Spring is coming, are you ready?

Spring is coming!  I keep telling myself that, at least, lol.  It is getting warmer, though, and my thoughts are turning to the Ostara sabbat and how I will celebrate.

As I've said before, when I first started in my path, I thought that the sabbats just had to be celebrated in full regalia - circles and calling all the quarters, rituals galore!  Buuuut, as I mellowed out and really got to the core of my beliefs, I figured out that it's not necessary. If you want to do it up in a big way (and I usually do for Samhain), that's great.  But necessary?  Not really.  These days I usually cook a really nice, season appropriate dinner and do a simple candle ceremony to celebrate.  Somewhere that day, or the weekend of, I will try to do some sort of appropriate activity - talking a walk out in nature, sharing food with someone, coloring eggs.

For the coming Equinox, I will do my usual colored egg ritual.  This is basically using natural items to dye raw eggs.  Then I blow out the insides, and fill them with herbs for specific  things.  I usually make a "Continued Love" egg, a "Protection Egg" and a "Prosperity Egg".  Then I'll use candle wax to close the egg back up.  For example, the prosperity egg is dyed green, filled with herbs that are related to prosperity, like cinnamon, basil, cloves, chamomile (you can find a complete list in any herbal or online).  (I usually do the herbs in batches of 3 - using either 3, 9 or 12 different herbs in each egg.)  Then I seal it with green wax.

Once all the eggs are done, I place them in a bowl on my altar for the season, then move them to a shelf for the rest of the year.  The next spring, when I make more, I bury the old ones in my garden.

Another tradition, one that I will be taking my daughter to do this year, is to wake up mother earth.   I've read that this dates back to the Celtic days, but, I'm not 100% sure that's correct, so don't quote me on that one, lol.    When I read about the tradition though, I really like it, so I've incorporated it in to my Spring celebrations.  Basically, it's just going to a patch of earth, pounding on the ground and inviting mother earth to wake up.  Of course, when I read this, it stated that you should take your staff, or a long wand, to do this.   I'm a pagan living in the suburbs on a limited budget.  The staff thing isn't really going to happen.  However, I've done this in my yard with my broom turned upside down.  I've done it sitting on a hilltop overlooking the bay near my home, just with the flat of my hand.  I've done it at the beach in the sand with a plastic shovel.  You know what?  Spring always comes, so it must be working! ;O)

Something that has always frustrated me, especially with people who have just found this path, but it happens with people who have been practicing for years as well:  when someone thinks that if they miss celebrating on the actual sabbat day, that they've just missed out.  Yes, it's great to do your rituals on the actual day of the sabbat, but do you really have to?  I don't think so.  The sabbat marks the start of the season.  Why not stretch your celebration out and make it last?    Think about the mainstream holidays.  Not the commercial aspect, but the family traditions that people hold.  Few people do them all on Christmas day, right? Days, if not weeks, are spent making holiday cookies, decorating a tree, creating decorations with the kids.  Not enough pagans, I think, carry that sort of thing on.  Celebrate a little here and there, when you can.  Relax and enjoy it!

This is post (and photos) copyright to the author. It may not be reposted, reprinted or distributed in its entirety without express written permission of the author. Links to the article can be freely shared and are very appreciated!