Witch 101: Spring Equinox
Spring Equinox, is one of the most essential and best holidays for any practicing witch and/or spiritualist. It’s full of love, and a perfect time to prepare for the end of the cold winter season and it’s emotions. With the equinox comes peace, and so much beauty.
For those wondering, spring or vernal equinox is the day the sun finally crosses into the northern hemisphere. It marks the first day of the spring season, and finally the end of winter. It also indicates the new balance of time between night and day, and the start of the year's warmer months. Due to this change of seasons, it happens to be the day that many religions and practices celebrate holidays surrounding the ideas of the cycle of life, femininity, and nature.
Throughout the season, feminine symbols arise everywhere due to the seasons’ theme of nature and rebirth during its holidays. As we know, it’s the transition into spring, the time when nature blooms and mating season begins in the nature around us. Though many different religious and spiritual groups celebrate something on this day, the original spring equinox holiday ages back centuries before the birth of Christ. Though there isn't a specific date that initiates the first year it was celebrated by the pagan people, we know that the holiday of Ostara was the starting point that led many other religions in the future to celebrate holidays based around rebirth and femininity at around the same time.
For those planning to celebrate Ostara, many associations can be taken into account when planning to celebrate. Some major symbols that are associated with the feminine side of the holiday could include the hare, the moon, and fresh spring flowers. It’s a great opportunity for tea magick, spells for cleansing, or even a ritual celebrating the beauty of rebirth. In the terms of Tarot, the holiday circles around the cards of Death, Ace of Wands, and The Sun. All the stories behind these cards help us all remember what this holiday is truly about. It’s a celebration of the power of birth, your magickal power, and the beauty of the world.
Other holidays that are derived from this celebration are Easter, a festival celebrating isis, Hilaria, and many others around the world. The most iconic of these however is easter. This Christian holiday represents the resurrection of Jesus Christ, symbolizing the power of god defying life and death. This holiday is celebrated with symbols of animals such as rabbits and chicklets and colors light and beautiful such as baby pink and yellow. As one should notice, the aesthetics of this holiday are in no way related to the story of christ. It is almost directly based off of Osara. This is because all of these holidays are based on the celebration of spring equinox, but mostly have core differences in what specific events of folklore and history they’re celebrating. A celebration that takes place primarily in Egypt, one of the two festivals celebrating the goddess Isis this time of the year on the equinox, celebrating the birth of the new world. Isis is the patron of women, magick, and seasons, similar to the ideas of rebirth and nature we have seen previously. The Romans have a tradition called hilaria, a party thrown by deep worshippers of Cybele. Not much is known about the holiday, but apparently is the core of April Fools Day.
