The Spring Equinox
September 21st (ish)

Botticelli's "Spring"

The Spring (or Vernal) Equinox is another of those 'lesser' festivals not strictly practiced by Celtic Pagans but I acknowledge it because it's good to know that winter is finally over and the world can come back to life again.

Also known as Ostara, I think this was more of a Germanic pagan festival. The goddess Eostra/Eostre (where we get the name for Easter, and eostrogen!) was a Germanic goddess from whom the legend of the Easter Bunny apparently came. Painting eggs and offering them to the earth (for fertility - where do you think the rabbit comes in?!) is an old pagan tradition adopted by the Church. Once again we in the Southern Hemisphere don't have to deal with that plagiarism because the spring equinox is about 6 months after (or before, depending on how you look at it) Easter and we can celebrate it with no confusion.

The Vernal Equinox is a time when day and night are of equal length and is more joyous than the autumn equinox because it means the days are getting longer. We can celebrate the re-awakening of the earth after the dormancy of winter, and the growth of the god. For most neo-pagans it means that the triple goddess is seen in her maiden aspect (not a Celtic idea but nice all the same).

Things to do on this day (which goes from sunset the night before to sunset of that day) include painting eggs and giving them as a gift to the earth, collecting wild flowers (but not rare ones please!) and spending sometime outside amongst the burgeoning life - forests and meadows are probably good for this. It is also (symbolically if not actually) a good time to start projects, plant your garden and so on.

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