Here are some relevant thoughts on the two holidays, Easter and Ostara. I hope you find the information helpful.

From Encarta:

Easter, annual festival commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the principal feast of the Christian year. It is celebrated on a Sunday on varying dates between March 22 and April 25 and is therefore called a movable feast. The dates of several other ecclesiastical festivals, extending over a period between Septuagesima Sunday (the ninth Sunday before Easter) and the first Sunday of Advent, are fixed in relation to the date of Easter.

Connected with the observance of Easter are the 40-day penitential season of Lent, beginning on Ash Wednesday and concluding at midnight on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday; Holy Week, commencing on Palm Sunday, including Good Friday, the day of the crucifixion, and terminating with Holy Saturday; and the Octave of Easter, extending from Easter Sunday through the following Sunday. During the Octave of Easter in early Christian times, the newly baptized wore white garments, white being the liturgical color of Easter and signifying light, purity, and joy.

Pre-Christian Tradition

Easter, a Christian festival, embodies many pre-Christian traditions. The origin of its name is unknown. Scholars, however, accepting the derivation proposed by the 8th-century English scholar St. Bede, believe it probably comes from the Anglo-Saxon name of a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility, to whom was dedicated a month corresponding to April. Her festival was celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox; traditions associated with the festival survive in the Easter rabbit, a symbol of fertility, and in colored easter eggs, originally painted with bright colors to represent the sunlight of spring, and used in Easter-egg rolling contests or given as gifts.

Such festivals, and the stories and legends that explain their origin, were common in ancient religions. A Greek legend tells of the return of Persephone, daughter of Demeter, goddess of the earth, from the underworld to the light of day; her return symbolized to the ancient Greeks the resurrection of life in the spring after the desolation of winter. Many ancient peoples shared similar legends. The Phrygians believed that their omnipotent deity went to sleep at the time of the winter solstice, and they performed ceremonies with music and dancing at the spring equinox to awaken him. The Christian festival of Easter probably embodies a number of converging traditions; most scholars emphasize the original relation of Easter to the Jewish festival of Passover, or Pesach, from which is derived Pasch, another name for Easter. The early Christians, many of whom were of Jewish origin, were brought up in the Hebrew tradition and regarded Easter as a new feature of the Passover festival, a commemoration of the advent of the Messiah as foretold by the prophets.

The Dating of Easter

According to the New Testament, Christ was crucified on the eve of Passover and shortly afterward rose from the dead. In consequence, the Easter festival commemorated Christ's resurrection. In time, a serious difference over the date of the Easter festival arose among Christians. Those of Jewish origin celebrated the resurrection immediately following the Passover festival, which, according to their Babylonian lunar calendar, fell on the evening of the full moon (the 14th day in the month of Nisan, the first month of the year); by their reckoning, Easter, from year to year, fell on different days of the week.

Christians of Gentile origin, however, wished to commemorate the resurrection on the first day of the week, Sunday; by their method, Easter occurred on the same day of the week, but from year to year it fell on different dates.

An important historical result of the difference in reckoning the date of Easter was that the Christian churches in the East, which were closer to the birthplace of the new religion and in which old traditions were strong, observed Easter according to the date of the Passover festival. The churches of the West, descendants of Greco-Roman civilization, celebrated Easter on a Sunday.

Rulings of the Council of Nicaea on the Date of Easter

Constantine the Great, Roman emperor, convoked the Council of Nicaea in that time. The council unanimously ruled that the Easter festival should be celebrated throughout the Christian world on the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox; and that if the full moon should occur on a Sunday and thereby coincide with the Passover festival, Easter should be commemorated on the Sunday following. Coincidence of the feasts of Easter and Passover was thus avoided.

The Council of Nicaea also decided that the calendar date of Easter was to be calculated at Alexandria, then the principal astronomical center of the world. The accurate determination of the date, however, proved an impossible task in view of the limited knowledge of the 4th-century world. The principal astronomical problem involved was the discrepancy, called the epact, between the solar year and the lunar year. The chief calendric problem was a gradually increasing discrepancy between the true astronomical year and the Julian calendar then in use.

Later Dating Methods

Ways of fixing the date of the feast tried by the church proved unsatisfactory, and Easter was celebrated on different dates in different parts of the world. In 387, for example, the dates of Easter in France and Egypt were 35 days apart. About 465, the church adopted a system of calculation proposed by the astronomer Victorinus (flourished 5th century), who had been commissioned by Pope Hilarius to reform the calendar and fix the date of Easter. Elements of his method are still in use, although the Scythian monk Dionysius Exiguus made significant adjustments to the Easter cycle in the 6th century. Refusal of the British and Celtic Christian churches to adopt the proposed changes led to a bitter dispute between them and Rome in the 7th century. Reform of the Julian calendar in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, through adoption of the Gregorian calendar, eliminated much of the difficulty in fixing the date of Easter and in arranging the ecclesiastical year; since 1752, when the Gregorian calendar was also adopted in Great Britain and Ireland, Easter has been celebrated on the same day in the Western part of the Christian world. The Eastern churches, however, which did not adopt the Gregorian calendar, commemorate Easter on a Sunday either preceding or following the date observed in the West. Occasionally the dates coincide; the most recent times were in 1865, 1963.

Because the Easter holiday affects a varied number of secular affairs in many countries, it has long been urged as a matter of convenience that the movable dates of the festival be either narrowed in range or replaced by a fixed date in the manner of Christmas. In 1923 the problem was referred to the Holy See, which has found no canonical objection to the proposed reform. In 1928 the British Parliament enacted a measure allowing the Church of England to commemorate Easter on the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April. Despite these steps toward reform, Easter continues to be a movable feast.

Good Friday:

Good Friday, Friday immediately preceding Easter, celebrated by Christians as the anniversary of Christ's crucifixion. The name Good Friday is generally believed to be a corruption of God's Friday. Since the time of the early church, the day has been dedicated to penance, fasting, and prayer.In the Roman Catholic church, the Good Friday liturgy is composed of three distinct parts: readings and prayers, including the reading of the Passion according to St. John; the veneration of the cross; and a general communion service (formerly called the Mass of the Presanctified), involving the reception of preconsecrated hosts by the priest and faithful. From the 16th century on, the Good Friday service took place in the morning; in 1955 Pope Pius XII decreed that it be held in the afternoon or evening. As a result, such traditional afternoon devotions as the Tre Ore (Italian, three hours), consisting of sermons, meditations, and prayers centering on the three-hour agony of Christ on the cross, were almost entirely discontinued in the Roman Catholic church. In most of Europe, in South America, in Great Britain and many parts of the Commonwealth, and in several states of the U.S., Good Friday is a legal holiday.

Ascension:

Ascension (religion), in Christian belief, the departure of Jesus Christ from the earth 40 days after his resurrection from the dead. The event is described as occurring in the presence of the apostles; Christ was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight. In some New Testament passages (see Mark 16:19-20; Luke 24:50-51; Acts 1:1-14) the ascension is represented as an observed historical fact. Other passages (see 1 Peter 3:22; 1 Timothy 3:16, Hebrews 4:14) stress its theological dimension. Its significance seems to center on the glorification of Christ and its service as a sign that his earthly mission had been fulfilled. The Feast of the Ascension, one of the great festivals of Christianity, is observed on Thursday, 40 days after Easter. Artists have often depicted the theme in one of three ways: Christ ascending upon clouds toward the outstretched hand of God the Father, Christ being carried by angels, or Christ ascending by his own power.

Cross

Ancient symbol found in many cultures, but especially associated with Christianity.

Symbolism

The cross, as a basic design motif, appears in the pottery, weaving, carving, and painting of many cultures. It may be simply decorative, or it may have symbolic meaning. The tau cross, for example, was a symbol of life to the ancient Egyptians; when combined with the circle (as in the crux ansata), it stood for eternity . For most ancient peoples the Greek cross was a metaphor for the four indestructible elements of creation (air, earth, fire, and water), thus symbolizing permanence. The swastika, with the ends of its cross bars bent to the right, was common in both the Old World and the New World. It originally represented the revolving sun, fire, or life and later, by extension, good luck. To Buddhists, a swastika represented resignation; to the Jains, it symbolized their seventh saint. To Hindus, a swastika with arms bent to the left symbolized night, magic, and the destructive goddess Kali. In mid-20th-century Germany, the right-facing swastika was the Nazi party emblem. The cross was also used in the ancient world as a symbol of execution by crucifixion. In Roman times only the lowest class of criminals was crucified. In Christianity the cross became not only a symbol of the shameful death of Jesus Christ as a criminal on a tau-shaped Roman cross, but also of his subsequent resurrection to eternal life and of his promise of salvation to Christian believers. The Greek letters C (chi) and R (rho), the first two letters of the Greek word CRISTOS (Christos ), were superimposed to form the chi-rho, which, as the monogram of Christ, became a pervasive decorative element in Early Christian and Byzantine Art.

The cross became an important part of Christian liturgy and art. Christians make a sign of the cross with the right hand both to profess their faith and to bestow a blessing. Early Christian clergy used small hand-held crosses to bestow blessings. Larger crosses were carried in processions; these took spectacular forms in later centuries. In time, crosses were placed on altars in churches and erected outdoors in markets and along roads. Small crosses were worn by clergy and laity as tokens of piety, marks of ecclesiastical office (pectoral crosses), reliquaries, good-luck charms, or decoration. Most large medieval churches were built on the plan of a Latin or Greek cross, symbolic of Christ's body.

The cross, as first used in Christian art, generally did not show the body of Jesus, not only because the early church still followed the Jewish prohibition of images as idolatrous, but also because the empty cross symbolized Jesus' resurrection rather than his death. As a result, Christ was sometimes symbolized by a lamb or a bust of a youth above the cross. By the 7th century, however, it had become customary to represent the whole figure of Jesus, alive and robed, as the triumphant Christ, in front of the cross but not attached to it. Gradually, as the church put more emphasis on his suffering and death, Christ was portrayed naturalistically in a loincloth and crown of thorns, nailed to the cross. The wound in his side was visible. Thereafter, most three-dimensional crosses in the Roman Catholic church were crucifixes, and scenes of the crucifixion became popular themes of medieval and Renaissance painting and sculpture. Most non-Lutheran Protestant churches, which tend to follow early church traditions, use the cross alone.

Transfiguration

In the New Testament, this event traditionally understood as the revelation of the glory of Jesus Christ as the son of God. Described in Matthew 17, Mark 9, and Luke 9, it occurs when Jesus takes his disciples Peter, James, and John to a high mountain (traditionally, Mount Tabor): And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light (Matthew 17:2). At the same time, the prophets Moses and Elijah appeared to the disciples and a voice from the cloud said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him (Matthew 17:5). The Feast of the Transfiguration originated in the Eastern church before the 7th century and was gradually introduced into the Western church. Its general observance in the Western church was established in 1456 by Pope Callistus III, who fixed its date as August 6 to commemorate a Christian victory over the Ottoman Turks at Belgrade. It is a major feast in the Orthodox and Armenian churches.

Ostara

Celebrated at the Spring Equinox. Usually near the end of March. Celebrated with colored eggs, symbols of fertility such as bunny rabbits or early spring flowers such as tulips. With decorations of green, yellow and pink. Honoring the God and Goddess as natures balance returns to the world.

Ostara History

The Spring Equinox was not one of the original festivals honored in early Celtic days before and during the realm of the Druids. In that context it is a relatively new celebration honoring the rebirth of the all things as the God force is reborn to the world.

There is speculation that this holiday owes it's roots to the Roman invasion of Ireland. Ceaser being the God who returns to the maiden land of the Celts. However, this does not play out when one reviews Celtic mythology and history.

The holiday has been long associated with Nemetona, who is a Romano-Celtic Goddess of the magikal Grove. Nemetona means 'grove', and she holds special significance to the Celts. The woodlands are long thought to be magickal and sacred places. Her name is thought to be derived from Nemhedh who was (according to the Book of Invasions) the leader of the third invasion of Ireland.

Even in the cool wetness of the early spring, it is obvious to all that winter is over. The blooms and buds of the next growing season are pushing through their winter slumber. Perhaps this beauty of natures magick is why Nemetona and the grove of the wood is associated with this holiday.

The Purpose of Ostara

Balance. The longest day and longest night, not winter and not yet spring, the rebirth of nature and the God force who comes to join the Maiden bring new life and fertility to the coming growing seasons.

For pagans, this is a day of preparation. Reconsecrating magickal tools, balancing their energies for new work. Blessing seeds for the spring planting, or starting your garden by cleaning the area and tilling the soil. It's a good time for the lady to acquire a new broom and for the gentleman to craft a new staff.

It's also a time for introspection. Meditation and evaluation of the current events and attitudes in your life. Examine where you might be unbalanced and where you might need to let go of the past and prepare for a fertile future. If you've been working extra hard during the winter months, then now you should turn some attention to home and hearth. If you've secluded yourself from the world other than school and work, then now turn some attention to family and friends. Too much of a good thing, still has it's draw backs.

Ostara Celebration

On the eve of Ostara, when the sun has set, honor the fertility of the season by sorting seeds to be honored during a festival ritual. If you have children, of if you're a kid at heart, this is a good time to boil eggs and decorate them with beautiful colors and symbols.

As the night progresses, decorate your alter with simple symbols and conduct a simple ritual honoring the rebirth of the God and the coming of spring. Once your honoring has been completed, spend the rest of your evening on introspection. While the world is quiet and at peace, review your current life and take stock of your emotions toward yourself, others and events in your life. Try not to justify anger or sadness by placing the responsibility of what might be occurring in your life upon someone else. Rather step back without blame and take a look at how you and your actions have contributed to the events, good or bad, in your life. For those things that are working well, commend yourself. Give yourself some credit and think of something you can do as a celebration. For those things that have not been going well, take responsibility for your part in the event and forgive yourself of the actions, words or even thoughts that may have contributed to the event. Then think of way to turn things around.

On the day of Ostara, plan a walk through the park or arboretum. Hide the eggs you decorated, and help your children play games to find them. Work in your garden or flower beds and prepare them for the growing season. Spend the afternoon sharing in the preparation of a feast of celebration. A ham, vegetables, and potatoes are always a good sampling for the spring holiday. We like to add an ice cream cake decorated in the shape or symbology of a colorful egg to represent the fertility and warming trend of the season.

During the evening hours you can continue the festival with a formal holiday ritual. There are as many ways and suggestions for conducting such a ceremony as there are people on this planet. But if you need a detailed example you have two places on our network to look. Check our simple Celtic Ritual or Ceremony Outline or if you are Wiccan review the Ostara Sabbat Ritual in our Wiccan Star section.

End your evening in private reflection. It is important for anyone practicing a spiritual life to reflect on his or her actions. Record your thoughts, your emotions and your experiences. This is the true value of your book of shadows. And there is no better time to take stock of yourself and your life than during a High Holy Day.

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