Timekeeping and Holytides

I was watching a video on YouTube by Ocean Keltoi, Eostre / Ostara |Who Was the Pagan Easter Goddess?, and I have a few issues with a few points he has made. First, I live Ocean and I watch most of his videos which I find them informative and entertaining. The video explains the origins and misconceptions by some modern Heathens surrounding Easter and Eostre/Ostara. He makes a lot of points stating that the modern practice does not jive with the historical evidence we currently have. He sites that there is no historical evidence for the eggs, rabbits, most of the Heathen/pagan things. The only evidence is that eggs and rabbits have nothing to do with Christian Easter there for they must be Heathen. Keltoi makes a big stink about months, mostly March and April, and that Eostre/Ostara is not held in March at the Spring Equinox but in April.

Keltoi points to the Anlo-Saxon names of these months, Hrēðmonath and Eostremonath. The latter being modern April and the moth of Eostre or Easter. He points to Bede’s reckoning as a source. Bede states that April or Eostremonath was the month heathens celebrated Eostra or Ostara. My issue is that at the time months were kept by the moon cycle and Bede often placed Heathen holytides on top of Christian ones. When talking about Yule he places the celebration on Christmas Eve and the two days that follow. Scholars have speculated that this was a tactic to convert the Heathens. We also know that due to the time keeping method of lunar New Moon cycles, that the days Heathen holy tides would fall on would have been more fluid due to lunar cycles. There are historical incidences during the time Bede was writing where the Equinox is in Eostremonath and where it is not. Therefore, the statement that Eostre or Ostara is not on the Equinox is not entirely accurate.  

He states that other than Jacob Grimm and some other assumptions there is no evidence of rabbits or painted eggs. I would venture to say this is true. Eggs and rabbits are fertility symbols, Ostara is a fertility holytide, and seriously what to they have to do with Christianity? Was Jesus crucified and rise from the dead as a bunny with a basket of colored eggs? Keltoi somewhat questions the use of these items as there is no historical evidence. Wiccans do use these elements and they do celebrate Ostara or Eostre. Asatru was built on the back of modern Wicca and modern Heathenry sprung out of that. That is why many heathens still use rabbits and colored eggs in their celebration.

This may seem like I am splitting hairs but let me explain. There is a lot of talk about historical accuracy in Heathenry. I am a historian and I get that, but this is religion. How much historical accuracy is in Christianity? They keep what they want, drop what they don’t want, change it, and deny it all in the same sentence. Christianity as morphed and changed countless times to convert and fit the needs of the converted. Heathenry is no different. If you look at the last 50 years of the practice it is vastly different that it was in 1970. We have evolved as we have grown and learned. Most religions or belief systems evolve over time. Heathenry especially does. How I practiced in 1985 and how I practice now are vastly different.

I would like to make it clear that Ocean Keltoi never says anyone is wrong in the way they practice, and I am not accusing him of such. For the most part his video is accurate. I am questioning his time keeping as it appears in the video that he is using the Gregorian Calendar and not the lunar Saxon cycle. Bede used the Roman Calendar, and most likely the Julian and lunar calendar, and he created his own calendar! Writing in his Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum ("Ecclesiastical History of the English People"), Bede complains about the obstinacy of the Celtic Church in Britain, especially in regard to the celebration of Easter (Dies Paschae). Bede is credited with unifying the holy days of the Celtic and Roman Christian churches.

None the less, we celebrate Ostara. We have traditionally held it on the Equinox and yes, we have colored eggs, and rabbit elements. We have egg hunts and eat a roasted ham and we have flowers decorating the temple and sacred groves to symbolize spring. These flowers correspond with Blōstmfrēols a floral festival on the first new moon in April (April 1^st this year). We basically celebrate Ēaster, Eostre, or Ostara the same way people celebrate Easter (the one with the rabbit). Because not all of or family is Heathen, we also Celebrate Easter in April on the day the Christian church does. We participate in the festivities but not the religious element.

We do all this because we are a modern religion. I think that a lot of Heathens forget that we are not them. Them being the Germanic people who we call The Ancestors. I have a garden, but I am no farmer, and I cannot remember the last time I went a viking.  I go to work and sit in front of a computer all day. I don’t take a boat, I take a car, and I wear a black hoodie and jeans, no tunics on the job. I also use the modern calendar. I do understand the importance of history, but we cannot live history, we have to live in the now. That means we base our beliefs on the past, but we adapt them for our present. We create our own tribal traditions that have uniqueness that are all our own. What my tribe does may not be what yours does, and that’s fine. What we cannot do is try to base everything about Heathenry on history. First