Eostre / Ostara | Who Was the Pagan Easter Goddess? 

Loved this! I always feel my research itch is settled once you make a video regarding a subject that is incredibly hard to find from being consumed under mounds of misinformation. I also loved the Slavic egg painting information you added in. I come from a Czech family and the painting/wax dripping of the eggs was always a tradition dear to my heart. I always knew it was an old tradition not really linked to the whole "Easter" holiday itself, but it was so incredible to learn even more about something so traditionally important to me. Wonderful work as alwasy!

I'm Polish, and painted eggs are part of our tradition as well. Symbols and colors of them were very symbolic. Afterwards eggs were eaten and eggshells were placed under the doorsteps of the house for protection.

Another thing about eggs to consider: originally during Lent Christians abstained from consuming all animal products (including eggs), alcohol and oil (this is still the way it's done in Eastern Christianity, but the practice died out in Western Christianity). But, of course, during Lent the chickens would continue to lay eggs, and eggs remain good and edible for a good amount of time. So when the Lenten fast was broken on Easter (or Pascha as it is known in most languages outside English), eggs would be plentiful and people would probably have eaten a lot of them.

I'm so proud of having Germanic & Celtic ancestry. I'm also a very proud Heathen 🐇🐰

Ocean the Reconstructive mythbuster

I've been digging into an equally unknown goddess in Circassian paganism named Khate Guashe (Хатэ-гуащэ) "Lady of the Garden", the goddess of flower fields, orchards and spring. Similarly, her holiday is vaguely in April (probably at the same time as Eostre) but there is no information about it beyond that young adults would convene at the fields during this holiday, pick flowers and gift each other bouquets. There obviously would be dancing, drinking and eating involved in the celebrations. Just another figure in another culture to consider. Also, thank you for making this video, it has definitely pointed me in new directions to continue my search 🙂

Pagan 👏Fertility 👏Icon 👏

The connection of Eostre with the dawn is super interesting, because Aurora's Greek counterpart is Eos. Eos...EOStara...

bunny? in Australia we have the Easter Bilby! a much cuter hippy hoppy rodent.

Algorithmic Cookies must be left in gratitude.

"keeper of odd knowledge" I hope one day to be described this way

Hiya Ocean Keltoi, this is a shot in the dark since I do not have legit sources to point to but, there is a goddess named Andraste that is associated with Queen Boudicca’s tribe, the Iceni. According to Roman historian Dio Cassius, that a hare was released from Boudicca’s gown as she delivered a speech about crushing the romans in battle and pleading Andraste for helping them in victory. So many neopagans associate the goddess of victory with the hare. This may come completely left field, I just thought the name sounded so similar to Eostre and of course the symbolism with the rabbits may also be an indicator. Great vid, love the research you put in all your videos!

You really outdid yourself in this one Ocean! Truly an Egg-Ceptional job........ I'll see myself out

The eggs you are referring to are called pysanky and they are made by a dyeing process similar to batik. Red is the chief color as that symbolizes the sun and warmth and when you freeze seven months out of the year, Spring is greatly appreciated. A common decorated motif on pysanky is the eight pointed star which is called the star of Ron, the creator god in the Slavic pantheon. Although creator, he is not supreme--that would be Perun who is similar to Thor. Pysanky are exchanged as talismans of fertility and protection with some hung in barns.

Ostara seems to be an interesting yet unknown goddess, The morning is my favourite time of the Day, it's the bright and fresh beginning of a new day full of possibilities. Nonetheless in the Southern hemisphere, we're closer to autumn than we are to spring.

I just love everything about this. The nuance, the humour, the sources, the puns… great stuff, great channel.

Always a pleasure 🐇🐇🐇🐇🐇

Another awesome video, Ocean. I love how you handle Anglo-Saxon topics and sources very respectfully, when it seems many Norse Heathens like to brush them away, calling into question anything written by Bede. Thank you also for the mention of my blog (Mine Wyrtruman) in the description of the video!

I wish Anglo-Saxon heathens left more for us to learn. Although it's directly related to germanic and Norse so things can be derived. Cultural education is my favorite, learning where we come from and how they lived. I'm a mutt, mix of German, Norwegian, French, Welsh and Irish. Lot to educate on. Your channel has been very helpful

"off by a hare"....good one! Loved it

Egypt's Sham Ennessim is a modern and ancient Egyptian spring holiday that today is celebrated Muslims and Christians alike in Egypt. BOTH MUSLIMS & CHRISTIANS COLOR EGGS for the holiday. The egg coloring has never been critiqued as a colonial import from Europe which indicates it has pre-Coptic Christian roots in Ancient Egypt.

Okay, rabbits lay Cadbury eggs though right? 😆 Edit:. I know what you meant. Great video though, and I love your humor.

From what I understand of the Ukrainian tradition of painting eggs, the mythology states that there is a great wolf bound in chains that once it breaks free will devour the earth, and that when an egg is painted for Easter it adds another link to the wolf's chain, thus as long as the tradition continues the world will be safe.

The first time, each spring, that we find the chickens have found a comfortable place to lay a clutch of eggs outside the coop, we have a feast to celebrate. This is the signal that Eostre has declared Spring officially under way. The grandchildren search for egg clutches all summer because we free range the chickens. This is of course, great practice for searching for hidden candies as a celebration for the kids.

Disliked for the algorithm, liked for the tally. Glad you’re finding time to be more active again. Another video to rewatch again and again, provoking endless rabbit-holes of productive thought!

Definitely did not know about math rabbit, but it was hilarious nonetheless lol.

It always makes me sad to see that so much about some deities has been lost to the sands of time.

Honestly I don't have the patience necessarily to do full reconstructions like what is discussed here, and lean slightly more eclectic when I need to make choices for myself (this double dips in the fact that Mani is so personal to me but we have so incredibly little about him or his ASH counterpart Mona). But sitting and listening to the history and potential ideas, as well as being supplied sources and other paths to chase down is precisely why I so voraciously consume this content. Seeing the sources so faithfully laid out gives me a path to tread to make my own eclectic decisions rooted in as much history as I can manage. And that is so unbelievably helpful and special.

I think while frustrating, it would be cool to see more pointers for reconstruction in future videos!

it seems worth mentioning that Bennu laid a single egg, from which Ra was born.

Mushroom hunting, the eggs are mushroom hunting

So interesting to view her as a deity of dawn. As a practitioner the works with Norse and Slavic deities (mostly Slavic) I always see many similarities between the two. One of the deities I work with from the Slavic pantheon is Zorya which is a goddess with 2 (or potentially 3, no one can confirm or deny as there are no records) aspects, being the dawn, dusk and potentially Venus (as the “morning star”). I see a lot of similarities between vada and zorya in Slavic practices and Eostre and Freyja in the Norse/Germanic region.

Easter ,this year, is definitely going to be quite different... This has helped, immeasurably...thank you for sharing this moment... I will now watch this again, with notebook in hand and scribe away for sharing with family , that is " still in their Christian grasp!!!" LOL!!! Thanks 👍!

So much love for this channel Ocean. Keep creating great content!

For the Algorithm! And Math Rabbit!🐇👔💖

More eostre in this video than in the 2h eostre podcast 😁

Bunny eggs... 😀🤭 The only logical way to fix that is to introduce the Easter chicken!

Fantastic video as always. Your and Sigrún's research on Eostre have been very enlightening! It's fascinating that those who were so opposed to paganism have given us records for things almost fully lost to time. I can agree that both damning and appreciating Bede is a good approach. Give Calcifer good head pats for his work on this script!

In Flanders (Belgium) where I’m from, we also have a tradition of painting eggs and an easter bunny around easter. Could be a remnant of an old Ostara tradition.

The tradition of painted chicken eggs cannot be more ancient than the time when chickens were introduced to the Near East and Europe from Southeast Asia, where they were bred from jungle fowl. Chickens were probably brought west via the Silk Road Maybe the ancients used the eggs of wild ducks and geese?

Thanks! Recently learned she is one of my guides. As always you are incredibly insightful and so well spoken it's a privilege to watch you, and feel the inspiration in every story. The Devine accidents that are now obvious. 💜💙

Loved the hare pun!

This was excellent. Thank you so much for putting it together

Once again an awesome video brother! I love how the generation of heathens after mine has improved the foundations of the Northern Tradition!

Great video! Very well researched.

Another great video Ocean!

Me starting every one of Ocean's videos: Don't do it man! Cmon! Don't do the pun! N.. nuh uh! Bro!

This is such an interesting video! I love this Ocean!

Another amazing video! I am digging into research of Flora so that was amazing to see her mentioned in this video!

This is fascinating!

Loved this video!

Fantastic video! Thank you. I love to hear the possible histories of different belief structures. This is one of my favourites to hear about.

Math rabbit

Thank you for the awesome video as always.

Wildly frustrating and incredibly informative as always. Greatly appreciate all your videos!

i just found your channel, really glad I did! been looking for a great, engaging pagan historian, thank you for your work!

Wonderful conversation!

Great video again! Wery interesting topic. 10/10

Id still keep bunnies and hares in my traditions, never really when with historical practises personally tho its useally inspired by them.

Thank you great videos. I really enjoy your channel.

Keep up the good work and research. Love the puns... Thank you for your channel and interesting videos

This is my first time on your channel, and I just want to thank you for sticking to the real facts. I see too many people quote the protestant Alexander Hislop, who made up a connection between Eostre and Ishtar and I keep having to explain to them that they're not related

I love the research that you put into your videos

Extremely helpful. Thank you for all the information. 😍🥰

Thanks for the interesting video today. Happy Spring Holidays. ✌

Given the rarity of Rabbit eggs, and the need for ordinary Pagans to practice the rites at home, a kindly Pagan theologian proposed than any convenient egg would do. Planting an egg to fertilize a field was farming Magicka in many cultures.

I sincerely appreciated your critical perspective and the context you give. great presentation. do t know who you are but you have a sub for now. cheers

Why am i subbed to you...these puns are going to kill me

I was so annoyed by the hare pun! Also, loved it.

Lol really like the intro man good play on words.

7:23 To add some of the litte we know about Hretha: Hretha = Hertha = Nerthus = Jörd = Earth Here are some quotes from my notes on her (note that these have been auto translated): Hertha. The main goddess of the ancient Germanic tribes, also called Jörd. She later became identical with Frigga, wife of Odin, mother of Thor. As a Germanic tribal goddess, she was worshipped in sacred groves, and her lake is still shown to travelers on the island of Rügen. She had a mysterious cult; at times the priests drove her through the country in a covered wagon, in front of which two young cows were harnessed, then a time of joy occurred, all work rested, the sound of weapons fell silent, and with festive pomp the goddess was greeted and celebrated everywhere. Hertha is also said to have been worshipped in Zealand, on Helgoland and in a grove near Querfurt. Source: Damen Conversations Lexikon, vol. 5. [o.O.] 1835, pp. 272-273. Hertha (Norse mythology) was the goddess of the earth among the ancient Germans, and was honored by them in a very special way. A special festival was also consecrated to her, on which her image was led around on a chariot drawn by two cows, accompanied by her priests. Source: Brockhaus Conversations-Lexikon Vol. 7, Amsterdam 1809, p. 447. Nerthus (German. M.). Tacitus in his Germania says the following about a deity whose name, according to the now improved texts, was called N., not, as was generally assumed, Hertha: "Of the Angles and some other tribes there is nothing memorable to report, except that they generally worship N., i.e. Mother Earth, and believe that she intervenes in human affairs and visits the peoples. There is a sacred grove on an island in the ocean, and in it there is a consecrated chariot, covered with a carpet, which only a priest may touch. This priest perceives when the goddess enters the sanctuary, and devotionally accompanies her when she goes out drawn by cows. The days are then joyful, and every place is festively decorated which she honors with her arrival and her hospitable visit. No one starts war or takes up arms until the same priest leads the goddess, satiated by the intercourse with mortals, back to her temple. Then the chariot and the robes, and (believe this who can!) the deity herself, are washed in a hidden lake. Slaves perform the service, and they are immediately swallowed up by the same lake. Hence a secret horror and a sacred ignorance of what it is that only those consecrated to death behold." It is generally believed that this goddess is one with the Norse ⇒ Jörd. Source: Vollmer, Wilhelm: Wörterbuch der Mythologie. Stuttgart 1874, p. 346.

Thanks!

Excellent video! Will be leaving a recommendation, and a link to your video on my channel's Ostara 2024 video this morning.

The same type of egggs you find in Romania as well, they are painted with hot wax . On eggs, the vertical straight line means life, the horizontal straight line - death, the double straight line - eternity, the line with rectangles - thought and knowledge, the wavy line - water, purification, spiral - time, eternity. Maybe the Dacians , romanian ancestors or the romans , who came after brought this tradition as well, is very old.

Ah yes, gotta love it

Thanks man your channel has been really useful for me and if you have social media would we be able to talk further?

Another amazing and informative video just in time for spring. If I might make a polite suggestion? Please consider doing a video on the landvaettir/husvaettir, I hate having to rely on Wisdom of Odin for practical advice regarding them.

Pisanki, the “painted” Slavic eggs you referred to, have a lot of folk customs associated with them. Some of the designs have associated magical meanings to them, such as a Ram design given to a woman will help her get pregnant. The eggs are also often times not blown out, leaving a dried up egg inside that rattles around, representing thunder. Another lovely jewel from Slavic culture is the Easter bread, which often is very phallic in shape and typically the tip is frosted.

I love your beginning-of-video puns.

Love your videos, learn a lot from them. I was wondering if you’d do a video on Surt the Fire Giant of Muspelheim? It’s kind of hard to find videos going into detail on him from either historical analysis or paganism analysis (Not sure if i worded this correctly). Again, love your videos.

Yearly revisit of the video. Happy Ostara all.

I've always found it interesting that in several christian groups, the desire to return to more 'authentic' I.e. biblical celebration is prevalent. We want to return the pagan celebrations to the pagans as is their right

Good Thorsday Thanks much BroThor

I absolutely need to know more about Hretha. That’s basically my name and my was born in her festival month! I love that!

I love HOPing in on your videos.

"Helped?" hahaha Well it was an interesting subject! As far as practice I've come to the point where I don't even claim historic anything...I just say "This is how its been done since the pagan revival." Which honestly is good enough for me. I mean religions grow and evolve and aren't static. Shouldn't be static! I think its fine for the Volk to do it how they please today. The Druids to do their thing how they please today. Even the Welsh who use Lolo Morganwg's system from the 1700s...is totally legit. I mean we don't try to practice dark age medicine...why try putting our religions in that box? Older isn't necessarily better.

If anyone is interested, I have a short video on my channel talking about the most probable origins of various Easter traditions (I'm very proud of it, so I couldn't not self-advertise lol). Most of what I say about Eostre/Ostara is covered here, but I hone in on a few different things, and also discuss some other Pagan associations some people have made claims about!

The only eggs I like are chocolate ones

Lol I feel the same thing about “we don’t know”. It’s exciting/mysterious and also disheartening.

More on this topic from a little different point of view: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-56y6WaEIMZI.html

Those are some beautiful eggs!

While for spiritual and historical reasons I hope we always preserve everything we have about these traditions and wisdom, I personally love the admixture of various cultural artifacts into different new traditions, it's what humans have always done. I don't understand the currently popular arguments about "cultural appropriation."

Always fantastic

That pun was so good that I felt physical pain

The eggs are symbolic of Fertility, and the GodDess birthing the "World Egg".

excellent pun :D

Lol! You answered my question about the GodDess and the Hare!

I'm jealous for this hare as a germanic symbol of spring and the sacred animal of Eostre. We Balto-Finnic have only Sampsa Pellervoinen, or Pellonpekko (Peko the fieldman), who literally is a p _ n _ s deity (yeah, he’s entirely this genital and this pody part somehow symbolizes spring but don't ask why, because I don't understand either). And every spring this Peko god should be awakened with the love spell and beer sacrifices so that this would be able to seed all the plants over the world. As the bringer of spring, Peko is the god of grain, but in addition to the goddess Osmotar, he is also the god of beer and always drung. So compared to this, the Easter bunny is better.

Even with how little we know about Hretha, I think it's worth considering that since she has no apparent Germanic cognates, she may have a Roman or Celtic one. Given the way she is described, what her name means, and the association of her with the month of March and the fierce winds it brings, she may have begun as a local cult of Bellona - the church of St. Peter in York is built on an old Roman temple to Bellona. But she might equally have closer origins in Celtic belief - if she was a Celtic war goddess associated with Mars, she may have been like the Irish Morrigans, the Scottish Scathach, or the Welsh Aerfen. March is the time of the vernal equinox, but also hosts the Saint's Day of St. David, patron saint of Wales, which feels auspicious - the patron saint of the people the Britons became. Either way, although paganism was banned in Britannia by Rome that doesn't mean paganism ended - the last Ancient Egyptian temple, Philae, was closed barely twenty years after the Romans pulled out their legions and as the Roman political and ecclesiastical bureaucracy crumbled pagan beliefs, either local Celtic or exported Roman, likely continued among the lower classes, and as the Briton elites were forced west, taking what remained of Roman Christianity with them, or remained in the east and adopted Germanic names, styles and culture, those beliefs in the east blended with Germanic beliefs brought by the Anglo-Saxons - Hretha may simply be a Germanic epithet for a Romano-Celtic goddess whose worship survived just long enough for Bede to write what he or his society at the time remembered down. I'm not an expert, and haven't read enough to actually stand by this, but I still think it's worth considering until someone more well-read tells me why it's a bunch of bunk.

The egg thing could have something to do with the exploration done by Slavic pagans, the runes in the Middle East “half fan was here” for example. Maybe they saw this tradition and integrated it as part of their religion as a connection with eostre but then that’s just the musings of a high ass Canadian pagan in plaid