Lady Day (Oestara)
March 20 - 21Lady Day (also known as Oestara or the Vernal Equinox) falls on or around March 21, occurring on the day when the Sun enters the sign of Aries and appears to cross the celestial equator on its way north. This quarter day is celebrated at a point in the calendar of the seasons when we are midway through the quarter year from Imbolc (February 2) to Beltane (May 1). At Yule (December 21), we celebrated the return of the Light (or Sun) to the world, and strange as it may seem, we celebrated the arrival of Spring at Imbolc. On Lady Day, day and night are perfectly balanced - they are equal in length, and the power of the Sun is growing stronger. On the Wheel of the Year, this festival is followed by Beltane or May Day, then by the Summer Solstice on June 21. At the time of the Summer Solstice, the Sun will reach its zenith and begin to descend, and days will grow shorter again until Yuletide on December 21. The great Wheel turns on and on......
Modern practitioners of the Craft often refer to this day as Oestara in honour of the Germanic Goddess Eostre, but doing so is not historically correct. Eostre's special day is a lunar festival which falls at the Vernal (March) Full Moon and honours the Lady in Her lunar aspect, so "Oestara" actually describes the esbat closest to the Vernal Full Moon, and not the equinox (or sabbat) itself. According to European folklore, the accepted name for the Vernal Equinox has always been "Lady Day".
This day is one of the low holidays or lesser sabbats on the Wheel of the Year, and as such, it is an occasion celebrated with considerably less pomp and circumstance than high holidays or cross quarter days like Beltane, Lammas, Samhain and Imbolc. Nevertheless, this is a joyous day for Oestara celebrates the warming and healing powers of the Sun, the greening of the earth, and the emergence of new life in Spring. Like Harvest Home (September 21) this festival is all about balance, and we gather to celebrate the innate balance and harmony of the cosmos. In the conventional or linear view of existence, this is the first day of Spring.
Like the other ancient seasonal festivals, Lady Day has been appropriated by organized Christianity, and it is associated with not one, but two Christian holy days. The first holy day is the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the fixed church holiday which falls on March 25. The second holy day, of course, is Easter.
The word "Easter" has its origin in the name of the ancient Germanic goddess of fertility and Springtime, Eostre, who is also a lunar goddess. Eostre's symbols include hares, rabbits, eggs, young birds, birds' nests, the New Moon, butterflies and cocoons. Her colours are all pastels; pale yellow, green and blue, as well as the stronger colors of Spring, grass green, robin's egg blue, violet, and white. The stones of this day are also pale; aquamarine, rose quartz, and moonstone. Eostre's mythical beasts include unicorns, mermaids and mermen, winged horses and centaurs, and the plants and herbs associated with Her festival are the delicate flowers of Spring, crocuses, snowdrops, daffodils, and narcissus, as well as jasmine, Irish moss and ginger.
Eostre's special day was traditionally celebrated by the ancients on the first full moon following the Spring Equinox. By contrast, the Christian holy day of Easter is celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. To maintain a safe distance from Lady Day and Eostre's festival day, the Church decreed that if Easter Sunday should ever actually fall on a full moon, it (Easter) should be celebrated on the following Sunday instead.
This is the day on which followers of the Craft commemorate the descent of the young Goddess into the underworld and Her triumphant return to the surface of the earth, bearing gifts of enlightenment, warmth and fertility for humanity. At this time, we think of the goddesses Persephone, Kore, Blodeuwedd, Eostre, Aphrodite, Athena, Cybele, Gaia, Hera, Isis, Ishtar, Minerva, and Venus. This is also the season of the lusty young God, and we think of Herne the Hunter, Jack in the Green, Robin of the Woods, the Green Man, Cernunnos, the Lord of the Greenwood, The Dagda, Attis, Tammuz, the Horned God, Mithras, Odin, Thoth, Osiris, and Pan. The motifs of sacrifice and rebirth which define this day also have profound meaning for Christians who commemorate the crucifixion, death and and resurrection of Christ at Easter. Whatever our beliefs are and wherever our path lies, we celebrate the triumph of Light over Darkness and Life over Death.
Lady Day is a time of cleansing and renewal. It is time to open the windows and let the brisk winds of Spring blow through the house, cleansing one's home of the lingering influences of Winter and preparing for the warm sunny days ahead. At this time also, we should think about cleansing and renewing our own psyches and nurturing balance in our lives.
The foods of Lady Day include lamb, rabbit, eggs, seeds of various sorts and green leafy vegetables - all foods which symbolize young life and and rebirth. The quintessential activities of Lady Day include gardening, decorating eggs, hunting for Eostre eggs, planting herbs and gathering early wildflowers.
If one lives in the north as I do, there will be no wildflowers for quite a while, but the first spring lambs are being born now, and it will not be long until spring fawns and little red foxes appear in the countryside. The maple syrup season or "sugaring off" time is in full swing, and the sounds of of the sawhet owl can be heard now and then in the woods. This beautiful little owl is a fierce predator, and it is known locally as the sugar bird for its melodious hooting during the maple syrup season. Green things are already stirring deep within the earth and if one listens carefully, one can hear the sound of woodland streams flowing beneath the snow. On my Oestara rambles, I think of the snowdrops, bloodroot, crocus and trout lilies which will adorn the hillsides in Lanark County in a few months and the wild orchids and columbines which will follow them a short time later. When I return home after my rambles, I will plant the first herbs of the season with a small blessing for each, and place a little clay pot in every window in the house......
