Do You Celebrate Ostara?

[Víðálfr]

Not yet... and, yeah, it would be a good alternative to "the Christian Easter".

[Dr. Solar Wolff]

In America we celebrate Easter (Ostara) but aspects of it have been usurped by the Christians. We have an Easter egg hunt in which eggs (renewal of life) are hidden by the Easter Bunny (fertility symbol) for children to find. Even President Bush participates although he has no idea why.

Christians talk about "the true meaning of Easter" like they talk about "the true meaning of Christmas". Nobody pays any attention. This celebration is something rooted deep down inside which has no current rationalization.

[Oswiu]

Not yet... and, yeah, it would be a good alternative to "the Christian Easter".

Hehe! In England Easter has no Christian attributes in the popular imagination. I voted 'yes', because my family do all the traditional Easter stuff with eggs and so on, just as we have done for millenia. There's nothing neopagan about it at all!

[a. b.]

No, but I've been celebrating Pesach.

[Aupmanyav]

Vernal Equinox (Makar Sankranti - when sun enters the zodiac of Capricorn) is celebrated all over India, and in many regions signifies the new year. Aryans also had their new year (beginning of the sacrifice) from that day. Six month' from this day was the day of the Gods (when sun was north of equator). The normal procedure in India is to go out early in the morning to a water body (many people go to the banks of River Ganga if possible), have a bath, followed by prayers to the deity, charity, and special meals for family and friends.

Please note that as early as 6000 BC, Aryans had resolved the problem of solar and the lunar calender, and there was never any confusion about that. What they were to realize later around 4000 BC was the precession of equinoxes. This was when they realized that the sun was not rising on the day of vernal equinox in the constellation of Beta Geminorium but in Orion. This was also the time when the European branch of Aryans separated from others (perhaps this happened in the Andronovo region). As a consequence the greek aryans did not have any rememberance of the later changes, when the equinox moved to the constellation of Pleidas (this, the second change occured sometime around 2500 BC, when the Aryans were in Trans-Oxiana, known in India as Uttarapatha, and had also reached India).