Happy Easter

 ...to all my Christian friends!

The Wheel of the Year for pagans and pantheists

Us pagans have just celebrated Oestra's spring equinox on March 21, and soon will celebrate Beltaine on May 1st.

And we do claim the practice of hunting for colored eggs and a rabbit, which have been brought into the Easter practices!

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The tradition of Easter eggs actually has roots in both Christian and pre-Christian customs. In many ancient cultures, eggs symbolized new life and fertility, representing the arrival of spring. Early Christians adopted this symbolism, associating eggs with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

During Lent, a period of fasting before Easter, eggs were historically not to be eaten, so they were often hard-boiled and stored for later consumption. When Easter arrived, people would decorate and share them as a celebration of Christ’s resurrection and the end of fasting. Over time, this tradition evolved, leading to modern Easter egg hunts, and the decorated Easter eggs we use today.

While Easter eggs did come to have Christian symbolism representing Jesus' resurrection, the tradition actually stretches back much further. Long before chocolate bunnies and marshmallow chicks took over store shelves, cultures around the world were using eggs in celebrations of fertility, renewal, and the changing seasons. Ancient Egyptians, Persians, and Romans all viewed eggs as powerful symbols of rebirth, often exchanging them as gifts during spring festivals.

Some historians even believe Easter eggs came from Anglo-Saxon festivals in the spring to celebrate the pagan goddess Eostre. The goddess, who is also believed to be the namesake of Easter, represented the dawn in spring. So, in order to celebrate her, eggs were buried and eaten during the festival as they represent new life after winter. Many other pagan traditions from the festival of Eostre, such as hot cross buns and the Easter bunny, were adopted by Christian missionaries to celebrate Christ and encourage conversion.

Believe it or not, Easter egg hunts hatched in Germany back in the 17th century! Some researchers say the tradition is linked to the German folklore of the Osterhase (Easter Hare), a mythical creature that would lay colorful eggs for well-behaved children to find. Sound familiar?

Though the practice of hiding and hunting for eggs likely stems from older European spring fertility rituals, protestant reformer Martin Luther would organize egg hunts for children, with men hiding the eggs and women and children searching for them—possibly representing the discovery of Christ’s empty tomb.

By the 18th century, German immigrants brought the tradition to America, where it became widely popular. In the 19th century, European candy manufacturers began to make egg-shaped chocolates and candies to celebrate Easter. In 1878, the White House held its first Easter egg roll and the tradition still continues today!

Source: Pioneering Woman

Having a nice conservative Christian upbringing, I loved coloring eggs as a child. Then with more artistic bent, I made little people's faces with hats on "blown out" eggs, which sat in little collars. I certainly dyed eggs with my children also. 

And then I learned I was really a pagan at heart, loving nature completely...without anyone dying on a cross before celebrating life.

By Welch artist Jackie Morris

Whisper in the Wind (circa 2018) by British textile artist Fiona Gill

Happy Easter and happy Trans Recognition Day

... to those who celebrate. I just love it for jelly beans. The spice kind. Particularly the red ones. Mmm, cinnamon!

 

Here's my little arrangement, which some pagans would call an altar. I just like having reminders of nature in the little Christmas trees, the paper curled up that's full of my physical therapy routines, the four elements vase, (to the right) which has earth, air, fire and water represented on it's faces.

Here is day 3 of the blooms...lily number one is opening up. Just see all that pollen!

Day 4, lily number 2 is opening now also.

Growing up I only remember getting a new outfit for Easter each year, to be worn with hat and gloves to church. Before that, my Christian Science grandmother did hostess a Easter egg hunt in her yard for the 4 young Rogers cousins (though my sister was probably too young to take part.) My oldest cousin got the golden egg and I was really unhappy about it, for a few minutes. I don't know what she got for it actually, but I was learning about competitions at that time.

Easter Outfits, 1947 & 48, as well as maybe a Christmas outfit with coat and hat. Sis was around 2 years old, to my 5-6 years.

I brought up my Unitarian children with Easter egg hunts in the yard (weather permitting) after we'd dyed the eggs over newspapers. I also spent several years blowing out the innards of eggs and painting them with watercolors as little people, and setting them into collars that matched their styles. By the time my grandchildren came along, plastic eggs were stuffed with candy and money and hidden.

Now I celebrate our mother earth and all the beauty she offers us. I also bemoan the climate crisis that humans have inflicted upon her.

Today's quote:

We can learn a lot from watching ants and bees, living in community and working for the greater good

Added at the last minute: 

Another blogger let me know this is also Trans Recognition Day.

May we all live together in peace.

(Facebook threatened to take this post down as going against its standards!)

Trans Flag

President Biden mentioned that he honors this recognition of Trans People today. 

Root and seed

 From a new newsletter I'm enjoying

Heron Dance Art Journal

"Then a great peace came over me. . . and I seemed to hear the pines and the wind and the rocky shores say to me, “You . . . lover of the wild, are part of us. . .”

- Sigurd F. Olson

"The owl rides the meadow at his hunting hour. The fox clears out the pheasants and the partridges in the cornfield. Jupiter rests above Antares, and the fall moon hooks itself into the prairie sod. A dark wind flows down from Mandan as the Indians slowly move out of the summer campground to go back to the reservation. Aries, buck of the sky, leaps to the outer rim and mates with earth. Root and seed turn into flesh. We turn back to each other in the dark together, in the short days, in the dangerous cold, on the rim of a perpetual wilderness.

- Meridel LeSueur, from The Ancient People and the Newly Come

The root and seed phrase made me think of how us humans mate, with the male providing seed, while females provide eggs.

Thus life continues.

But think as a human who has eggs. That person is different than one who provides seeds. Think how he must think...spreading seeds in hopes new life will take. The one with eggs is thinking as one who wants a safe place to grow the life inside...definitely a place of one life to grow, rather than many.

I think there's more to this thought. And probably someone already came up with it. Seeds or Eggs. A way of thinking/feeling for men or women.