous War God of the Canaanite pantheon. In German, the name Yahweh is rendered as Jehovah. And the first part of the name Jesus, the "Je" part, stands for Jehovah. While the "sus" part, coming at the end of the name, means "saves". In other words, Jesus' name literally means, "jealousy saves". It's not hard to see why the early Christians would first try to slowly and secretly amass their numbers when entering a new region. And then go on to destroy specifically the temples of other war gods of other cultures, while leaving the temples to other gods of different occupations of those cultures standing five feet to the side of them, like the Temple of Ares in Greece and everywhere else they went all throughout Europe. Because they didn't want those other cultures calling on their own war gods to fight against Yahweh. It was a strategic plan to take over everyone and everything to leave people defenseless to help themselves against an invading people, culture, and god. Which quickly brings me to another subject briefly. We are not all praying to the same god/gods and/or goddess/goddesses and that is proof of this fact rate here because otherwise why would the Christians find it crucial to go around destroying the temples of other war gods? Anyway, and moreover to go back to Gen 1:1, there's an error as translated in English and many other languages. It's supposed to read "In a beginning" rather than "In the beginning". Because there's actually a total of ten creation myths sitting in Gen 1 and there wasn't seven days of creation. The seven days of creation was added later by Yahwists forcing their agenda upon the text (i.e. Mono = Tower, Theism = Babel, hence Monotheism means Tower of Babel; anyone or anything that makes the claim that everything collapses into a single One/Source, such as those who believe they're Animist when in reality they're actually Pantheist, are a part of the Monotheism machine; Perennialism is Monotheism on steroids and it couples with Pantheism, which makes the statement, "One is all, and all is One"; while Polytheism is the antithesis of Perrenialism and Animism is the antithesis of Pantheism, which makes the statement, "One is one, but within the all"; for a lack of better terms, Perennialism and Pantheism basically says, "All the gods are one god, all the goddesses are one goddess, and there is one initiator; we each come from a single source, and everything is interconnected through energy that permeates throughout the cosmos that originates from that source, and when we die we return to that source"; while Polytheism and Animism on the other hand says, "Everything is alive of its own accord, interconnected through energy transfer from one thing to the next, but also uniquely distinct; when we die, our energy transmits into other things, rather than returning to a source"). Something to chew on for a while. Now, let's move on to Gen. 1:2, because this is the most interesting part dealing with what I was saying about Zeus and the Babylonian creation myth. Gen. 1:2 is the most important event that took place during the Babylonian creation myth. Remove the first word "And", and then we may proceed. "The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." That makes sense because nothing had been created yet. Now, to continue, "And the Spirit of God hovered over the waters". The word "Spirit" there, in the Hebrew, is more directly translated as "seven winds", and sense we went with the name Zeus before, we shall continue with the trend because you'll see why later especially as we get to the very final bit of the verse. From here, to more directly translate even more of the text to English, and to be completely accurate, the full name of Zeus is actually Zeus Pater, which quite literally means Heavenly Father. To continue to more directly translate, "hovered over", should actually read as "blew upon". And "face" should actually read as "faces". And finally, the Hebrew word sitting there for "waters", is actually masculine which goes to show even more of the Yahwist bias. Masculine words are singular while feminine words are plural. Seems even modern day Yahwists know the truth without telling their flocks. Why is this the case? Because the Babylonian word for the Hebrew word "tiom", is "tiam", and that's because Babylonian is the sister language of Hebrew. Moreover, in the same exact creation myth by the Babyonians, the word shows up in feminine form, which makes sense now if you're going to translate it as "waters". Moreover, that word in Babylonian, more specifically is "tiamat". And in case you didn't know, Tiamat, is the Seven Headed Dragon of Chaos. But regardless, it wouldn't matter if the word was to show up in masculine or feminine form, it would always be the Seven Headed Dragon of Chaos. And when translating to Greek, that same entity known as the Seven Headed Dragon of Chaos, is Oceanus the Titan. So now, Gen 1:2 should correctly read as follows: "The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the seven winds of Zeus Pater blew upon the faces of Oceanus." To give a little backstory, originally according to Babylonian myth if rendered in Greek as we have done rather than Hebrew, Zeus and Oceanus were siblings and not from two separate generations. They wanted to create a world of their own but quickly found they would need a great sacrifice to perform the feat. Oceanus decided to be that great sacrifice, but before the deed was done, he made Zeus swear that none of his energy and body would go to waste; Zeus agreed to the terms. With the agreed upon terms having been set, Zeus blew seven winds from his mouth into the seven mouths of Oceanus to force and keep them open, and then drew his sword and shoved it down the mouth and throat of each head of Oceanus to slay him for the sacrifice. With the deed done and the sacrifice made, as was agreed upon, Zeus proceeded to use the energy and every last bit of Oceanus' body to create everything; the entire universe, stars, galaxies, solar systems, planets, moons, and yes, life. And now you see why many in academia agree that more than likely Zeus has existed since prehistorical records for Babylon was directly influenced by Indo-Europeans; and is potentially and more than likely the most ancient telling of Zeus and Oceanus that we can identify, but nothing to say it's the most ancient, but enough to say they most definitely existed that far back. But the same cannot be said for gods or goddesses like Eostre or Cernunnos. They have nothing to back them up to take them that far back into history and to potentially postulate their existence into prehistory. It's widely believed, for example, that Cernunnos is a compilation of multiple masculine deities that arose out of some cultures but all in an effort to try to compete with Christianity. However, to end all of this and as said before, the only thing really going for Eostre existing all the way back into prehistory is the fact that the Greeks had a Dawn Goddess and there's a good chance though not for certain that the Northern Peoples of Europe also had a Dawn Goddess; which is why the name Eostre was extrapolated into reconstructed Proto-Indo-European going off Bede's account for the sake of the possibility, but nothing to support whether it would be true.
@@wanderinghedge I'm not suggesting the Indo-European pantheon had an equivalent of Eostra (we just do not know) - I'm just showing the etymology of the word which is known.
@@kavikv.d.hexenholtz3474 Alright, well first and foremost, I have to correct you on one small little detail due to my background; and we will begin there, and proceed forward if you like. This background is dealing with the fact I used to hide behind Christianity, the bible, and it's traditions. Even now that I have come out of the broom closet, many people would make mention of the fact, that I probably know their traditions and their scripture better than most pastors, priests, or even the Catholic pope himself; which is saying a lot, and even now some of them say that I should probably be a pastor even though I'm not Christian, and in the end would be referred to as a grey minister due to that fact which Christians tend to listen to grey ministers more so than ministers that try to hide the history and information from them even if some of those same Christians still try to take into a direction that ignores specific aspects and realities. Yeah, unfortunately I went to great lengths to "fit in" so nobody would ever suspect me of being anything different. I'm not trying to flex here, just describing how deep I was to give a hint of my background, and what kind of groups I ran with to try to hide who I really was; and whether fortunately or unfortunately, which the jury is still out on, the knowledge I possess from all those years of hiding serves its purpose and hopefully benefits others. Anyway, anything I say here I hope you find useful for further study. The word paascal and Easter are actually not connected. But then why does it show up in the KJV? Truth be told, it's because paascal and the time of Easter occur around the same time. But they have no relation to one another and nor do they occur exactly at the same time. The fact that a Pagan holiday is in place of what the Hebrew word paascal actually means, Passover, shows up in the KJV is a cause for contention and argument among many Christians because of a known fact the two have no relation to one another as said before. Instead of realizing the truth before their eyes, of what's being said, they would rather argue about whether it was correct to put it their; for a lack of better terms, whether the means meet the ends to try to give the people they were trying to convert a gauge as to when Passover takes place, or if it does more harm than good. And finally, the names Easter, Esther, and Isis have no connection whatsoever either; don't feel bad, many have made that misconception throughout the past, and spread the parroting of it. It has already been determined that Easter is indeed referring to the sun and the east. While the name Esther, is actually believe it or not 100% Hebrew in origin, and refers to a very specific star. That star, or rather wandering star because that's what the word "planet" actually means, "wandering star", is the planet Venus. While Isis, as was unknowingly and unfortunately and mistakenly connected to Venus and Esther and from there to Easter, by the famous Atheist, Christopher Hitchens, who has since died of cancer some years ago now (i.e. he is not the first who unknowingly made an incorrect and mistake in connection, Atheists began to spread the information because one of their greatest proponents of Atheism said that was the case, and then unfortunately, Pagans of all walks of life got their hands on the misinformation and thought it was true without doing any background fact checking on the supposed information; and furthermore, though many have tried to make a connection in the past, Venus/Aphrodite and Isis also unfortunately have no connection to one another; because Isis is actually the Goddess of the North Star, but not same north star that we have today, Polaris wasn't in the position it's in today until some time after Columbus sailed across the Atlantic, for Columbus recorded in his journal, "the north pole sky is devoid of all stars").
@@wanderinghedge Thanks for your response. Concerning the use of Easter in the KJV - In the 1600’s, to someone living in England, the word Easter had three meanings/references: the pre-Christian celebration and all associated with it, the resurrection of Jesus, and the Jewish Passover - it’s the latter that’s the root of the issue. The word “Passover” didn’t enter English until the 1500’s, so in the early 1600’s, it was still a relatively new word. One of the Bibles used for the KJV was Tyndale’s. In it, Tyndale used “Easter” in every instance Greek had “pascha”. The compilers of the KJV used the ‘new’ word Passover in place of Easter, but in one instance, missed one, as it were, which created a bit of inconsistency (and subsequent speculation as to why it is there). Yes, completely agree - Easter, Esther and Isis, Ishtar are all completely unrelated despite the fact that some people have made some rather valiant, and in some cases even impressive, attempts to connect Easter with Ishtar, and, as you mention, Venus, Aphrodite and Isis.
@@kavikv.d.hexenholtz3474 Yeah, the Tyndale did use Easter as well. But that, again unfortunately, falls into the same problem we are presented with as earlier. Easter and Passover occurred around the same time. But not during the same week/weeks. It's a well known fact, mainly the Catholic Church, loved to try to merge two or more separate holidays or celebrations together but always favored the dates and times that were more in line with Christian holidays and celebrations. So the question still remains on our end. When was the actual date or week of Easter? Truth be told, through my own studies and I have found quite a few that tend to agree due to English history by itself, an entire month was dedicated to the goddess. It was common practice for the English people of the past to dedicate an entire month to either a god, goddess, ancestors, other spirits, or even just simple celebration for one thing or another. But, with having said that, it seems the month of April would have been the month for Eostre rather than March.
I think the point of bunnies, chicks, lambs etc., are the animals are waking up from hunkering down for winter & having babies in abundance. I for example, am slavic & irish. My ancestors celebrated the endings of winter and the abundance to come.
Hmmmm, it's always a good thing to research the what and why of what you're doing....but in reality, there are flaws in all origin stories. Then there's...are any of the "Gods" and "Goddesses" literal beings?
Exactly. Not to mention things change eventually. All of this is made up, anyway so someone is going to make up their own name for an interpretation of a holiday or their own in general.
❤ I agree with your opinions and your break downs of the various nonsensical connections to this so-called Pagan festival. My UPG is that since many ground-dwelling and water fowl lay their eggs in nests made of grasses; and rabbits and/or hares eat grasses, there was likely a tradition of following the fuzzy critters to find their home to catch multiple bunnies for dinner, and we accidentally stumbled across clutches of wild eggs. For hunter-gatherers, in a time when food is abundant, you make the best of it. If no mother bird came to defend her clutch, it may be due to her having been killed, and her eggs would have either rotted or the chicks would quickly have fallen prey to predators, starvation or the elements. So by following a rabbit or hare (from a distance) to an abandoned nest, you may find a protein-rich treasure. A little candling to check for developing chicks and smell-testing the unfertilized ones to see if the eggs weren't rotten could have been done, and the eggs were either eaten or incubated to have birds that you could fatten up during the summer. So from there, my personal head canon sees this tradition may have evolved from unknowingly following rabbits and/or hares to nests, to them 'showing' you where the nests were (kind of like a hunting dog tracking a scent), and then to the rabbits having laid the eggs as a reason for why they know where they are. There may also be a connection to the eggs being dyed or painted (once again, just my opinion, not fact checked) with the act of preserving eggs in vinegar. Imagine being a hunter-gatherer who sees every resource as being vital to your survival. When berries and grapes are in season, you pick as many as you can hoard, then find creative ways to use them. So you make wine from your grapes when you've eaten your fill. The following questions are my reasoning for this tradition... Maybe your wild grape wine has gone sour over the winter months, but you don't throw it out because now it's red wine vinegar, and your children collected too many eggs to eat before they spoil? What to do with the dozens of eggs that remain? Maybe you have the idea of pickling this over abundance of eggs in your red wine vinegar, which stains them in a variety of gorgeous pinks and reds? But vinegar by itself is pretty 1 dimensional. How do we remedy this? Perhaps you had added spices and herbs to the vinegar too, and they stained the eggs in places where they touched, leaving spots of browns and strips of yellows and greens? From there, perhaps the tradition of dying and painting eggs may have taken hold. The previous year's eggs may have been offered back to nature (as they taste too much of vinegar), maybe even as bait to lure in a hapless fox or other creature. Or perhaps they were rubbery in texture and were a fun play thing to bounce into the tall grasses? I like to see our weird traditions as having a logical explanation rather than a purely spiritual thing. Throwing rubbery, sour, pickled eggs into the tall grasses and encouraging your kids to go find them is a great way to train their hunting and gathering abilities at a young age, as well as fun way to get them to leave the house on a chilly spring day and play with their siblings and neighbours. I'd love to see if you agree. Maybe this could be inspiration for a future video? Or even a new tradition😊
As a kid I remember being taught that the animals can talk like humans on easter eve. Im from Sweden so maybe its some old Norse myth but I have no idea. As a kid we would dress up as witches at Easter time and ask people for candy, similar to halloween. In Swedish its called "Påsk" that has no resemblance with the word Öst which means East in Swedish.
While the painted “Easter Egg” are definitely not Pagan in any way, eggs in general were more than likely part of many pre Christian spring equinox traditions. Why? Hens stop laying eggs in the winter and start up again as the days become longer. Egg production is tried to the amount of sunlight the birds receive. Rabbits start breeding in early February and the new bunnies will start appearing from the nest around the spring equinox. While there is no written source material stating that these occurrences were part of any specific Pagan traditions, it’s not a stretch to assume that any agrarian society would see these as signs of the upcoming change of season, a change to a more abundant season which was much needed after the long winter, and celebrate that change anyway they could. Always remember that as society developed from a mostly agricultural society to a more sophisticated intellectual and industrial society so did their worship practices. In the very beginning there probably was no direct god/goddess worship but more general acknowledgment and gratitude for the change of seasons that allowed for food production. As society got more sophisticated, so did its religions. This is when gods and goddesses came on the scene. To give them credibility, they had to be tied to specific times of the year and to specific functions, hence eggs and rabbits being tied to spring goddesses as symbols of fertility and abundance. It’s just most unfortunate that so much of that information is now lost to us thus an exact correlation cannot be made only inferred.
This was a great deep dive. I mostly get irritated with the whole n*zi association with Ostara, et al. Otherwise, people can celebrate how they want. If nothing else, if you go back far enough, everything has pagan roots, but that's definitely a conversation for a different time.
Huh, I did once read about the eggs being given as gifts during this time, but I didn't know it originated from christianity, especially not them being holy eggs, lol xD I think it's so funny to read about these old traditions, because people where actually quite creative with the restrictions that where put on them. Thank you for doing such thorough research :)
Of course people will be triggered if you have a provocative headline OSTARA = BULLSHIT. Bebe wrote about early british history, the romans, and britons etc. Is this all a assumption?? Bebe also wrote about others goddesses and months. He mentions a goddess called Rheda who was honored at Rhedmonth. He also mentions a month called modraniht or mothers night which is at yule. Some scholars theorised that like other yule traditions in the germanic world the a triune goddess was honour, perhap the Disir or a type of Matres and Matronae. Solmonth, as we know Sol isnt a direction its the word meaning and linked to the sun or solar divinty. Many cultures named their gods and goddesses after directions and months, and vis versa. Of course east and dawn divinties are linked because the sun rises in the east. Greek had a goddess of dawn called Eos. Vedic dawn goddess - Usha. Lithuania goddess called Ausrine, Ausra. These are probably all linked to the proto indo european word Hausos. The majority of christainity comes from prechristain pagan traditions, even the dying and ressurrection is not a christain concept. Its a retelling of older polythiestic myth. Has Norse Witch also questioned her own cultural writers and historians. There are many things assummed about norse dieties, for example Freyr and Freyja were possiblily epiphets not actual names of goddesses. Norse myth could also be a retelling of older myths, and been influenced by the writers assumptions and imbelishments. Archaeologist also make alot of assumptions which are accepted as factual, which can in later year have been proven wrong.
A very interesting video! I also recall reading about the fact we do not have a clear source abomut Eostre and where she comes from. Your prononciation of "Pâques" was correct! I'm not an expert (if someone knows, correct me!), but I think "Pâques" comes from "Pessa'h", the Jewish Easter celebration 😊
I am content to just acknowledge the equinox, but because spring wasn't the big month for the ancient practitioners of my faith, summer and winter were, I don't put a ton of effort into it. Just some spring flowers as an offering to the Gods. Magic wise I also sometimes do magic related to the seasons but that's not a faith or celebration thing but more an acknowledgement of the seasons. That said, I'm always so sad that you're hard on your pronunciations! Your English is so good I can sometimes forget that you aren't technically a native speaker.
This video is very fascinating to me because Ostara is one of the only few holidays on the wheel of the year that I just can't seem to connect to. Maybe it's because I'm not Christian or maybe it's just because I love in the northern hemisphere so we don't really start to feel spring until april/may. We have a false spring during the end of February and most of March. I have actually been trying to vibe with Ostara this year cuz I never could, just to see if I can take any of the symbolism with me but still couldn't do it. I did decorate, however so at least I tried lol. I do enjoy the creativity and bringing the color back though to battle the winter blues - that I do appreciate. Thanks for the video, learned alot. 👍🌱
I think its become maybe you try to focus on the neopagan accept of that holiday and not what it represent from a larger/astronomic event : when days and night are equals. You can also see flowers everywhere, the season of Aries has come, how do you feel about all that? 😁 See those aspects and if they are more meaningful to you 😁❤️
@ventusheart5733 oh yes, I definitely connect to the larger aspect of the spring equinox than the neopagan.. always have. I'm more of a cosmic feeler myself. I just wanted to see if I could connect and understand the other ways to celebrate, because I like to change things up. But alas, I am my own season onto myself lol. But yes, love aries season 🔥
growing up i remember easter being celebrated in april. not sure when it shifted to march but it always feels weird when it happens at the end of march.
Easter can still happen in April. The day changes year to year. Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the full Moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox. If the full Moon falls on a Sunday then Easter is the next Sunday. It seems this was decided the year 325 and was a hotly debated topic.
I wonder if the Easter hare is from a neolithic beliefs. They were known to associate hares with fertility. As for the goddess, I am curious how to new gods establish themselves if we only believe in ancient ones? What makes an entity a god?
oops for someone who was excited i sure am late 😬 sorry! i love making educated choices, so i also love you are providing the education (thank you for your work!) and the liberty to choose! I personally love Ostara! Easter season was always my favourite, I am not christian, but with most christian things some parts of festivities morph more into regional traditions. We don't have a lamb tradition, but we have donuts in february before the "fasting" (that we don't do oops) we have those colorful boiled eggs, we have yeasty baked goods in bunny shape, we have flowers we bring inside to watch bloom. I do love winter, but I also love the time when the temperatures are mild, it is light out, everything blooms, and i love someone gave me a celebration for it. Maybe Ostara wasn't the goddess for it, maybe March was not her time, but for me it merges with tradition of my childhood, so I am happy to be wiser and still celebrating! For my group it is all about fresh beginnings and the symbolism fits!
Thank you for sharing this. As someone who grew up Christian, it's interesting to hear how it all started and how these symbols were used by them. Obviously the holiday has become very secular now. Happy Spring Equinox!
❤this is wonderfully written. I have no vested interest either way, but think that you have explained your counter points very well. Thank you for taking the time
As far as the lamb of god goes, remember, that there were at least 16 other crucified saviours prior to Jesus & Xtianity & they too were referred to as "lambs of god". Whether or not these goddesses ever existed, doesn't really matter now as so much energy has been pumped into these thought forms that now they are actual entities. Enjoyed the video. Happy Spring 🌼
As a Gardinerian wiccan, I love this video! This is actually what is often taught to our students. Along with the people you mention, when it comes to eclectic wicca, Aiden Kelly helped make the popular modern wheel of the year. He wasn't very well informed and just sort of mashed a bunch of history & culture together. In traditional wicca, we don't often celebrate the wheel of the in his version, we usually just say "(insert season) equinox,", however we may use the wheel of the year terms when explaining to others for simplicity sake. However, every coven is different and there are some traditional covens who have chosen to go along with Aiden Kelly's version, but it is in no way actually wiccan/belongs to wicca. Also it’s very important to other wiccans out there: do not claim anything is ancient without history to back in up. Wicca & its traditions are very modern with older *influence*.
For those wondering why we hate Aiden Kelly so much, its being he broke his oaths, did not do nearly any proper research- especially while trying to educate others and his doxxed (leaked names addresses and phone numbers), the people in his community publicly.
This is really interesting. Thank you. SPIING/Easter always felt odf to me. CEREDWEN was associated with bunnies. There probably is no true pronounciation. I learned Eostre was pronounced Ee-Oe-stray.our practices have always been reconstructed and passed through oral tradition. I believe if I have my facts straight the Toman Empire had was christianized at the time Ostera was mentioned. I'd gav3 to look to kniw for sure. Roman deities seem very Christianized to me in general. Not having a lot of texts means taking the idea of say eggs and running wuth it. I also recall thar there were originally 4 sabbats celebrated. Correct me if I'm wrong. ❤
The Romans never celebrated Easter. The myth of Jesus in the Bible is exactly the same as the story of Mithras, a Roman deity worshipped heavily by the Centurians (foot soldiers in the Roman army) for at least 500 years before Jesus until well into the 4th century AD. There are temples of Mithras aka the Bull Cult in Britain, France, Brittany, Spain, Portugal, everywhere the Roman army settled. The best-preserved temple of Mithras is in Wales.
I agree with you on every point except that there may be a connection between the spring equinox celebrations and the date they chose for easter. we know they often used local religious holiday times to lure the pagans into their churches.... saying to them "look, we have a holiday during that time as well" =)
@@laurabeutelstahl9862 well, feel all secular holidays are more than just "conveniently" aligned with the locals celebration time. OR maybe it could be so that the "new faith" can convince the locals they can just come celebrate the "new holiday"....
I was a Christian but i dont know much about Easter. But i do know some interesting facts. In older times it was bad luck to hunt ,kill, or eat animals with an R in thier name. In a month that didn't have an R in it. This is why we have 8 months with an R that all follow each other. May june july & august are set aside for breeding reasons. So creatures like hare's, rabbits,carp,deer, & others were protected by the letter R . Then over time the hunteR would only hunt in a month with a letter R in it. Now ofcourse most countries have a closed season for all animals to breed. The hare makes more sense for easter because it does not breed all year round like the rabbit does. So if your hunting rabbits in the 8 months your allowed, this means that the doe could still be carrying a litter. Depending on country & climate. Here in England they breed all year round, but the hares don't even though they are closely related.
I think it’s alright to accept Ostara as a neopagan holiday since there isn’t any other well known holiday that pagans can celebrate all together like Ostara but definitely wouldn’t say that it was stolen or it was an actual ancient pagan holiday without much evidence or solid proof. You can also definitely celebrate the spring equinox and not call it Ostara use fertility goddesses and gods. It’s very interesting and I love this video! Great job! ❤
Did you look at the Slavic pagan traditions of Psanky. It was a pre-christian Slavic practice to make decorated eggs for the spring.
Lol, no one should be angry at you for stating historical findings (or "lack there of"), but I understand that happens all the time. Either way, this information is at least important to know whether people decide to take it to heart or not.
I've always celebrated the Spring Equinox and had trouble differentiating it from Ostara at the beginning of my practice, but my celebration was always with the times of the seasons and changes of nature instead of deity work. Even now, I've learned a lot here regarding Ostara and Easter.
It's clear that we all need to do more research, and dig as deeply as possible into the history of our practices, instead of just getting comfortable with what we hear because it makes us feel good. Thank you for being one of those people and choosing to share it with us. Have a blessed Spring Equinox, everyone. 🌻🌸🌹🌷🌼🌺 or Ostara, Easter, whatever you decide to celebrate. As long as you're not hurting anyone.
The opening line to this video had me dying laughing 😂
That’s what I was hoping 🤣🤣
I think some Neo Pagans cling to the idea that certain holidays have a long and storied history to fulfill some need for validation in their beliefs. It’s as if our practices aren’t ancient, they’re not valid. I use the wheel of the year and its celebrations to reconnect with the cycles of nature. Regardless of how our ancestors celebrated the change of seasons, they were much more finely tuned to the rhythms of the cycles of nature and life. Many of us in the first world are so disconnected to that, and I find reflecting on the changes of the seasons helps me connect to the mindset of my ancestors. To me, these celebrations don’t need to be ancient to have power. Excellent video and your pronunciations are fine. I don’t think there’s anyone living who knows exactly how ancient people pronounced those names/words! Take care.
I agree. I understand the yearning. I also utilize the wheel of the year, but I adjust it here and there to accommodate my climate 👍
Happy Spring Equinox
Thanks for the video, wish I had seen it 2 weeks ago! LOL I'm a little late but I thoroughly appreciate your work on uncovering this for us.
YES! I had to research the Sabbat for my work with Sabbath Social last year. I found very little information except what I found from Bead and then the brothers Grimm. I must admit I was a little disappointed. I guess I don't get too hung up on the holidays or sabbats anymore and what they are called. I do not believe that Christians "stole" all the holidays from pagans which is an unpopular opinion. At the end of the day we are all pretty much celebrating the same thing. New beginnings, spring, new life, the return of the sun/son which gives us/the earth life. I celebrate the Spring Equinox and Easter, but I do acknowledge Ostara because it is something so many celebrate and I don't like to be their buzz kill LOL I grew up Christian, Catholic to be exact. I love that you did this video. It is important to know what we are celebrating and why. I think the hare or the rabbit represents fertility because they are so very fertile and this is the time that the land becomes fertile again. The "resurrection story' is said to be the greatest story ever told, but there are MANY different religions that have a similar story. I think they key word here is story.
Easter derives from Ēostra; the Anglo-Saxon name variation of the West Germanic goddess of dawn (definitely *not* fertility and likely not Spring either). I do have to disagree with you on that no one knows the etymology of the holiday Easter.
The etymology of her name comes from the Indo-European root word *hewsôs, meaning “to shine, glow red” - a reference to dawn. In Proto-Germanic, the name has been reconstructed as *Austrô(n). To the early Germans, she was Ostara, from which modern German gets “Ostern” for Easter. Ēostra’s name has also given us the name of the cardinal direction “East”, many placenames in England, and even a few female first names (none of which I believe are used anymore).
Some will claim that because Ēostra’s name only appears in one written source; a text from the works of the Venerable Bede, that he invented her, and this Germanic deity never existed. The place and personal names based on her name in the areas she was worshiped however, completely contradict this claim.
In addition, the Brothers Grimm, more famous for their collecting of fairy tales, also conducted important work in the burgeoning field of Folklore.
The brothers surveyed the local people all around Germany and in neighboring German speaking regions. Through his study of oral history, they discovered that the goddess Ostara was to be found in nearly *all* German speaking areas.
The folklore recorded by the Grimms demonstrated that people miles and miles apart retained shared cultural memories of the same goddess.
If Bede invented her in England, then how did illiterate peasants in Germany know of her over one thousand years later? Either she was genuinely worshiped, or Bede had an excellent PR team!
Bede was born during the early stages of the Christianization of England, when the names of the Anglo-Saxon gods and goddesses would have been common knowledge, and still worshiped in many places. The highly respected father of English history would have been unlikely to invent a goddess of that name. He would have been "called out" on it had he done so. Furthermore, a number of English place names of Saxon origin, such as Eastry in Kent, Eastrea in Cambridgeshire and Eastrington in East Yorkshire, are derived from Ēostra.
The Indo-European root of this name is cognate to other dawn goddesses in Europe; for example, the Roman goddess of dawn, Aurora, has the same root. There are many names of gods and goddesses that still survive in the oral traditions, but are either not evidenced, or very sparsely evidenced in the written tradition. The fact that Ēostra does not appear in the written corpus, does not exclude her existence. The Norse Vanir, for example, appear in only three written sources. The Egyptian ritual of the Five Gifts of Hathor only survives in the oral tradition of Egypt; it is very poorly documented in actual texts.
Further, Ostara (in another form, ‘Austra’) was verified in 1958 with the discovery of more than 150 Roman-Germanic votive inscriptions to the matronae (female deities) Austria-hena near Bonn, Germany which were dated to the 2nd century AD, well before the Christian era in that part of Europe. The evidence of her existence appears to be rather strong. In addition, the mere fact that in the very places she was most prevalent (Anglo-Saxon England and northwest Germany), the name for the pre-Christian spring celebration is still called by her name (Easter and Oster) and was not overtaken by English and German forms of what in Dutch is “paask”, (Easter - derived for Hebrew “pesach” - Passover) strongly speaks to her existence. Clearly, this was not someone merely 'invented' by Bede as some would suggest. It would seem that such a deity did exist in the Anglo-Saxon and northern German pantheon.
To your point though, the idea that these two names might be ‘kennings’ is indeed intriguing.
Agree on the Easter traditions of the lamb, eggs and hare/rabbit - completely Christian and date to early Medieval Europe, not an ancient pagan past.
For as much as I love learning about the Indo-Europeans, most people think it's proof putting it out there as solid evidence of something spanning all the way back to prehistory, and they fail to recognize that Proto-Indo-European is a reconstructed language and nobody knows whether the reconstructed language is actually correct. To reconstruct the language, it was done through extrapolation back into the past based on the languages we have now in the modern day with nothing to go on, except for what we have now but nothing to verify it from the past within archaeological record or documentation from that time period. In other words, we can take a word, title, or name we have today in the modern day, and extrapolate it into reconstructed Proto-Indo-European. There's no guarantee Eostre, or as the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European would put it, "hewsos", even existed within myth that far back.
However, that being said, it's a known fact the Indo-Europeans did influence nearly everyone on the planet. The Greeks had a Dawn Goddess, so it would follow naturally, the Northern Peoples of Europe would also have a Dawn Goddess (i.e. Norse means North, referring to the whole of Northern Europe from Britain to Norway and Sweden to Iceland, rather than just a single small region of Northern Europe). For example, for anyone who has studied Indo-European, unlike Eostre, it's a known fact and accepted in academia that with 99% certainty Zeus existed in the Indo-European culture. The reason for this, whether a Christian would accept this fact doesn't matter, is the fact that Genesis 1:1 is nothing more than introduction to what you're about to be told rather than the event taking place rate then and there while Gen. 1:2 is the Babylonian creation myth. Moving back to Gen. 1:1 for a moment, the name El or Elohim is actually not a name, but rather a word that actually means "god" which is why it's translated that way. A placeholder, and more importantly capitalized in English to let you know that the most important deity from your pantheon is supposed to go in there, and more specifically the Heavenly Father. You may see that title as Christian, but that title spans back far beyond even the Ebers that branched off the Canaanite tribe, and moreover Yahweh is not the Heavenly Father and nor is Jesus the son of the Heavenly Father.
Yahweh reveals what his name means in Exodus 34 (i.e. my name is Jealous). So, yeah, Yahweh's name means "jealous". And Yahweh was not just the Jealous God of the Canaanite pantheon, but furthermore and more importantly, he's the Jealous War God of the Canaanite pantheon. In German, the name Yahweh is rendered as Jehovah. And the first part of the name Jesus, the "Je" part, stands for Jehovah. While the "sus" part, coming at the end of the name, means "saves". In other words, Jesus' name literally means, "jealousy saves".
It's not hard to see why the early Christians would first try to slowly and secretly amass their numbers when entering a new region. And then go on to destroy specifically the temples of other war gods of other cultures, while leaving the temples to other gods of different occupations of those cultures standing five feet to the side of them, like the Temple of Ares in Greece and everywhere else they went all throughout Europe. Because they didn't want those other cultures calling on their own war gods to fight against Yahweh. It was a strategic plan to take over everyone and everything to leave people defenseless to help themselves against an invading people, culture, and god. Which quickly brings me to another subject briefly. We are not all praying to the same god/gods and/or goddess/goddesses and that is proof of this fact rate here because otherwise why would the Christians find it crucial to go around destroying the temples of other war gods?
Anyway, and moreover to go back to Gen 1:1, there's an error as translated in English and many other languages. It's supposed to read "In a beginning" rather than "In the beginning". Because there's actually a total of ten creation myths sitting in Gen 1 and there wasn't seven days of creation. The seven days of creation was added later by Yahwists forcing their agenda upon the text (i.e. Mono = Tower, Theism = Babel, hence Monotheism means Tower of Babel; anyone or anything that makes the claim that everything collapses into a single One/Source, such as those who believe they're Animist when in reality they're actually Pantheist, are a part of the Monotheism machine; Perennialism is Monotheism on steroids and it couples with Pantheism, which makes the statement, "One is all, and all is One"; while Polytheism is the antithesis of Perrenialism and Animism is the antithesis of Pantheism, which makes the statement, "One is one, but within the all"; for a lack of better terms, Perennialism and Pantheism basically says, "All the gods are one god, all the goddesses are one goddess, and there is one initiator; we each come from a single source, and everything is interconnected through energy that permeates throughout the cosmos that originates from that source, and when we die we return to that source"; while Polytheism and Animism on the other hand says, "Everything is alive of its own accord, interconnected through energy transfer from one thing to the next, but also uniquely distinct; when we die, our energy transmits into other things, rather than returning to a source"). Something to chew on for a while.
Now, let's move on to Gen. 1:2, because this is the most interesting part dealing with what I was saying about Zeus and the Babylonian creation myth. Gen. 1:2 is the most important event that took place during the Babylonian creation myth. Remove the first word "And", and then we may proceed. "The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep." That makes sense because nothing had been created yet.
Now, to continue, "And the Spirit of God hovered over the waters". The word "Spirit" there, in the Hebrew, is more directly translated as "seven winds", and sense we went with the name Zeus before, we shall continue with the trend because you'll see why later especially as we get to the very final bit of the verse. From here, to more directly translate even more of the text to English, and to be completely accurate, the full name of Zeus is actually Zeus Pater, which quite literally means Heavenly Father. To continue to more directly translate, "hovered over", should actually read as "blew upon". And "face" should actually read as "faces". And finally, the Hebrew word sitting there for "waters", is actually masculine which goes to show even more of the Yahwist bias. Masculine words are singular while feminine words are plural.
Seems even modern day Yahwists know the truth without telling their flocks. Why is this the case? Because the Babylonian word for the Hebrew word "tiom", is "tiam", and that's because Babylonian is the sister language of Hebrew. Moreover, in the same exact creation myth by the Babyonians, the word shows up in feminine form, which makes sense now if you're going to translate it as "waters". Moreover, that word in Babylonian, more specifically is "tiamat". And in case you didn't know, Tiamat, is the Seven Headed Dragon of Chaos. But regardless, it wouldn't matter if the word was to show up in masculine or feminine form, it would always be the Seven Headed Dragon of Chaos. And when translating to Greek, that same entity known as the Seven Headed Dragon of Chaos, is Oceanus the Titan.
So now, Gen 1:2 should correctly read as follows: "The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the seven winds of Zeus Pater blew upon the faces of Oceanus." To give a little backstory, originally according to Babylonian myth if rendered in Greek as we have done rather than Hebrew, Zeus and Oceanus were siblings and not from two separate generations. They wanted to create a world of their own but quickly found they would need a great sacrifice to perform the feat. Oceanus decided to be that great sacrifice, but before the deed was done, he made Zeus swear that none of his energy and body would go to waste; Zeus agreed to the terms. With the agreed upon terms having been set, Zeus blew seven winds from his mouth into the seven mouths of Oceanus to force and keep them open, and then drew his sword and shoved it down the mouth and throat of each head of Oceanus to slay him for the sacrifice. With the deed done and the sacrifice made, as was agreed upon, Zeus proceeded to use the energy and every last bit of Oceanus' body to create everything; the entire universe, stars, galaxies, solar systems, planets, moons, and yes, life. And now you see why many in academia agree that more than likely Zeus has existed since prehistorical records for Babylon was directly influenced by Indo-Europeans; and is potentially and more than likely the most ancient telling of Zeus and Oceanus that we can identify, but nothing to say it's the most ancient, but enough to say they most definitely existed that far back.
But the same cannot be said for gods or goddesses like Eostre or Cernunnos. They have nothing to back them up to take them that far back into history and to potentially postulate their existence into prehistory. It's widely believed, for example, that Cernunnos is a compilation of multiple masculine deities that arose out of some cultures but all in an effort to try to compete with Christianity. However, to end all of this and as said before, the only thing really going for Eostre existing all the way back into prehistory is the fact that the Greeks had a Dawn Goddess and there's a good chance though not for certain that the Northern Peoples of Europe also had a Dawn Goddess; which is why the name Eostre was extrapolated into reconstructed Proto-Indo-European going off Bede's account for the sake of the possibility, but nothing to support whether it would be true.
@@wanderinghedge
I'm not suggesting the Indo-European pantheon had an equivalent of Eostra (we just do not know) - I'm just showing the etymology of the word which is known.
@@kavikv.d.hexenholtz3474 Alright, well first and foremost, I have to correct you on one small little detail due to my background; and we will begin there, and proceed forward if you like. This background is dealing with the fact I used to hide behind Christianity, the bible, and it's traditions. Even now that I have come out of the broom closet, many people would make mention of the fact, that I probably know their traditions and their scripture better than most pastors, priests, or even the Catholic pope himself; which is saying a lot, and even now some of them say that I should probably be a pastor even though I'm not Christian, and in the end would be referred to as a grey minister due to that fact which Christians tend to listen to grey ministers more so than ministers that try to hide the history and information from them even if some of those same Christians still try to take into a direction that ignores specific aspects and realities. Yeah, unfortunately I went to great lengths to "fit in" so nobody would ever suspect me of being anything different. I'm not trying to flex here, just describing how deep I was to give a hint of my background, and what kind of groups I ran with to try to hide who I really was; and whether fortunately or unfortunately, which the jury is still out on, the knowledge I possess from all those years of hiding serves its purpose and hopefully benefits others.
Anyway, anything I say here I hope you find useful for further study. The word paascal and Easter are actually not connected. But then why does it show up in the KJV? Truth be told, it's because paascal and the time of Easter occur around the same time. But they have no relation to one another and nor do they occur exactly at the same time. The fact that a Pagan holiday is in place of what the Hebrew word paascal actually means, Passover, shows up in the KJV is a cause for contention and argument among many Christians because of a known fact the two have no relation to one another as said before. Instead of realizing the truth before their eyes, of what's being said, they would rather argue about whether it was correct to put it their; for a lack of better terms, whether the means meet the ends to try to give the people they were trying to convert a gauge as to when Passover takes place, or if it does more harm than good.
And finally, the names Easter, Esther, and Isis have no connection whatsoever either; don't feel bad, many have made that misconception throughout the past, and spread the parroting of it. It has already been determined that Easter is indeed referring to the sun and the east. While the name Esther, is actually believe it or not 100% Hebrew in origin, and refers to a very specific star. That star, or rather wandering star because that's what the word "planet" actually means, "wandering star", is the planet Venus. While Isis, as was unknowingly and unfortunately and mistakenly connected to Venus and Esther and from there to Easter, by the famous Atheist, Christopher Hitchens, who has since died of cancer some years ago now (i.e. he is not the first who unknowingly made an incorrect and mistake in connection, Atheists began to spread the information because one of their greatest proponents of Atheism said that was the case, and then unfortunately, Pagans of all walks of life got their hands on the misinformation and thought it was true without doing any background fact checking on the supposed information; and furthermore, though many have tried to make a connection in the past, Venus/Aphrodite and Isis also unfortunately have no connection to one another; because Isis is actually the Goddess of the North Star, but not same north star that we have today, Polaris wasn't in the position it's in today until some time after Columbus sailed across the Atlantic, for Columbus recorded in his journal, "the north pole sky is devoid of all stars").
@@wanderinghedge
Thanks for your response.
Concerning the use of Easter in the KJV - In the 1600’s, to someone living in England, the word Easter had three meanings/references: the pre-Christian celebration and all associated with it, the resurrection of Jesus, and the Jewish Passover - it’s the latter that’s the root of the issue. The word “Passover” didn’t enter English until the 1500’s, so in the early 1600’s, it was still a relatively new word.
One of the Bibles used for the KJV was Tyndale’s. In it, Tyndale used “Easter” in every instance Greek had “pascha”. The compilers of the KJV used the ‘new’ word Passover in place of Easter, but in one instance, missed one, as it were, which created a bit of inconsistency (and subsequent speculation as to why it is there).
Yes, completely agree - Easter, Esther and Isis, Ishtar are all completely unrelated despite the fact that some people have made some rather valiant, and in some cases even impressive, attempts to connect Easter with Ishtar, and, as you mention, Venus, Aphrodite and Isis.
@@kavikv.d.hexenholtz3474 Yeah, the Tyndale did use Easter as well. But that, again unfortunately, falls into the same problem we are presented with as earlier. Easter and Passover occurred around the same time. But not during the same week/weeks. It's a well known fact, mainly the Catholic Church, loved to try to merge two or more separate holidays or celebrations together but always favored the dates and times that were more in line with Christian holidays and celebrations.
So the question still remains on our end. When was the actual date or week of Easter? Truth be told, through my own studies and I have found quite a few that tend to agree due to English history by itself, an entire month was dedicated to the goddess. It was common practice for the English people of the past to dedicate an entire month to either a god, goddess, ancestors, other spirits, or even just simple celebration for one thing or another. But, with having said that, it seems the month of April would have been the month for Eostre rather than March.
I think the point of bunnies, chicks, lambs etc., are the animals are waking up from hunkering down for winter & having babies in abundance. I for example, am slavic & irish. My ancestors celebrated the endings of winter and the abundance to come.
Wow, this video is great! You really know your stuff! Great video!
To be fair I did a lot of research beforehand 😅 I wish I just knew all of this stuff 🤣
It displays intelligence and discipline to do your research. Love your videos 😊😊😊
Hmmmm, it's always a good thing to research the what and why of what you're doing....but in reality, there are flaws in all origin stories. Then there's...are any of the "Gods" and "Goddesses" literal beings?
Exactly. Not to mention things change eventually. All of this is made up, anyway so someone is going to make up their own name for an interpretation of a holiday or their own in general.
This was so helpful, thank you for education.✨💖
❤ I agree with your opinions and your break downs of the various nonsensical connections to this so-called Pagan festival. My UPG is that since many ground-dwelling and water fowl lay their eggs in nests made of grasses; and rabbits and/or hares eat grasses, there was likely a tradition of following the fuzzy critters to find their home to catch multiple bunnies for dinner, and we accidentally stumbled across clutches of wild eggs.
For hunter-gatherers, in a time when food is abundant, you make the best of it. If no mother bird came to defend her clutch, it may be due to her having been killed, and her eggs would have either rotted or the chicks would quickly have fallen prey to predators, starvation or the elements.
So by following a rabbit or hare (from a distance) to an abandoned nest, you may find a protein-rich treasure. A little candling to check for developing chicks and smell-testing the unfertilized ones to see if the eggs weren't rotten could have been done, and the eggs were either eaten or incubated to have birds that you could fatten up during the summer.
So from there, my personal head canon sees this tradition may have evolved from unknowingly following rabbits and/or hares to nests, to them 'showing' you where the nests were (kind of like a hunting dog tracking a scent), and then to the rabbits having laid the eggs as a reason for why they know where they are.
There may also be a connection to the eggs being dyed or painted (once again, just my opinion, not fact checked) with the act of preserving eggs in vinegar. Imagine being a hunter-gatherer who sees every resource as being vital to your survival. When berries and grapes are in season, you pick as many as you can hoard, then find creative ways to use them. So you make wine from your grapes when you've eaten your fill. The following questions are my reasoning for this tradition...
Maybe your wild grape wine has gone sour over the winter months, but you don't throw it out because now it's red wine vinegar, and your children collected too many eggs to eat before they spoil? What to do with the dozens of eggs that remain?
Maybe you have the idea of pickling this over abundance of eggs in your red wine vinegar, which stains them in a variety of gorgeous pinks and reds? But vinegar by itself is pretty 1 dimensional. How do we remedy this?
Perhaps you had added spices and herbs to the vinegar too, and they stained the eggs in places where they touched, leaving spots of browns and strips of yellows and greens? From there, perhaps the tradition of dying and painting eggs may have taken hold.
The previous year's eggs may have been offered back to nature (as they taste too much of vinegar), maybe even as bait to lure in a hapless fox or other creature. Or perhaps they were rubbery in texture and were a fun play thing to bounce into the tall grasses? I like to see our weird traditions as having a logical explanation rather than a purely spiritual thing. Throwing rubbery, sour, pickled eggs into the tall grasses and encouraging your kids to go find them is a great way to train their hunting and gathering abilities at a young age, as well as fun way to get them to leave the house on a chilly spring day and play with their siblings and neighbours.
I'd love to see if you agree. Maybe this could be inspiration for a future video? Or even a new tradition😊
As a kid I remember being taught that the animals can talk like humans on easter eve. Im from Sweden so maybe its some old Norse myth but I have no idea. As a kid we would dress up as witches at Easter time and ask people for candy, similar to halloween. In Swedish its called "Påsk" that has no resemblance with the word Öst which means East in Swedish.
For me it’s just the spring equinox
Do you know Maria Kvilahug? She is Norwegian and she has more info about Oestre. Her video has some evidence that Oestre was worshipped.
While the painted “Easter Egg” are definitely not Pagan in any way, eggs in general were more than likely part of many pre Christian spring equinox traditions. Why? Hens stop laying eggs in the winter and start up again as the days become longer. Egg production is tried to the amount of sunlight the birds receive. Rabbits start breeding in early February and the new bunnies will start appearing from the nest around the spring equinox. While there is no written source material stating that these occurrences were part of any specific Pagan traditions, it’s not a stretch to assume that any agrarian society would see these as signs of the upcoming change of season, a change to a more abundant season which was much needed after the long winter, and celebrate that change anyway they could. Always remember that as society developed from a mostly agricultural society to a more sophisticated intellectual and industrial society so did their worship practices. In the very beginning there probably was no direct god/goddess worship but more general acknowledgment and gratitude for the change of seasons that allowed for food production. As society got more sophisticated, so did its religions. This is when gods and goddesses came on the scene. To give them credibility, they had to be tied to specific times of the year and to specific functions, hence eggs and rabbits being tied to spring goddesses as symbols of fertility and abundance. It’s just most unfortunate that so much of that information is now lost to us thus an exact correlation cannot be made only inferred.
This was a great deep dive. I mostly get irritated with the whole n*zi association with Ostara, et al. Otherwise, people can celebrate how they want. If nothing else, if you go back far enough, everything has pagan roots, but that's definitely a conversation for a different time.
Huh, I did once read about the eggs being given as gifts during this time, but I didn't know it originated from christianity, especially not them being holy eggs, lol xD I think it's so funny to read about these old traditions, because people where actually quite creative with the restrictions that where put on them. Thank you for doing such thorough research :)
Ooh I love the idea it could be east since the medicine wheel in so many cultures had to do with direction and seasons!
Thank you for explaining that so clearly! No, not mad at you, lol! 😊❤
Finally a non-Jewish witch is talking about this. It seems like people don't listen to us Jewish witches when we say it
I am here for the "no f*cks given" attitude and I LOVE it!!!
Of course people will be triggered if you have a provocative headline OSTARA = BULLSHIT.
Bebe wrote about early british history, the romans, and britons etc. Is this all a assumption??
Bebe also wrote about others goddesses and months. He mentions a goddess called Rheda who was honored at Rhedmonth. He also mentions a month called modraniht or mothers night which is at yule. Some scholars theorised that like other yule traditions in the germanic world the a triune goddess was honour, perhap the Disir or a type of Matres and Matronae. Solmonth, as we know Sol isnt a direction its the word meaning and linked to the sun or solar divinty. Many cultures named their gods and goddesses after directions and months, and vis versa. Of course east and dawn divinties are linked because the sun rises in the east.
Greek had a goddess of dawn called Eos. Vedic dawn goddess - Usha. Lithuania goddess called Ausrine, Ausra. These are probably all linked to the proto indo european word Hausos. The majority of christainity comes from prechristain pagan traditions, even the dying and ressurrection is not a christain concept. Its a retelling of older polythiestic myth. Has Norse Witch also questioned her own cultural writers and historians. There are many things assummed about norse dieties, for example Freyr and Freyja were possiblily epiphets not actual names of goddesses. Norse myth could also be a retelling of older myths, and been influenced by the writers assumptions and imbelishments. Archaeologist also make alot of assumptions which are accepted as factual, which can in later year have been proven wrong.
This is thought stimulating. Thanks!
Hehehe I love the serious and dark intro and then pleasant transition back! Love it 😊❤
What is your view on Eostre being represented in the Matronae Austriahenae, which have been dated to 100 - 250 AD?
A very interesting video! I also recall reading about the fact we do not have a clear source abomut Eostre and where she comes from.
Your prononciation of "Pâques" was correct! I'm not an expert (if someone knows, correct me!), but I think "Pâques" comes from "Pessa'h", the Jewish Easter celebration 😊
Yeay my 8 years of learning French were worth something 🤣
@@TheNorseWitch of course ! Don't discredit your skills, even for us french is a nightmare to learn 😂
Thank you for your research and opinions! This is my first time watching your videos and very impressed!
Welcome 🥰
Hallo liebe Bente ich wünsche ein schöner Ostara Ostara liebe Grüsse aus der Schweiz von deinen fan Andrea ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤😊😊😊😊😊😊😊🎉❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤😊
I am content to just acknowledge the equinox, but because spring wasn't the big month for the ancient practitioners of my faith, summer and winter were, I don't put a ton of effort into it. Just some spring flowers as an offering to the Gods. Magic wise I also sometimes do magic related to the seasons but that's not a faith or celebration thing but more an acknowledgement of the seasons.
That said, I'm always so sad that you're hard on your pronunciations! Your English is so good I can sometimes forget that you aren't technically a native speaker.
Monath means Month
This video is very fascinating to me because Ostara is one of the only few holidays on the wheel of the year that I just can't seem to connect to. Maybe it's because I'm not Christian or maybe it's just because I love in the northern hemisphere so we don't really start to feel spring until april/may. We have a false spring during the end of February and most of March. I have actually been trying to vibe with Ostara this year cuz I never could, just to see if I can take any of the symbolism with me but still couldn't do it. I did decorate, however so at least I tried lol. I do enjoy the creativity and bringing the color back though to battle the winter blues - that I do appreciate.
Thanks for the video, learned alot.
👍🌱
I think its become maybe you try to focus on the neopagan accept of that holiday and not what it represent from a larger/astronomic event : when days and night are equals. You can also see flowers everywhere, the season of Aries has come, how do you feel about all that? 😁 See those aspects and if they are more meaningful to you 😁❤️
@ventusheart5733 oh yes, I definitely connect to the larger aspect of the spring equinox than the neopagan.. always have. I'm more of a cosmic feeler myself. I just wanted to see if I could connect and understand the other ways to celebrate, because I like to change things up. But alas, I am my own season onto myself lol. But yes, love aries season 🔥
This isn't new news but probably good for the younger generation of witches to hear.
Never claimed it to be groundbreaking 😅
From my understanding growing up in a catholic family, the bunnies represent fertility because bunnies are known for reproducing A LOT lol
growing up i remember easter being celebrated in april. not sure when it shifted to march but it always feels weird when it happens at the end of march.
Easter can still happen in April. The day changes year to year. Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the full Moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox. If the full Moon falls on a Sunday then Easter is the next Sunday. It seems this was decided the year 325 and was a hotly debated topic.
I love that you are very focused on facts and evidence even though it can be a little painful sometimes for us pagans lol 😅
It really is! Especially when you start researching the history of our modern witchcraft practice and see how much of it was just invented 🤣
♡Have to Be ○• Hail Althing ✨️
I wonder if the Easter hare is from a neolithic beliefs. They were known to associate hares with fertility.
As for the goddess, I am curious how to new gods establish themselves if we only believe in ancient ones? What makes an entity a god?
oops for someone who was excited i sure am late 😬 sorry!
i love making educated choices, so i also love you are providing the education (thank you for your work!) and the liberty to choose!
I personally love Ostara! Easter season was always my favourite, I am not christian, but with most christian things some parts of festivities morph more into regional traditions. We don't have a lamb tradition, but we have donuts in february before the "fasting" (that we don't do oops) we have those colorful boiled eggs, we have yeasty baked goods in bunny shape, we have flowers we bring inside to watch bloom. I do love winter, but I also love the time when the temperatures are mild, it is light out, everything blooms, and i love someone gave me a celebration for it. Maybe Ostara wasn't the goddess for it, maybe March was not her time, but for me it merges with tradition of my childhood, so I am happy to be wiser and still celebrating! For my group it is all about fresh beginnings and the symbolism fits!
This is a lovely view of it ❤️
Good video!😁
I could hear you say Ostara all day long. Happy Spring Equinox 💚💛🌹🌼🌸🌼💐🌸🌷
Thank you for sharing this. As someone who grew up Christian, it's interesting to hear how it all started and how these symbols were used by them. Obviously the holiday has become very secular now. Happy Spring Equinox!
❤this is wonderfully written. I have no vested interest either way, but think that you have explained your counter points very well. Thank you for taking the time
As far as the lamb of god goes, remember, that there were at least 16 other crucified saviours prior to Jesus & Xtianity & they too were referred to as "lambs of god". Whether or not these goddesses ever existed, doesn't really matter now as so much energy has been pumped into these thought forms that now they are actual entities. Enjoyed the video. Happy Spring 🌼
Im a wizard
Congrats!
As a Gardinerian wiccan, I love this video! This is actually what is often taught to our students. Along with the people you mention, when it comes to eclectic wicca, Aiden Kelly helped make the popular modern wheel of the year. He wasn't very well informed and just sort of mashed a bunch of history & culture together. In traditional wicca, we don't often celebrate the wheel of the in his version, we usually just say "(insert season) equinox,", however we may use the wheel of the year terms when explaining to others for simplicity sake. However, every coven is different and there are some traditional covens who have chosen to go along with Aiden Kelly's version, but it is in no way actually wiccan/belongs to wicca. Also it’s very important to other wiccans out there: do not claim anything is ancient without history to back in up. Wicca & its traditions are very modern with older *influence*.
For those wondering why we hate Aiden Kelly so much, its being he broke his oaths, did not do nearly any proper research- especially while trying to educate others and his doxxed (leaked names addresses and phone numbers), the people in his community publicly.
A lot of great information! Thank you!
This is really interesting. Thank you. SPIING/Easter always felt odf to me. CEREDWEN was associated with bunnies. There probably is no true pronounciation. I learned Eostre was pronounced Ee-Oe-stray.our practices have always been reconstructed and passed through oral tradition. I believe if I have my facts straight the Toman Empire had was christianized at the time Ostera was mentioned. I'd gav3 to look to kniw for sure. Roman deities seem very Christianized to me in general. Not having a lot of texts means taking the idea of say eggs and running wuth it. I also recall thar there were originally 4 sabbats celebrated. Correct me if I'm wrong. ❤
The Romans never celebrated Easter. The myth of Jesus in the Bible is exactly the same as the story of Mithras, a Roman deity worshipped heavily by the Centurians (foot soldiers in the Roman army) for at least 500 years before Jesus until well into the 4th century AD. There are temples of Mithras aka the Bull Cult in Britain, France, Brittany, Spain, Portugal, everywhere the Roman army settled. The best-preserved temple of Mithras is in Wales.
@@CricketsBay wow! I had no idea. Thank you.
I agree with you on every point except that there may be a connection between the spring equinox celebrations and the date they chose for easter. we know they often used local religious holiday times to lure the pagans into their churches.... saying to them "look, we have a holiday during that time as well" =)
No, the date of easter is related to the jewish passover, nothing pagan
@@laurabeutelstahl9862 well, feel all secular holidays are more than just "conveniently" aligned with the locals celebration time. OR maybe it could be so that the "new faith" can convince the locals they can just come celebrate the "new holiday"....
I was a Christian but i dont know much about Easter. But i do know some interesting facts. In older times it was bad luck to hunt ,kill, or eat animals with an R in thier name. In a month that didn't have an R in it. This is why we have 8 months with an R that all follow each other. May june july & august are set aside for breeding reasons. So creatures like hare's, rabbits,carp,deer, & others were protected by the letter R . Then over time the hunteR would only hunt in a month with a letter R in it. Now ofcourse most countries have a closed season for all animals to breed. The hare makes more sense for easter because it does not breed all year round like the rabbit does. So if your hunting rabbits in the 8 months your allowed, this means that the doe could still be carrying a litter. Depending on country & climate. Here in England they breed all year round, but the hares don't even though they are closely related.