Oestara 2025

Last Thursday (20th March) it was Oestara, (more commonly known as Ostara), aka the Spring Equinox. My main celebration for this sabbat is baking and this year I made carrot cake bars with vanilla cream cheese frosting. The recipe is from Simply Taralynn: https://simplytaralynn.com/2025/02/12/carrot-cake-bars-with-vanilla-cream-cheese-frosting/

They were quite nice. Here's a pic:

Taken before I cut them into bars!

 

I could have mixed the frosting a bit more but never mind! I realised afterwards that I'd forgotten to get mini eggs to put on the top (I normally do that with whatever I bake for Oestara, since eggs are associated with spring). I thought that carrot cake fit the spring theme anyway.

But the next day I bought some Cadbury Mini Eggs and put them on belatedly, lol. There was still quite a lot of cake left.

In the evening, I went to the park for sunset (something I like to do for the festivals during the warmer months, or soon to be warmer months!). It was a nice sunset.  Here are a couple of photos: 

Sunset in Buckingham Park, Shoreham-by-sea.

It was good to go to the park. I last went for Imbolg.

So now we're "officially" in spring! It's felt like a long winter this year. Although we didn't get much snow in Sussex (nothing in my area!), it's been really cold at times. It did warm up a bit, then went colder. At the moment it's gone warmer again, about 12C (52F) and 8C (46F) at night. But it's only been in the past few days that it's really felt warmer to me and like spring is starting.

Today it's 5 years since we first went into lockdown due to the pandemic! It feels weird that it's now been that long and thinking back to what it was like then. As I said in last year's Oestara post, I'd written about a potential lockdown situation in my Oestara + Spring Inspiraton post. And then we went into it on 23rd March (in the UK) which was when I wrote my Oestara 2020 post. I'd written it just before the announcement was made.

Easter is later this year; Easter Sunday is 20th April. The carrot cake bars would be good to make for it and I'll also share a couple of other recipes below. :)

The next sabbat will be Beltane on 30th April/1st May. I'll do a post about my celebrations nearer the time. I'll also write my winter-spring update next month. 

Hope you had a good Oestara/Spring Equinox and Happy Spring! (Or hope you had a good Madron/Mabon/Autumn Equinox and Happy Autumn!) :)

 

P.S. For some spring/Easter inspiration, check out these links (or visit last year's Easing into Autumn post for autumn inspo): 

Easing into Spring (my post from last year): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2024/03/easing-into-spring.html

Ways to Celebrate Spring (Homespun Seasonal Living): https://homespunseasonalliving.com/celebrate-spring/

 

Update 26/3/25: Added a couple more links:

Carrot cake recipes for Easter/spring:  

Carrot cake cupcakes that I baked for Oestara last year (Love and Lemons):  https://www.loveandlemons.com/carrot-cake-cupcakes/

Egg free carrot cake with cream cheese frosting: https://www.lifeatcobblehillfarm.com/2025/03/egg-free-carrot-cake-with-cream-cheese.html

Carrot cake sourdough quick bread: https://heartscontentfarmhouse.com/carrot-cake-sourdough-quick-bread/

And if you can't have gluten, here's a recipe for gluten-free carrot cake cupcakes: https://thehumbledhomemaker.com/gluten-free-carrot-cake-cupcakes/