Spring is a time of regrowth and fresh new beginnings. Plants and flowers appearing now on the trees and ground. Also insects have woken up to gather around the luscious flowers in the garden. As much as you or I feel happy at the return of spring, and leaving behind another winter, it is also a time of preparing for celebrations and feasts. The season of Easter with eggs and rabbits comes from an ancient pagan ritual that happened during the spring. There is a debate going on in modern times among academics that question if the goddess Eostre was a true goddess or a fabrication by Bede. I say "how dare they remove a goddess like that!" This is rather a case of dismantling of mythology, culture and magic by merely suggesting Eostre was made up by someone a few centuries ago. There isn't any evidence that Eostre was created out of thin air as much as there isn't any evidence that Easter was never a celebration.
It's widely accepted that Eostre (and also Ostara), derive from the name Austro, a Proto-Germanic meaning for the dawn. It may also mean "twilight" as it's related to Slavic words. It's been found that there are many prehistoric deities being uncovered, and this includes some dawn goddesses like Hausos, Ayg, Arshaluys, Dellingr and Ausrine. Those goddesses are linked with the morning star. The most famous European goddess related to these is Eos of Greek mythology and Aurora of Roman mythology. To me it shows here the pattern of dawn goddesses with names that are similar to Eostre.
Goddess Eos is a dawn goddess as well as a springtime goddess. The younger sister of Helios the sun god and Selene the moon goddess. Eos was sexually attracted to mortal men and she liked to seduce them and woo them back to her magical place, although she gave them immortality but not eternal youth. Despite this knowledge, Eos didn't have a cult following. Many assert that Eos is connected to Aphrodite and may actually be the same goddess, or a different aspect of the same goddess. They have also felt Eostre is the same as goddess Freyja in a similar way. Whatever the truth is, we know that spring is here, and the seasons are a cycle. We celebrate Easter, whatever religious path we have. Some choose not to celebrate it, but there they might indulge in the confectionaries such as chocolate eggs and sugar bunnies! Here is to Eostre the goddess of spring:
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