Happy Spring Equinox, or Ostara!

While many of us have seen climate change effectively remove this past winter (certainly the case here in Michigan), climate change is highly variable.  In California, it’s contributed to a massive amount of rainfall, setting off a “Superbloom” of flowers, just in time for Ostara!  This massive rain has even brought back Lake Manly, a rare lake in Death Valley (!) which last appeared around 20 years ago. 

Our spirituality brings us Ostara today – a great reminder that life returns after challenges, as well as a reminder of that every cool thing has to start, and it’s a great time to start new things.  Of course, our spherical planet also gives us the beautiful symmetry of the  Fall Equinox (& Mabon) being celebrated now by our Southern Hemisphere friends.  The moment of the Equinox is at 11:04 PM (EDT), Tuesday, March 19th, which means that for most of the planet, it’ll already be the 20th then, so we can celebrate which ever is appropriate for us.  Life will return!  Many of the online celebrations haven’t happened yet.  Check out the links here to join any of them.

Celebrations

Some of the ways many of us are celebrating were published a few weeks ago. My family will celebrate the Equinox Saturday, with the egg coloring and other traditions mentioned in the post just linked to.  We have found that leaving them in the dye in the cold garage over night deepens their color.  In whatever way you are celebrating, Happy Equinox!

This is an  updated version of the yearly Spring Equinox announcement.   An overview of the eight holidays of the Wheel of the Year, from a naturalistic perspective, is here.