20/03/2026
☆ eostra + the equinox ☆
today we pass through the spring (vernal) equinox, the moment in the earths journey around the sun when the tilt of it's axis is at it's most neutral
at this point the tilt is neither away from nor towards the sun, meaning that equal sunlight reaches both the northern & southern hemispheres
the word 'equinox' comes from Latin & essentially means 'equal night', so it's easy to think that today marks the day where we also have equity of day & night
but that actually happens a couple of days before the equinox, during the equilux (equal light)
this year, in the UK, the equilux fell on the 17th or 18th march, depending on where you were in the country and the moment of equinox was around 2.45pm today
🌼
although eostra (or ostara) is now usually celebrated at the spring equinox, it's thought to have originally been the name & celebration of a fertility goddess, a goddess of sunrise, or possibly both
in anglo-saxon england (according to bede), the festival for eostra gave name to a month, roughly the equivalent of april and then, eventually, to the christian easter celebrations that came to replace it
other anglo-saxon and romano-germanic peoples, along with others around the world, also celebrated a goddess linked to the ending of the winter months & it's possible that some of these goddesses shared a common ancestor
🌼
if you want to mark today's equinox with a nod to an ancient goddess, symbols you can use include:
🌱 edible seeds
🌱 pastel colours
🌱 light green cloth
🌱 eggs
🌱 candles
🌱 daffodils
wishing a wonderful eostra & an early eosturmonap (eostra's month) to all
💛
D x
📷: signs of the season in my garden
