Goddess of the Week: Eostre wishes you a happy Easter

How are eggs coming along?  Are they boiled and dyed?  How about the jelly beans and the chocolate bunnies?  Admit it, have you been nibbling your way through them?  Will there be any left on Easter morning?  None at all!!  Well then you're worst than me and that is just sad.  Alas, you will simply have to run to the store on Easter Eve to get everything you need to fill your baskets.  

No matter.  When it comes to chocolate it is always appropriate to dig right in.  So let us give thanks to Eostre, the English goddess of spring and the dawn.  Actually, some people will have you believe that there never was an Eostre, but if that is the case than go ahead and thank Ostara, the Germanic goddess of spring and the dawn. 

It really doesn't matter which of them you thank as you nosh on that colored egg.  Both goddesses are associated with springtime fertility.  Ostara carried around an egg. Eostre had crazy baby-bunny-making hares pull her chariot across the sky (she may also have had the head of a hare, but goddesses can be particular about their ears so let's not get personal.)  The main point is that, whether you prefer Easter baskets or Easter bonnets, you have a goddess to thank.  (And that's a good thing because those early popes really excelled at taking the fun out of everything).  

So welcome spring, welcome sun, welcome chocolate bunnies and marshmallow peeps of all shapes and sizes, welcome boiled eggs and plastic eggs and chocolate eggs both hidden and in baskets, welcome scary giant bunnies and cute baby chicks, welcome Easter, welcome Eostre, welcome Ostara.  And to all a good night.  

Channel this goddess: Channel this goddess when eating hot cross buns or feeling the strange urge to frolic in meadows, plant gardens, fill baskets with candy, hide eggs, or simply celebrate the arrival of a glorious spring.