by Naomi Nevill

Created on: June 09, 2008   Last Updated: June 12, 2008

The spring equinox is a time for celebration and whatever your religion or belief I think that this is a magical day that everyone can enjoy and hey, when have we needed any excuse to celebrate? It is also called the vernal equinox; vernal comes from the Latin word for bloom because of its rejuvenating appearance.

The spring equinox comes about the time of many traditional new-years in many countries around the world, they are celebrating various Gods and Goddesses. It is a very important pagan time of year. February, the solar month leading up to the spring equinox contains many festivals in preparation for the New Year, cleansing the earth of impurities to encourage rebirth and renewal. Festivals celebrating the equinox have been going on for tens-of- thousands of years.

Pagans call the coming of spring Ostara, after the Goddess of fertility. Ostara is the word from which Easter derived, this shows Easter's mythical, as well as Christian roots. The common Easter bunny and the colored egg both signify rebirth, the egg for hatching young and the rabbit for obvious reasons (I should hope).

Fire is normally present in these rituals, being used often for powerful cleansing and rebirth rituals, candle processions litter streets which look absolutely remarkable, some have floats, maypole-dancing and everything. People put candles about their homes to honor various gods. Milk and honey are also offered, milk coming from mothers to represent re-birth, honey from bees which represent a mass of life and fertility.

An equinox is when day and night are almost the same length (12 hours) this happens twice a year on the spring and autumnal equinox, the day of equilibrium. It is around the time of the Aurora Borealis (northen lights), Aurora is a dawn Goddess too, have fun if you're anywhere near that. It is traditional to drink dandelion and burdock near the spring equinox to help cleanse the blood and heal the body.

Festivals around this time include Alban Elfed and the Teutonic festival in honour of Eostre. Painting and dyeing eggs also derives from the celebration of the spring equinox. People also decorate their houses with flowers. According to legend, the egg will only balance on its end on the vernal equinox, have fun making scrambled egg that way!

There are many different ways to celebrate the spring equinox, they can vary from culture-to-culture or even from house-to-house, everyone has their own way of celebrating, it is also a very lucky day to give birth to all you expectant mothers. Happy Vernal Equinox! Not quite the same as Merry Christmas is it?

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