All About Eostre - The Pagan Goddess of Dawn

Eostre is the Germanic goddess of dawn who is celebrated during the Spring Equinox. On the old Germanic calendar, the equivalent month to April was called “Ōstarmānod” – or Easter-month. As a holiday, Easter predates Christianity and was originally the name for Spring Equinox celebrations.

The date of the Christian celebration of Easter changes each year and the reason the date changes is because it is based on a ‘Pagan’ solar calendar. Easter occurs on the Sunday after the first full moon occurring after the Spring Equinox. So for example this year the Spring Equinox is on March 19th, the first full moon after the equinox is on April 7, and the first Sunday after the full moon is April 12, which is the date of Easter this year.

Most of the symbolism around this holiday actually comes from the pre-christian Pagan celebrations of the Spring Equinox. For example, we paint Easter eggs with bright colors at this time of year. The bright colors are a reflection of the spring flowers blooming and egg itself may be linked to chickens’ return to laying after the long winter months where chicken’s lay very few, if any, eggs. The Easter rabbit symbolizes fertility. We all know that bunnies get pretty busy if you know what I mean ;) so they are a perfect animal to symbolically represent the fertility of springtime.

Returning to the topic of Eostre, the evidence for her as an actual goddess people worshipped is a bit uncertain. She’s mentioned in the writings of an 8th century monk known as Venerable Bede, who reported that pagan Anglo-Saxons in medieval Northumbria held festivals in her honor during the month of April. Other than this text, we don’t have much information about how she was honored by the Pagans. Whether Eostre was really worshipped as a goddess or not, by the 19th century she had become an important part of German culture and she was added into German literature, paintings, and folklore.

Jacob Grimm, one of the two Brothers Grimm, wrote
“Esotre seems therefore to have been the divinity of the radiant dawn, of upspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing, whose meaning could be easily adapted by the resurrection-day of the Christian's God." It makes sense that the chosen date to represent the rebirth of Jesus was based around a time(the Spring Equinox) that was already being celebrated for light and life.

In describing German Pagan traditions, Jacob mentions “Bonfires were lit at Easter and water drawn on the Easter morning is, like that at Christmas, holy and healing - here also heathen notions seems to have grafted themselves on great Christian festivals. Maidens clothed in white, who at Easter, at the season of returning spring, show themselves in clefts of the rock and on mountains, are suggestive of the ancient goddess.”

By reviewing his writings about German Pagan traditions, we can derive a few ideas on how we as modern pagans can celebrate the Goddess Eostre for the Spring Equinox. For example, In terms of ritual wear for the Spring Equinox I plan on wearing a simple white dress and creating a crown out of local spring flowers. As Eostre is the Goddess of the Dawn, I plan to wake up early on the morning of the Equinox to greet the new day. As Jacob Grimm attests to the healing power of Equinox water, I plan on collecting morning dew from the local grasses & flowers and putting it in a jar to place on my Ostara altar as an offering to the Goddess Eostre.

To me Pagan reconstructionism is figuring out how to stay true to the ideas and traditions behind the ancient rituals and festivals even if we can’t celebrate them exactly as our Pagan ancestors would have done. We really don’t know that much about the Goddess Eostre and how the Pagans celebrated her, so the best thing to do is collect the information we do have and stay true to the underlying spirit of the traditions to best of our ability.

Will you be celebrating the Spring Equinox this year? Share your Equinox plans in the comments! 🌸