Mire's Holiday Pages: Easter!

Last Updated 2/5/2005

Happy Easter!

Easter gets its name from Eoster, a Teutonic spring goddess. It was originally celebrated on the spring equinox when the day is in balance with the night, and so we will again have more light than darkness. It was therefore the perfect time to celebrate the resurrected deity, whether it's Osiris, Mithras, Odin, Persephone, or Jesus Christ.

Everywhere we look there are flowers, chicks, rabbits, and colored eggs! All symbols of new life and fertility and have been part of spring celebrations for thousands of years.

The lily, now thought of more as a symbol of death, was a symbol of life to the ancient greeks and romans, and they decorated their Spring altars with them. Young men would offer them in the way that men now offer diamond rings.

It's easy to figure out how rabbits and eggs came to be associated with spring, but I've always wondered how it came to be that a rabbit delivered the eggs.

Apparently, one version is that it originated with a legend of the Goddess Eoster. A rabbit wanted to please her and so laid the sacred eggs, decorated them, and presented them to her. She was so pleased, she wanted everyone to share in her joy, so the rabbit distributed them to all in her honor.

Even the tradition of wearing new clothes is said to come from the Teutons. Wearing your spring clothes before Ostara was considered very bad luck. They would work on their outfits all winter in preparation for the spring holiday.