#easter is based on ostara

[arwendeluhtiene]

Happy Ostara/Easter/belated Spring Equinox 😊🌸🌿 🐰🥚🍫! . ✨Valar and Valier series (late 2000s)✨ - 🌳🌿Yavanna Kementári🌿🌳 Initial practice sketch, the final painting and a couple of details. . I now prefer to headcanon Yavanna as dark-skinned, but I quite like how this watercolour turned out - especially the gradation of the different greens in the dress and mantle, and the trees in the background. I also love Alan Lee's original drawing on which this painting is based 🌿💚 (swipe for the comparison! Original is black and white, coloured by me as a guide for the painting). . Some years ago I started a 'Valar and Valier' project in which I took an existing painting/drawing as reference/inspiration to draw/paint one of the Valar. So far, I've done Varda, Yavanna, Nienna, Mandos and Aulë, and I also have some sketches of Nessa, Vána and Estë. Hope to get back to this project sometime! . . 🎨Media: Graphite, watercolours, inks, ink wash . 🌱References: Alan Lee's drawing of the Celtic fae Ladies of the Land of the Young, for the book Faeries.

🎨ArtStation

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🎨 DeviantArt

[hearthandheathenry]

All About Ostara

In this context, Ostara is simply the name for the modern pagan celebration of the spring equinox, celebrated in the Northern Hemisphere around March 19th, or by some on the first full moon after the spring equinox. It is considered a Germanic holiday, but we'll talk a little about the different Goddesses associated with the holiday Ostara, as well as the history and where we're at today with our findings.

Unfortunately, there is not much historical text about the holiday Ostara or the associated ancient holiday Eostre, with the earliest known text being from an English monk from the 7th century, Venerable Bede. In his texts, he states that the rough equivalent of the month of April was dedicated to the Goddess Eostre and called Eosturmonath, but that was about all it mentioned.

Monks like Bede back in the day had orders to Christianize pagan traditions in order to slowly convert pagans to Christianity in the least-resistant way, which often meant adopting their festival dates, names of feasts, and whatnot, which was the purpose of mentioning this holiday in his texts in the first place.

Back in the day, the written reoccurant date of Easter had been debated since it began, as the Ressurection date was hard to nail down. Everyone just knew it happened in spring, so different regions celebrated it at different times. But, scholars believe the Christian church most likely saw that there were date overlaps in pagan celebrations, the Ressurection, and Passover as well, and decided to announce Easter Sunday would always fall on the sunday after the first full moon of the spring equinox, following popular pagan lunar traditions. They also adopted the new name from Eostre, cleverly combining the current pagan celebrations around rebirth and the sun into their own holiday traditions, in order to convert people to their religion, while also uniting their own people to celebrate on one date.

Although at one point these were all different celebrations, the Christian church did a very good job of combining and converting the pagan celebrations into their own, enmeshing them for life in history books and making it hard for modern day scholars to distinguish the origins of the pagan holidays seperate from the Christian church's.

After that, the next set of text with a reference to the holiday Ostara or Eostre came over a thousand years later during the Romantic period in 1835, by one of the Grimm brothers, Jacob, while he talked about mythology. In his work, he bridged Eostre with it's Germanic counterpart, Ostera or "Easter" as we know it today, and with the Goddess Ostara. In medieval Germany, they celebrated Ostarun in the month of Ostarmanoth, which gave way to the modern feast of Ostern ("Easter") today. He used these overlaps and more to claim that the two holidays and even Goddesses were most likely one historically

Just like with Grimm, there is mostly just speculation based on language, names, celebrations, etc. In modern-day society, it seems the holidays and Goddesses/Gods of Ostara, Eostre, and Easter have all been mashed up together from bridging multiple pagan religions with Christianity and struggling to seperate it again when we have almost no historical texts to help, since everything way back in the day was based on oral tradition.

As for the Goddess Eostre, who was supposedly a Goddess of fertility and light, she was so rooted in the region surrounding her that it was easier to adopt her namesake for the new Easter holiday (that enmeshed the series of Christian holidays) rather than rebrand under something Christian. According to Bede, her feasting was held in the month of April and celebrated spring. But that's all he mentioned, so her actual traditions have been lost to time, with only speculation to go off of.

After that, Grimm tried to link her with the Goddess Ostara, but we have no historical texts saying she is the same. Nowadays, the only mentions of the Goddess Eostre is with new-age pagan Wiccan practices where they, too, seemed to have linked her with the Goddess Ostara. Historically, it is most likely that the Goddess Eostre is a region-specific Goddess, as she was worshipped in Southeastern England by Anglo-Saxons, and that's where we see the oldest versions of her name referenced in text.

As for the Goddess Ostara, according to Grimm, she seems to have been the more wide-spread form of the Germanic Goddess Eostre, instead of region-specific, and he was the one who first translated her name to Ostara. This is the first historical text we have mentioning Ostara as a Goddess and not just a holiday, which means they (Eostre and Ostara) are technically one in the same, since Grimm was the one who translated the Goddesses name to German in the context that we use today.

In terms of associations with the newly translated Goddess Ostara, the first known reference of rabbits with Ostara in writing was mentioned in a mythology text written by Adolf Holtzmann in 1874 where he related the German tradition of the Easter Hare with Ostara by claiming the symbolism of 'the hare' was also probably sacred to the Goddess.

Afterwards, In 1889, an issue in the Journal of American Notes and Queries talks about the Germanic Tradition of the Easter Hare (gifting cotton stuffed flannel bunnies to children along with Easter eggs) and the story behind it, stating that "The hare was originally a bird, and was changed into a quadruped by the Goddess Ostara; in gratitude to Ostara or Eastre, the hare exercises its original bird function to lay eggs for the Goddess on her festal day." But that is as far as we've gotten in tracing it in texts.

Most likely, oral tradition has reigned supreme throughout history, and different narratives have surfaced about the origins of the symbolism with Ostara and rabbits and eggs and other things, so it's hard to know for certain what is "true" to celebrating the Goddess and holiday Ostara and what isn't.

In summary, based on the limited evidence that we have surrounding history on this holiday and deity(ies), you should feel free to celebrate Ostara in a way that is meaningful to you, especially since there is much overlap with multiple religions and practices. I did my best to round up the most commonly accepted ways to celebrate, the symbolism, and more related to the holiday and Goddess Ostara/Eostre.

Ostara Associations:

Colors - white, green, yellow, pink, purple, pastels

Food - eggs, fresh greens, dairy products, hot crossed buns, lamb, asparagus, honey, berries

Animals - hares/rabbits and song birds, baby animals, snakes

Items - decorated eggs, lillies, daffodils, tulips, crocuses, dandelions, lavender, other flowers, lemongrass, thyme, red clover, birch trees, seeds

Crystals - aquamarine, amethyst, rose quartz, moonstone, fluorite, amazonite, clear quartz

Other - fertility, renewal, dawn, spring, balance, joy, growth

Ways to Celebrate Ostara:

hold a feast, especially on the full moon after the equinox

plant seeds

connect with nature or go on a walk

decorate eggs

prepare your altar for spring

make a cotton stuffed flannel rabbit

decorate for spring with greenery and flowers

cleanse and clean your home

welcome the dawn and sunrise

bake hot crossed buns

create something

[dors-ee]

Ostara/Easter part 2 : art, sketches and OS part 2

@4melo-dy very kindly made me a sketch to go with my OS! I also made some personal art and sketches (down below). Thank you so so much Alex ❤🥰

explanation: for the first two sketches the fully uncolored is the original. My favorite. Tried to paint it... messed it. Made another sketch, with the intention to paint but no time and energy and I kinda like it to so here it goes. The one where she stands is supposed to be at night (there's progress to be made here I know, but I learnt while doing it.) the last one is also supposed to be more of a night scene but meh I liked it like that. A lot. I included the sketches for them both because I just love them ❤

her dress is inspired by Lenahoschek-tradition and the costumes for the ballet Coppelia. The tartan shawl is because even though AOT use Germany as the base for Eldia, I HC the characters with different ethnicities, some of them, in our world and Petra is scottish*. (Purely personal HC.) So I put little bits here and there, like at her waist: it's supposed to evoke the celtic knot!

finally: part 3 is written. Just have to type it. Should come soon. With at least some sketches too.

(*Petra scottish, Eld Irish, Oluo Italian, Gunther German, Hange German, Moblit scottish too, Annie Sweden, Nifa idk yet, Levi idk).

[coyoteprince]

How do fae celebrate other holidays like do they have a Christmas/Yule celebration, spring/Ostara, Beltane, midsummer?

I've given a summary here, with the addition of the fae's year wheel.

Widderwood's Earth is obviously based on real world things, but a little to the left. Fae year is based on Pagan sabbaths but split into two major times: Sandman & The Maere/time of sleep (cool months), and Our Lady & The Bully-Bock/time of waking (warm months)

I haven't done a segment on the Darlingtonite's version of holidays cuz im still feeling some of it out, but it's a bit more similar to Gregorian months/time, just slightly different holidays. Long ago they adopted goats and horses as a symbol of the warm and cool seasons just as fae did, but in current day they don't quite realize the origin of the connection anymore and ascribe different things to them now. For example, for their spring holiday goats would be the dominant animal symbol instead of the Easter bunny or whatever.

[misspjsuperior]

Ostara vs Easter: A Different Place in Time

Around this time every year someone asks me, “Why is Easter on a different date every year?” I feel honored to be known as the kind of nerd to go to. This is how Easter is calculated: it is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. 🌕 

Easter, being a lunar based holiday, changes its dates on the solar based Gregorian calendar but the pagan holiday known as Ostara is associated with the Spring equinox happening annually on March 21st except for leap years when it occurs on March 20th.

Easter is said to be a Christianization of the pagan holiday of Ostara, an ancient Northern European goddess of spring. There is only very scant evidence of Ostara in historical text sources. The sole ancient citation comes from a single sentence written by colonizing British clergy historian Bede in the 8th century who documented what little of folk customs he could find out from wary locals whose traditions, passed down orally, were being eradicated. 

It was The Brothers Grimm, famous fairy tale historians, who wrote broader theories of Bede’s brief mention of Ostara, popularizing her/it as “the real Easter” in the early 19th century.

In striving to reconnect with ancient pagan roots long suppressed, syncretism of Ostara with various seasonal goddesses of different mythologies is popular among pagans today. Such as Persephone of the Greek pantheon and Freya of the Norse. This practice seems rather full circle if you consider Mary to be a goddess figure (accepting Christianity as mythos) also syncretized with the season via Easter. In turn, reverence including imagery of the Virgin Mary has preserved ancient pagan/indigenous practices as much as forces of power attempted to use her to obscure those same practices. In this spirit I share this post with my iconic Maria Rosa art. I’m also pleased to let you know that altar sized vulva goddess prints are back, now at misspjsuperior.etsy.com

This is an edited version of a longer piece of writing with more historical details that you can access by supporting my Star Gazer level on Patreon. If you find these kinds of musings of mind especially interesting or educational, they get sent directly to you via email as a Star Gazer

[hedgewitchgarden]

Ostara vs Easter; or Let's All Just Colour an Egg

March 11

This piece was originally written in 2016 and has been updated - *(An updated version (free) of my 2016 article debunking common misconceptions about the alleged pagan history of Easter) Every year there's a lot of commentary that floats around the pagan community claiming several things about the holiday of Ostara, most of them untrue. So lets take a look at the urban legends and the realities, shall we?  Firstly the idea that Easter is related to the Goddess Ishtar, that the word and name sound the same, and that Ishtar's symbols are identical to popular Easter symbols: Ishtar is not pronounced 'easter'; it's a pretty straightforward name actually and is pronounced 'ishtar' just like it looks.  Ishtar is an ancient Assyrian goddess whose name is connected to the related goddess Astarte; the word easter comes from old English, likely rooted in the proto-Germanic word for dawn (Harper, 2024). Ishtar was a goddess connected to love, fertility, and war. Her symbols were not rabbits or eggs but rather storehouse gates, lions, and stars with different numbers of points (Ishtar, 2016).  

original meme author unknown: "bullshit" label courtesy of Ian Corrigan So that's that one.

Was the date of Easter stolen from Pagans? No. The Christian holiday itself was not stolen from or dated based on the pagan holiday; it developed on its own based off of the Jewish holiday timing for Passover and was originally known as Pascha in Latin, only later becoming known as Easter; as late as the 8th century the holiday was still known as Pascha in England. 

Did the 4th century emperor Constantine invent it all? This is another idea that I see floating around this time of year. I can say conclusively that the idea that Constantine in the 4th century C.E. speaking Latin was calling the holiday Easter (for the record it still isn't called Easter in most languages that aren't English) is false and he didn't invent the holiday itself. As a Christian holiday Pascha (Easter) seems to have been well established by the mid second century (Melito, 1989).This is at least 200 years before Constantine's lifetime.

Now the other main idea that get's tossed around is that Easter is stolen from or based on a Germanic or Anglo-Saxon holiday or Goddess named Ostara/Eostre. I can't even give an example of this meme because honestly most of them are blatantly offensive in the way they are worded but the gist of it is claiming that Ostara/Eostre was an ancient Anglo-Saxon goddess celebrated in spring whose symbols were rabbits and eggs and Christians stole it all, etc., etc.,

The name of the holiday is likely derived from a word that means "east" and may be related to the name of an obscure Germanic or Anglo-Saxon goddess about whom we know virtually nothing. The name of the goddess - Eostre to the Anglo-Saxons and Ostara to the Germans - is probably related to the same root as the word east: both etymologically come from the proto-Indo-European root aus- meaning 'to shine' and likely relating to the dawn. Our only source of information on Eostre is the Venerable Bede who wrote in the 8th century: Eostur-monath, qui nunc Paschalis mensis interpretatur, quondam a Dea illorum quæ Eostre vocabatur, et cui in illo festa celebrabant nomen habuit: a cujus nomine nunc Paschale tempus cognominant, consueto antiquæ observationis vocabulo gaudia novæ solemnitatis vocantes (Giles, 1843) [Eostre-month, which is now interpreted as the Paschal month, which was formerly called Eostre and celebrated in that month: now the Paschal season is called by this name calling the joys of the new festival by the ancient name of the old]     From this we know that there was an Anglo-Saxon goddess named Eostre who had a holiday celebrated for her around the same time as Easter/Pascha but basically nothing else. And we already know that Pascha as a Christian holiday was well established long before this. So we appear to have a case of the new religion's holiday being called by the name of the old one in part due to a coincidence in timing.   About a thousand years later Jacob Grimm would go on to write about a hypothetical German goddess he called Ostara who he reconstructed based in part off of the German name for the Christian holiday of Easter, Ostern, and a name for April of Ostermonat (Grimm, 1835). He elaborates on his ideas based on this idea of a connection between the name and the direction of the east and the idea of dawn and spring, as well as widespread connections between Ostara [the goddess] and contemporary Christian Easter celebrations including bonfires and drawing water at dawn which had special properties (Grimm, 1835). Although it is possible that Grimm was noting genuine pagan folk practices that had survived his connection of these practices to a goddess named Ostara are impossible to prove* On to the rabbits and eggs because that keeps showing up in all of these memes. The concept of "Easter" bunnies (originally hares, "Osterhase") cannot be dated before the mid-1500's and the eggs appear to have started in the 1600's, both in Germany (Bauer, 2016). The eggs were originally called 'pace' or Pascha eggs explicitly connecting them to the Jewish Passover and the Christian holiday. In 1682 Georg Franck von Franckenau is the first to explicitly mention the rabbit bringing eggs in De Ovis Paschalibus where he describes the folk practice and the way people get sick overeating the eggs. This appears to have been because eggs - like meat and milk - were on the Lenten 'don't eat' list and so eating them on Easter was a treat (Newell, 1989). Unlike milk and meat however eggs could be preserved more easily and a hard boiled egg played a role in the Jewish Passover meal making eggs both abundant, desirable, and symbolic at Easter (Newell, 1989). Coloring eggs was also a widespread folk custom in many cultures, and while it was surely used by pagans it was easily adapted to Christian symbolism as well. There doesn't seem to be any certainty of exactly where the idea of hiding eggs for kids to find came from, but there is evidence that it began in Germany and spread from there to England and America.

To summarize: Easter is a Christian holiday, based on Christian mythology, and timed based on the Jewish Passover. The traditions involving rabbits and eggs come from 17th century German folk practices, partially based on Lenten food restrictions. Colouring eggs is found across a wide array of cultures. We know basically nothing about the goddesses Eostre or Ostara, historically, and what we do have about them is largely modern speculation or innovated pagan belief.

So in the end we have the name of a goddess which is etymologically connected to the word east as well as the dawn, and likely related to other Indo-European dawn or spring goddesses. But basically there is no real information about her, no known symbols, no myths**.  We can say that this holiday was not taken and turned into the Christian Easter, which as we've mentioned already existed many centuries prior and with a different name. It is true that English and German speakers use a name for the Christian holiday based on the pagan one and it is possible that some pagan folk practices were maintained but that was not a matter of intentional theft by the Church - rather it was the people converting to the new religion themselves refusing to give up certain things.

While these practices may or may not be originally pagan,  why does it matter? These are fun folk custom that we can practice today, pagan or Christian, whose origins are more or less lost to history. So lets stop arguing over whose holiday is whose and what traditions belong to who - color an egg, make a little nest for the Osterhase and put the eggs in, jump a bonfire, and have a great holiday whichever one you celebrate.

*that story about Ostara and the bird getting turned into a rabbit which then laid eggs is entirely modern

**I am not however arguing that Eostre/Ostara never existed, just that Grimm's evidence of her folk customs in 19th century German is pretty shaky.

References

Ishtar (2016) Encyclopedia Britanica

Melito of Sardis (1989) "On the Passover"  http://www.kerux.com/doc/0401A1.asp

Bauer, I., (2016) Der Osterhase

Giles, J (1843) The Complete Works of the Venerable Bede

Newell, V., (1989) Eggs at Easter; a folklore study

Grimm, J., (1835) Deutsche Mythologie

Harper, D., (2024) 'Easter'; Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=easter 

[betty-bourgeoisie]

Please add in the tags what country you're from!

[brightstoneman]

The 4th page of the Ostara celebrating spring. The border began as a pencil drawing inked with technical pen .30, base color laid out in Photoshop CS 5 extended, printed out on Canon iPF5000 printer at size 16 x 16". Then using a combination of Prismacolor colored pencils detail was added and a Prismacolor premier fine tip pen was used to blend the drawing. I chose the Peace Rose because that was the first rose I ever planted while I was a teenager in middle school. I have always been in love with the story of how this rose was smuggled out of France just before the Nazi occupation. The body copy is papyrus, an Adobe font. The background is scanned parchment.

The Ukrainian Easter eggs were created by a dear friend Richard Barnhill who is no longer with us.

Source of text mostly acquired from the Internet with sources given.

[primeministerofantarctica]

smurfs worldbuilding/ headcanon stuff

language

the original smurf language was a purely tonal language system with hundreds of varieties in pitch and inflection that could only be understood by the smurfs.

for example: "I ate a pie yesterday" in ancient smurf would be "Smurf smURf *smurf* sMurF SMurf" (italics indicate higher pitch, bold indicates lower pitch. asterixs also indicate an increased pitch, so *a* is higher than a while *b* is lower than b.)

as they spread out, they adopted the lingua franca of their respective places so they could communicate with the others, which triggered a gradual shift in their own language.

most notably was the addition of tense markers (smurfed, smurfing) and other affixes (smurfy, unsmurfy)

pronouns, determiners, cardinal numbers, conjunctions, and prepositions switched to the pure lingua franca

nouns are still very tonal, but verbs are losing their tone and becoming more context-dependent

"i smurfed a pie yesterday" could mean "i ate a pie yesterday" or "i baked a pie yesterday", it depends on the context. "i smurfed a pie yesterday, it was delicious" vs "i smurfed a pie yesterday, do you want a slice?"

the only adjectives that carried over were the positive "smurfy" and negative "unsmurfy". neutral descriptions (size, color, etc) are now based on the lingua franca

certain smurfs (brainy) are a stickler for making sure people are pronouncing the tones exactly right. certain smurfs make an effort to get close if the sentence would be ambiguous otherwise.

also, because it's so tonal, it's hell on smurfs with hearing loss or other diffilculties deciphering pitch or intonation. brainy (autistic) got by because he studied hard and now he's kinda mad the others aren't taking it seriously. clumsy (also autistic) and harmony (tone deaf) just have very strange accents.

religion

ancient smurfs were pagan and worshipped the moon as their primary deity (the phases of the moon are tied with the strength of a smurf's magic, so the connection makes sense)

most modern smurfs consider themselves irreligious - they'll still practice the traditions and rituals, but they see it as more of a cultural thing than anything else

today, smurf religion is more concerned with humanistic utilitarianism, aka respecting others and nature

a handful of smurfs are abrahamic-monotheistic (this is the middle ages), in their beliefs "God" is a transcendent deus absconditis and nature spirits like mother nature and father time were created by him to take care of the earth

(also since this is a world that actually has magic and fairies, i imagine the above religions would be more accepting about incorporating those things than the real life "witchcraft will send you to HELL" versions)

traditions and festivals

ancient smurfs used a lunar calendar. modern smurfs have adopted the solar calendar, but the dates of certain holidays are still decided by the moon's phases

new year's, for example, is the first new moon in january, while ostara (easter) is the first full moon in april

the firefly festival takes place in late february and is akin to groundhog day (fireflies only appear when the weather is warm); the imitate festival takes place mid-march and descends from a tradition of trying to scare/ confuse winter spirits away so spring will come

smurfs have also adopted human holidays like christmas, halloween, and valentine's day simply because well, it's fun, and they're not going to pass up a chance at a good party are they?

more modern holidays they've invented are rainbow day (may 8, meant to celebrate hope, life, and new beginnings, SO many colorful decorations), friendship day (march 14, the month after valentine's day), smurfer upper day (october 21, trying to get all the last-minute repairs in before winter really hits), and plant a new tree because the humans just dug one up for their own holiday day (august 9, google it ^^)

smurfdays are equivalent to birthdays, but they don't occur on their actual date of birth (stork delivery?). since baby smurfs only get delivered on blue moons that'd mean celebrating thirty or so birthdays simultaneously which. can get messy real fast. so their "smurfdays" are really just random dates they either chose or were assigned as smurflings

physical characteristics/ natural vs "artificial" smurfs

all smurfs are the same shade of blue, but they all vary in height, weight, freckles and moles, etc.

natural smurfs all have blue eyes, whether they're light, dark, grayish, teal, they're all shades of blue

the concept of gender is inherently meaningless to a smurf, a human called them male a thousand years ago and they just rolled with it

"artificial" smurfs were mostly created as homonculi, servants and assistants to wizards, however since this raised multiple ethical issues the spell was eventually banned

artificial smurfs are born fully-grown (with enough clay, at least), but their minds are like super-sponges and they absorb information at an incredibly fast rate in the first few weeks of their existence

a ressurection/ reincarnation spell is inherently baked into the formula (wizards didn't wanna make a whole nother smurf if their current one tripped into the fireplace), so when they die they just flash-bang-regenerate. like the doctor, but they don't retain their memories, they have to start life all over again. they usually have about 25 regenerations, and their past versions are seen more as "parent who went out shopping before i was born and never came back" than "Me from 500 years ago"

the "descendents" of those artificial smurfs that didn't make their way to a village still live around humans, albeit in hiding since they're technically not supposed to exist. they're like house spirits. brownies. they'll live in your walls and find your lost keys if you leave out some sarsaparilla tea and bread. (the humans know fairies exist, but they don't know the specifics.)

the quickest way to spot an artificial smurf is the eye color, while natural smurfs have blue eyes artificial smurfs have brown or black eyes that match the color of the rock used to make their heart

artificial smurfs have very dry skin that's prone to cracking and flaking (thanks, being made of clay)

to determine a smurf's "human age" simply divide by five. a hundred-year-old smurf is twenty in human terms.

papa smurf did NOT get 100 babies at once omg that would be insane. however since blue moons only occur once every few years he did get them in batches (3 of them, 33 at a time)

economy/ government

the closest thing to an "economy" the smurfs have is best described as "anarchist communism with an authoritarian power figure". it's oxymoronic, but accurate :T

papa smurf does have absolute power but like...this is middle ages europe, it's not exactly known for democracy. maybe in a generation or two they'll implement a parliament/ voting system

there's no written law, the only rule is "don't cause harm or grief to others or society". they need a lawyer smurf new oc just dropped

smurfs don't get money. they tried it and they understand how it works but they don't get it. you're just going to let another person die because they don't have enough shiny things? wack.

general/ other

ancient smurfs lived in giant hollowed-out mushrooms. modern smurfs live in wattle-and-daub houses designed to look like mushrooms. (they're easier and faster to build.)

the ground floor typically has a living room, kitchen, and dining room (rarely used but at least they still have it). the second floor has a bedroom and study.

it's...pretty established that they don't have running water. they have washbasins in the living room for bathing. a lot of times they'll wash themselves and their clothes at the same time.

smurfs who work from home are encouraged to work in their study, but. it really depends? poet will work in his study, but tailor will work on the ground floor since other smurfs are constantly stopping by to drop off and pick up clothes.

no hvac. in the winter they bundle up in blankets and put hot stones in bed. in the summer they open the windows and drink a lot of water. also no electricity either, they have candles and lanterns.

in general, most of the technology is medieval, but handy has invented some more "modern" things like iceboxes

"la la la lalala, la lala lala" is a work song! it's a way for smurfs to identify and locate each other in the forest, since "la" is easy to produce/ settle into a rhythm.

there's a magic barrier around the village. not like a physical barrier that you'll smack into, but more like. a mental barrier. the closer you get, the more your mind tells you you should turn away, there's nothing here, turn back now. that's why gargamel's always walking in circles around the village.

you can't have a party without dancing, and you can't have dancing without music, so music is important to them! everyone knows how to play an instrument or two.

there's multiple villages around the world, but since most smurfs don't travel they rarely (if ever) get in contact with each other.

[lokischaoticbitchwitch]

This coming Monday, March 20th is Ostara.

Ostara marks the Spring Equinox, which happens between March 19 -23. Ostara is a pagan celebration of the German goddess Eostre and the origins of the Christian celebration of Easter. As the beginning of spring Ostara is a good time to literally and figuratively plant seeds for the future.

In modern day living Ostara is also good time to start taking action on the ideas and goals you started thinking about around Yule and Imbolc. What you plant during Ostara will be ready to be harvested during the coming summer months.

SYMBOLS OF OSTARA

Colors: Green, pink, blue

Foods: Eggs, honey, sprouted greens, baked goods, asparagus

Stones: Aquamarine, amethyst, rose quartz

Symbols: Rabbits, eggs, spring flowers , lambs, clover, baskets

Flowers & Plants: clover, daffodils, crocus, tulips

Things you can do to celebrate Ostara:

-Planting seeds for a vegetable garden or flower garden

-Spring clean your house

-Decorate an Ostara altar to honor your goddess of choice

Make egg based dishes and dessert (custard pie, frittatas, egg salad, etc…)

-Take a nature walk with loved ones and look for signs of spring

-Host a tea party with a springtime theme

-Ukranian egg folk art

-Take time to meditate/journal and think about your intentions for the next few weeks as it relates to the goals you want to achieve

[aspenlovesmedia]

So, who are the main cast of the Luna Stone series?

Luna is of course the protagonist. She spends her childhood being raised among humans, every so often catching glimpses of the magical world, yet any signs dissapear quickly, that is until her last few weeks of Primary School, where she accidentally starts a fire and discovers she’s a sorcerer. Her mother (Andrea Stone) is a sorcerer, however she married a human, and due to that it was never guaranteed that Luna would ever end up being able to control magic. As she is half human, she needs to have her magic awakened, as humans are unable to see or use magic at all, which also means Andrea has to get involved in the magical world once more, something she hoped she’d never have to do again.

Luna is a huge nerd and has always been fascinated by mythology. Of course she never believed it was actually real until she accidentally discovered her own magical abilities. She’s very head strong and passionate about her interests, and while she has a good heart, she doesn’t really have any friends. From a young age she was considered weird for her extreme and specific interest, and the fact she celebrated Yule and Ostara rather than Christmas and Easter didn’t help. When she starts at Peregrine’s Academy of Magic, she hopes she can maybe actually make some friends as after all, she may be new to the whole magic thing, but she does know a lot about myths and legends already.

Willow Redwood comes from a very long line of sorcerers, which under normal circumstances would be hugely beneficial to her social standing, however, a family blood curse means the Redwoods are thought to be dangerous. In reality the curse only affects its host, and leads to symptoms like chronic pain, and difficulty in using magic. Willow is used to people being afraid of her and that’s why she prefers to be in the company of animals. As a druid, she was born with the ability to understand them, and unlike other sorcerers, they don’t judge her based on a curse she was born with. She lives with her father (August Redwood) as her mother died from the curse when Willow was 4. She’s very close to her dad, even if he is overprotective at times.

Khumo Graves has the rare ability to see ghosts. Ghost sight runs in his family, so seeing the souls of the dead that are still tethered to the Earth is a very normal occurrence for him. In fact, Khumo gets on better with the dead than with the living. Talking to ghosts is easy, talking to alive people is complicated. He struggles with severe anxiety and is very quiet because of this. He has a hedgehog familiar named Spindle who has red spines across their back. Spindle was manifested mainly to support Khumo, who from a young age suffered from anxiety attacks. He is a huge history nerd, and plans on becoming a warden (someone who works with the Collection, a library with the blood memories of people. This is not as morbid as it sounds I’ll do a whole post on this later) when he’s older. He often wishes he had the confidence of his younger sister, Naledi (often called Nali) who isn’t afraid to tell anybody what she thinks.

And that’s the main trio! There’s a lot more I can say on these guys, but this is already a long post. I hope you enjoyed getting some more information on these guys. I’ll be doing more lore posts soon.

[nj-stone]

Lynn Hayes - Sunday inspiration: Happy resurrection holiday https://www.lynnhayes.com/sunday-inspiration-happy-resurrection-holiday/ 

[ericleo108]

Your Sun

03/19/2024 Click here for Spotify, Apple Music, or Youtube. “Your Sun” is my 72nd official release and my 107th track published. This is my first spoken word track as Eric Leo 108. There is no beat and the audio was organized by Sam Peters at La Luna Recordings and Sound in Kalamazoo Michigan. The cover art is a self-taken photo and self-edited cover.

I talk about this blog post and other updates in the latest Sunday update here:

As explained by the National Weather Service, “There are only two times of the year when the Earth's axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, resulting in a "nearly" equal amount of daylight and darkness at all latitudes. These events are referred to as Equinoxes. The word equinox is derived from two Latin words - aequus (equal) and nox (night).” The spring equinox signifies that after this there will be more daylight than night throughout the day in the Northern Hemisphere. 

I intentionally released this spoken word poem on the day of the spring equinox because it’s a poem to humanity as if it was coming from the sun. And nothing signifies that better than the overtaking of light from the sun on the northern hemixphere that is the spring equinox. 

I originally created this poem to express myself in the CosmicLuve.com log, specifically the September 2022 - Hope post. As you can read, the poem has nothing to do with her but it was largely inspired by Emma Watson. 

To briefly make you fully updated. I have a book called “108 The Story of Discovering Earth’s Consciousness” about why and how I think the planet and stars are conscious. Then In the blog (at EricLeo108.com) I show how Gaia (the Earth) could play match maker to guide evolution using telepathy. Basically, attractive, potential mates are used as vessels to paint the canvas of a broader message from Gaia. I explain all this at CosmicLuve.com which is a running log on my blog at EricLeo108.com. This is a poem from the Suns perspective given this information. I chose to release this on the 19th because that’s the day of the spring equinox. 

The actual spring equinox is on the 19th but Christianity celebrates it on the 31st because its the first full moon after the spring equinox. Just like Christmas which is based on the pagan celebration of the winter solstice, Easter comes from a pagan tradition around the spring equinox. Easter is derived from the German Eostre or Ostara which is the goddess of spring. In the most popular story Ostara found a dying bird in the snow. To save it, she turn it into a white hare which she gave the power to lay eggs once a year and gift them to worshipers. And that’s why there are bunnies and eggs on Easter. You can read a fuller story here. It has nothing to do with Jesus rising from the dead and everything to do with celetial patterns and Christian’s culturally appropriating pagan traditions. I have left a video that explains more.

All these christian events and celestial dates line up because Jesus is based off the myth of the sun, which I find worth worshiping. I think Jesus is Western Civilization’s imaginary friend that they made up to make themselve feel better and control the masses, but the sun, which the imaginary friend is based on, is very real and worth worshiping. To be clear, again, I think the sun is conscious and would be the ultimate ruler in our local cosmic domain. 

With that said, I am actually terrified of the sun. Most aging, like wrinkles and lines, come from sun exposure. The only reason the Earth is livable is because we have an atmosphere that protects us from the suns rays from burning us alive, and they still cause cancer.  Have you ever heard of a choronial mass ejection and what it would do to life as we know it? It would basically be like setting of a global EMP (electro magnetic pulse) that would whip out satellites and electronics. The world almost came to an end in 2012 which is also when the Mayan calendar ended. This is because in July of 2012 there was a coronial mass ejection that almost hit Earth that you can read about from NASA, Business Insider, or Wikipeida. 

I have taken a twitter poll asking “Would you straight-up worship the sun” and all voted “no, that’s stupid.” But in a very real way Christians worship the sun because they worship Jesus which is based off the myth of the sun, they just don’t know it. In this way I’m glad we have people worshiping the sun, I just wish it wasn’t through Jesus. I think we should organize a cohort to worship the sun (and turn towards it) like Mecca and occasionally I do. 

Given all this, trust me when I say, I hope I did the sun justice in this poem.

Lyrics:

I am you

I made you

When they say “you’re bright,” “you’re glowing”, or “you’re radiant” 

You can best be assured you got that from me

And I tell you this because

I love you like the stars love rain

Like the earths vibration through you

I feel and share myself

Like the elements of my dead body combine to be the coalescence of life

Then gave birth to the very carbon lifeforms that can understand what I am

How I love you

I cradled you in my bussum

I watched you as you took your first steps

How your curiosity as child made you a conquerer in your adolecense

And although you may deny it, you still feel the pain of war

The gnawing agony for more

And as the lover you take, do you not ask Are you satisfied my dear?

Or even ask? Satisfied from what?

Do you not understand that

Like penguins bond over pebbles

Or finches sing and dance

I love you like the stars love rain 

Like from the bacteria in the gut

The colony you Excrete aromatically

I would take you then

Like the forest and fonna The earth blackend by your burn

I would take you then

Like the mineral salt in the ocean

Was acidified by your hand

I would take you then

Like you were the diseased

I was helpless by your side

And all I could do is weep

Like rain, even still

I would take you then

I am better because I got to hold you

I nurtured you from nothing

And as a faithful dog greets you when you get home everyday

I will always be there for you

In good times and bad

In sickness and health

I love you like the stars love rain

You made this worth it

Your sun

[moradinsforge]

Today marks the start of our 48 hour Ostara sale! Ostara: the day when rabbits lay eggs, chickens dance in floral crowns, and Mother Nature swaps her winter coat for a pastel ensemble to invite all the critters to join her in a whimsical dance of renewal. The Easter holiday is based off of this old pagan solar holiday and we celebrate by indulging in springtime treats, decorating eggs, and frolicking in the sunshine with loved ones, embracing the spirit of rebirth and new beginnings. So hop on over and join us in embracing the magic of Ostara with delightful discounts for a limited time!

moradinsforge.etsy.com

[i-just-like-commenting]

This is your annual reminder that:

English is the only language to call this holiday Easter, all other languages base it on Pesach, the Hebrew word for Passover

Easter comes from Eostre who has absolutely no connection Ishtar

We know next to nothing about Eostre but based on her name she was probably related to other Indo-European dawn goddesses like Eos and Ushas

Eostre seems to only have been survived in England; the Grimm brothers were trying to create a German nationalism and never offered proof of "Ostara"

Most secular Easter celebrations are too recent to be pagan, and egg dying was almost definitely a Medieval custom to use up the eggs accumulated during the Lenten fast

Most of these ideas originated with Christian fundamentalists, btw

It is totally okay to have a secular or pagan celebration today, just don't make up stuff to justify it

If you want to read more

[brightstoneman]

The first page of the Ostara (Vernal equinox) celebrating spring. The name Ostara is from ôstarâ, the Old High German for "Easter". The border began as a pencil drawing, inked with technical pen .30, base color laid out in Photoshop CS 5 extended, printed out on Canon iPF5000 printer at size 16 x 16". Then using a combination of Prismacolor colored pencils, detail was added and a Prismacolor premier fine tip pen was used to blend the drawing. I chose the Peace Rose because it was the first rose I ever planted while I was a teenager in middle school. I have always been in love with the story of how this rose was smuggled out of France just before the Nazi occupation. The ornate drop cap used in the headline is from Dover, which I adapted in Photoshop and the body copy is papyrus, an Adobe font. The background is scanned parchment. The style of the border is based on William Morris borders.

I would be interested if aspiring book of shadows author would like to collaborate on future pages since I am more of a visual artists and less of a writer. If you're interested please contact me.

© Copyright Info None of my works can be copied, reproduced, manipulated or used in any way without my expressed written consent.