Oestara 2023

Last Monday (20th March) it was Oestara (more commonly called Ostara) aka the Spring Equinox. As I said in my Celebrating Oestara! post, I usually bake for this sabbat (or "no-bake" sometimes!). This year I made spicy carrot cake cupcakes using this recipe from Natalie Mason: https://natalie-mason.com/2011/03/spicy-carrot-cake-cupcakes.html

They have a cream cheese icing. You can make a big cake or cupcakes, and I decided to go with the cupcakes. They were quite nice. I've made carrot, zucchini and apple muffins before (Don't Waste the Crumbs recipe) and they didn't come out that well, but the carrot blended in nicely with these cakes. I've also made chocolate zucchini (courgette) cupcakes several times and really like those.

I'd planned to put Cadbury Mini Eggs on the top to fit the spring theme, but they were sold out in the supermarket, so I got Smarties Mini Eggs instead. Here's a pic:

 

 

Celebrating Oestara!

It's almost time for Oestara (more commonly known as Ostara) aka the Spring Equinox! This year it's on Monday 20th March. 

Note: For those in the Southern Hemisphere it's nearly time for Madron/Mabon aka the Autumn Equinox. You might like these posts:

 Madron Round-up + Autumn Baking: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2021/09/madron-round-up-autumn-baking.html

Celebrating Madron!: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2022/09/happy-madron.html

 

For the past few years, I've written posts sharing celebration ideas for the sabbats and last year I did a post rounding them up. During 2022 I also started writing a series of posts sharing some ideas and inspiration for celebrating and links to other sites, rather than in-depth posts and have continued that into 2023. As I said in my Yule 2022 one, I feel that I've pretty much covered them all now, since each festival has several posts. 

This Oestara post completes my current round of sabbat ones (which I started last Beltane), so going forward I will probably just write about my celebrations and maybe write short posts before the sabbats. I do appreciate everyone who has read them and plan to continue blogging about seasonal festivals here. I just don't want to keep rehashing the same thing. :) (As with my most recent Madron post, I've previously written a post called Happy Oestara!, so that's why this title is a bit different.)

Oestara (often spelt as "Ostara" but I first heard about it with the alternative spelling) is the 2nd of 3 spring festivals in the Wheel of the Year, coming after Imbolg/Imbolc (which marks the transition from winter to spring) at the start of February and before Beltane (mid-spring) in late April/early May. It's also the Spring Equinox, which is often seen as the "official" start of spring. 

The Spring Equinox is an astrological event where day and night are fairly equal, due to the position of the Earth moving around the sun. It's the opposite to the Autumn Equinox (also known as Madron/Mabon) in September. After this time the days will continue to get longer until the Summer Solstice (known as Litha to some pagans). I wrote a bit about it in my 2019 Oestara Celebration Ideas post.