Easter or Ostara? Which should you celebrate as a Christian Witch?
It is sometimes said in pagan circles that Easter is a holiday that Christians have stolen from pagan traditions. Even some Christians don’t participate in activities such as egg hunts because they believe they come from ancient pagan practices worshipping the goddess Eostre (Ostara). Let’s get down to the actual history, shall we?
Did Easter come from a pagan holiday?
There is VERY little evidence of the goddess Ostara. No shrines or ancient writings refer to her. The only mention of Eostre is in the writings of Bede. Jacob Grimm believed Bede that there was such a goddess and names her Ostara. Stephen Winkick writes: “It’s impossible to tell if Ostara as a goddess ever existed outside Grimm’s proposal. As for Eostre, there’s no evidence of her worship except in Bede’s book, and possibly in place names (which could, however, just mean “east”).” Source
“So in sum, Eostre was worshiped in England before Bede’s time, in the 600s—if she ever was worshiped at all. Ostara was invented in 1835 as a possible but unproven German version of Eostre. Finally, the connection between Ostara and a hare wasn’t made until 1874, as a way to make sense of an already popular Easter Bunny tradition.” Stephen Winick, “On the Bunny Trail” Folklife Today