Plant plants. Depending on where you live, this may or may not be a good time to plant plants outside. You can also start seeds inside if it’s too cold outside to plant anything yet.
Dye eggs. Eggs have been a symbol of death and rebirth for over 60,000 years. However, dying them is one of the few traditions that do have Christian origins. It was the early Christians in Mesopotamia that dyed eggs red to symbolize Christ’s blood. Though there are a few sources that link it to Germanic Pagan practices as well. Either way, you can still enjoy dying eggs. There are many online tutorials explaining natural dying methods, or you can get a kit from the store.
Have an egg hunt. Whether it’s plastic eggs with toys or candy inside or actual eggs, this can be a lot of fun, especially with kids.
Balance an egg. I know that this seems weird, but it can be done! Supposedly this is one of two days a year where this is possible.
Go for a walk outside. No matter what climate you live in, this is a great way to connect with nature and whatever Ostara feels like where you live.
Decorate your home or altar with flowers. Flowers are another symbol of the fertility of the season.
Go flower picking. Many areas have flowers that grow naturally. Go for a walk and find them!
Make flower crowns or necklaces.
Make foods related to the time of year. Make and eat foods with eggs, baby greens, veal, rabbit, or any foods that are in season for you right now.
Plan a garden. This is a great time to plan a garden, unless the planting season has already begun.
Decorate a tree with wooden painted eggs. Many people decorate outside trees with plastic eggs, but wooden eggs are an environmentally friendly alternative.
Decorate your home with symbols of new life. Bunnies, chicks, baby animals, seedlings, flowers are all fun things to decorate your home with.
Have some intimate time. Fertility is a big part of this holiday, though there are some superstitious people who don’t do it during this unless they’re trying to conceive.
Bake. Challa, hot cross buns, bunny or egg shaped cookies are all things that are appropriate for this season.
Read stories about the season. Read about the Green Man or Persophone. There are many stories about this time of year.
Do animal magic. This can be anything from pretending to be an animal with young kids to doing actual shamanic work.
Go bird watching. Birds tend to be more active this time of year. You may want to learn some nice calls as well.
Dance. Find some music and let yourself go!
Do an Ostara ritual. One of these days I will get around to writing some rituals for each sabbat. When I do that, I will post the link here.
Dress in new clothes. This is an old custom for this time of year.
Lughnasadh (the three most common pronunciations are; loo-NAS-suh, LOO-nah-sod, or loo-NESS-uh) takes place on August 1st in the northern hemisphere and February 1st in the southern hemisphere. This is my explanation of this holiday. It may or may not work for you and your path. There are a number of things that this Sabbat usually celebrates:
Fertility (in plants, animals, and humans)
The first harvest
Honor the God Lugh
Honor any other deities related to the harvest (there are many)
Some ways of celebrating culturally are:
Creating a feast with harvest foods
Baking bread
Making jelly or jam
Making tomato sauce
Preserving food (canning, jarring, etc.)
Going on a picnic
Going for a hike
Singing
Playing games, especially outdoor games
Plan a BBQ with seasonal foods
Make crafts using corn and corn husks
Some ritual ideas are:
Imbibe food with intention or energy and eat it
Make sacrifices to the local land wights, fae, or whatever else you believe in
I am part of a lot of Wicca groups on Facebook. Almost daily we get someone who is new and wants to know about Wicca or Paganism asking what they need to do. Some also ask for a teacher. Almost 100% of the people who respond to those posts send them a book list to read. There are tons of people who do not learn that way and could use a teacher. Admittedly, people are going to have to read this, but I’m not giving you full books to read. These are my recommendations for people who are new and want to learn more.
Figure out what you believe. Is there a specific pantheon you are interested in? Are you interested in a specific type of Wicca? Figure out which deities you want to worship.
How would you like to worship?
Are you light, dark, or grey? Are you interested in only good deities and harming none? Are you interested in being in the middle because nature isn’t just light? Are you interested in dark imagery and exploring the darker side of you?
Are all of these questions too much or too specific for you? Here are some good ways to get started in Wicca. There are other types of Paganism out there worth looking into as well, in case you decide Wicca isn’t right for you.
Look into different Gods and Goddesses to see which ones resonate with you.
Connect with like-minded people. Find others near you. There are a number of groups on Facebook. Join them and see if there is anyone who lives near you. Check meetup to see if there is a local group. See if there are any metaphysical shops near you. They may offer classes or at least may connect you with any groups in the area. See if there is a Pagan Pride Day near you. Attend and make some friends!
Don’t agree with my assessments about the Elements, Sabbats and Esbats, altar tools and setup, or how to create a Circle? That’s great! That means you have an opinion on how something works and that will help you better find the path that’s right for you. There is no right way to worship in Wicca. Find what works for you and do it!
Several of you may have noticed that I didn’t mention divination (like tarot cards, pendulums, runes, etc.) or spells. Wicca is a religion. While many people who believe in Pagan religions may cast spells or read tarot cards, they are not a part of the religion. There are people who do divination and cast spells that are not religious and there are people that worship in this religion without doing divination and casting spells. For those who are interested, I will include articles about those in the future.
A final note about meeting Wiccans in real life. Because this is more of a “do-it-yourself” religion than book religions, we often end up with a lot of the people that are no longer welcome in churches, a synagogues, or mosques for a variety of reasons that then choose Paganism. There are some socially awkward people, some flaky people, and some toxic people. If you see any red flags, avoid those who display them. However, there are some truly wonderful Pagans out there, so don’t let that deter you from finding your tribe!
I have mentioned before that I am working on starting family traditions while my son is still young. He’s 16 months old, so I figured now is the perfect time to figure all of this out. My husband and I both want to celebrate Yule, but our families both celebrate Christmas. In no other religion that I know of do you have to create new traditions when you join. One of the things I love about being an Eclectic Pagan is is that I take whatever works from whatever religion I like. I like it because there are so many good things in so many religions worth “stealing”. However, when it comes to figuring out how to celebrate holidays, it makes things tough.
My husband and I had the “Santa Claus” talk. I was in favor of telling not telling our son about Santa, he wasn’t. His argument had nothing to do with “the truth” or getting to participate in the “magic” of it and everything to do with how our son wouldn’t know about Santa when he entered school. Because of this, I started researching some options for our family. Here are some options of Santa Claus alternatives for Pagan kids.
A depiction of the Holly King
The Holly King – In Celtic traditions, there is a story of the Oak King and the Holly King. The Holly King rules the cold part of the year with the height of his power being at Yule. At the equinoxes, the power switches hands. The Holly King also looks quite a bit like Santa Claus.
Mother Berchta – She rides her goat with a sack on her back full of foods. She goes to houses, roasts the goat and gives the food. The bones go back in the bag and out jumps the goat good as new! One time a child purposely broke one of the goat’s bones and she put the child in the bag and took then away. So now she brings gifts to good kids and takes the bad ones.
Odin – Odin had a lot of characteristics of what we think of as Santa Claus now. His name in Old Norse even has the first syllable of “Jul” ( pronounced Yule in English).
Odin on Sleipnir
The Yule Lads – It’s a Scandinavian tradition (in Scandinavia, they still call Christmas, Jul) where the kids leave their shoe on the windowsill for the last 13 nights before Yule. If they were good, they get a treat. If not, they get a rotten potato.
A depiction of some of the Yule Lads on a Scandinavian milk carton
This is also a great article about some lesser-known festive traditions!
What does your family do? Tell us in the comments below!
The Sabbats are the eight Pagan holidays related to the passage of the sun, which is sometimes personified as a God. A lot of Wiccans have a story of how the God is born at Yule, grows to manhood, impregnates the Goddess at Beltane, and dies at Samhain only to be reborn again at Yule. Because they are based on the Sun, they mostly occur at the same time in the calendar year.
I am slowly including posts for each Sabbat. Each post goes into what is celebrated at each Sabbat, ways to culturally celebrate, and some suggestions for rituals at each.
The Esbats are the 12-13 Pagan holidays related to the passage of the moon. They usually coincide with the new moon or the full moon. The moon is often personified as a Goddess. Because women’s bodies (mostly) change on a 28-day cycle, the moon is often associated with females. When I have finished with the posts for the Sabbats, I will then focus on the Esbats.
Title: The Simple Sabbat – A Family Friendly Approach to the Eight Pagan Holidays
Author: M. Flora Peterson
Pages: 154
The first 22 pages were filled with information about the author, table of contents, dedication, prologue, and introduction.
The first chapter of 2 pages explains the wheel of the year. Chapter 2 delves into ritual circle formats. It offers a family-friendly version of rituals.
The remaining chapters are on the Sabbats. Each Sabbat offers the following sections: time, meaning of the season, God, Goddess, colors, altar, activities, an incense recipe, an oil recipe, a food recipe, a ritual, and sometimes a craft. There are also a few pages for notes at the end of each chapter.
The book really ends on page 138, but there are several pages about the author’s other books.
Verdict: 7/10 – I liked a lot of the activity ideas. There were a lot of references to her YouTube channel (probably too many references) for craft ideas and more recipes. Many of the rituals weren’t terribly family friendly. I guess it depends how old your kids are. I would have liked to see more ways to involve your family in ritual. There was also just one to two sentences describing the purpose of each holiday. If I were a beginner, I would have liked more information.
I also tried the recipe for skull bread. They tried to make it accessible for vegans or those with allergies, but mine didn’t taste or look very good, despite my baking experience.
Ostara is usually celebrated on the spring equinox. It’s usually pronounced “oh-star-ah”. This is my explanation of this holiday. It may or may not work for you and your path. There are a number of things that this Sabbat usually celebrates.
Balance
The coming of spring
Baby animals being born
The continued return of the sun
Honor the Green Man
Honor the return of Persephone
Fertility
Here are some ways that I and others celebrate it culturally.
Dying eggs
Balancing an egg (I have managed to do it on the equinox)
Plant plants
Go outside for a walk
Make and eat foods with eggs, baby greens, veal, rabbit, or any foods that are in season for you right now.
Decorate your altar and home with local flowers (if there are any yet)
Read stories about the Green Man or Persephone
Here are some ideas for Ostara rituals
Balance within yourself
Plant a plant and inbibe it with intentions for the coming year
Finding and celebrating your inner child
Honoring the Green Man and/or Persephone
Honor the returning of the sun
A fertility ritual (whether for the fertility of your garden or if you are trying to have a baby)
Decorate an egg with symbols full of intentions for the coming year
Go outside and connect and ground with the grass or a tree (weather depending)
Imbolg (pronounced phonetically) is also referred to as Imbolc. It is a mid-winter holiday celebrated on February 1-2 in the northern hemisphere or August 1-2 in the southern hemisphere. It seems to be the least practiced and least understood of the sabbats. Imbolg celebrates the following:
halfway point through the winter
the sun starting to return
ewes and goats starting to produce milk again
some signs of spring returning (depending on where you live)
some people call it Brigid’s Day and honor her
Here are some ways that I and other people I know celebrate this holiday culturally:
lighting candles
clean your home
cleanse your home
do guided meditations
do inner work
make crafts
unplug all electronics for the day
light your home by candlelight for the night
make and eat foods made with milk and dairy products
read books to improve your spiritual knowledge
feed animals who might be struggling through the winter
take a walk in the snow (if your locale permits)
create a corn dolly
create a protective sigil
de-clutter your home
Here are some ideas for Imbolg rituals:
Call for the return of the sun
Bless holiday-appropriate foods and eat them
Meditation
Inner work
Honor the Goddess Brigid
Cleanse your ritual tools
Protection spells
Please remember that your celebration and ritual can be as simple or complex as you want and have time for. How do you celebrate Imbolg?
Yule is on the winter solstice. It is probably the most iconic and most celebrated Pagan holiday. It you look at modern Christmas celebrations and take out all of the God and Jesus references, you’ll pretty much be left with Yule. In fact, in most Scandinavian countries, Christmas is still called Jul (pronounced Yule). Here is a list of things that are traditionally celebrated during Yule:
The longest night of the year
Rebirth
Starting over
Welcoming back the sun (the morning after)
Having enough food to get through the winter months
Here are some ways it can be celebrated culturally:
Create and light a Yule log
Decorate your altar or home with evergreens
Baking
Making resolutions
Ringing bells
Singing carols
Giving gifts
Giving to and helping the less fortunate
Spending time with family
Cooking or eating a feast.
Staying up all night
Ring in the dawn with bells
Go wassailing (responsibly, please)
Decorate a Yule tree
Some ritual ideas for Yule are:
Meditation
Inner work
New beginnings
Dedicating oneself to a path or course of study
Welcoming back the sun
Cleansing
Snow magic
Anything you want to manifest in the coming year
Some other notable celebrations at this time of year.
Jolabokaflod – On the evening of December 24th in Iceland, people give gifts of a book, chocolate, and pajamas. They spend the evening in bed, reading, and eating chocolate.
Twelfth Night – On the 12th night after Yule there used to be a big feast. Today this usually corresponds with New Years.
