Easter in March…this bothers me immensely. Easter is such an April holiday; it doesn’t belong to the month of shamrocks. It should be situated among tulips, daisies, and lilies, perched atop pastel colored eggs, left to its own devices in its own month. I disagree with how things turned out this year, calendar, and I think you must fix this dilemma before 2017. End of rant.
Although Easter is a holiday with religious undertones, or overtones I should say, it was never such in my household as a child. Easter was a lot like Christmas, a dedicated day to family and gathering, a day to celebrate the present moment, a day to commemorate the innocence of childhood and beliefs in fantastical creatures like the Easter bunny, Santa Claus, and the tooth fairy. Easter morning entailed wicker baskets of chocolates and stuffed animals, both indoor and outdoor Easter egg hunts, and traditional dinners with my extended family. Holidays always provided an excuse to gather round, enjoy each other’s presence, and slow down from everyday life. The art of slow living at its finest.
Easter in Christianity is the resurrection of Jesus. March 25, the Christian feast of the Annunciation, is when the angel Gabriel announces to the Virgin Mary that she is to be the mother of Jesus, son of God. This relates closely with the Wiccan holiday of Ostara or Eostre. Spring begins March 21st, a time of life renewal, when day and night are equally balanced but moving in the direction of more light, more clarity. It is the time of marriage and when the Goddess conceives, correlating with “estrus,” where animals produce offspring and plants begin to bud. The symbol of eggs on Easter epitomizes the celebration of new life, reproduction. This is linked with Beltaine, on April 30th or May 1st, where people danced around the may pole, symbolizing male fertility. So whether a person celebrates the Wiccan or Christian version of the holiday, the theme of fertility remains.
This year, as I was looking through my favorite blogs, I stumbled across readingmytealeaves.com’s homemade Easter basket. I decided immediately that I absolutely had to create my own basket for Whit. The natural vegetable dyed eggs created beautiful pastel shades, and I loved the addition of seeds, again highlighting fertility. I dyed my own eggs based on her directions, trolled Wholefoods for organic seed packets, found linen napkins to add to our collection, and whipped up a sugar and honey facial scrub. I snuck in another calming scented candle from Paddywax Apothecary and finished it off with some fresh cut flowers. Who says Easter baskets are only for children?
Happy Easter!!