While preparing for the sabbats may be a lot of work, it is a lot of fun as well. Pulling ingredients and supplies together to transform them from ordinary items into tasty food and pretty decorations is its very own kind of magick.
Ostara Recipes
Food is often at the center of a get together. Feasting after a ritual helps to ground the participants, and it also offers a time to commune in fellowship with others. Laughing, joking, talking, and eating all go hand in hand as people enjoy themselves over a fine meal.
These recipes are sure to bring your group or family together to savor their wonderful flavors. If possible, get your entire group to cook together as well. When people prepare food together, it simply adds to the magick.
Steamed Asparagus with Lemon
Asparagus is pretty much the first plant ready to be harvested, and it’s ready early in the year, so it is perfect to eat while celebrating the first day of spring,
Ingredients:
1 pound asparagus
1 lemon
Salt and pepper (optional)
Make sure to cut the hard ends off of the asparagus and place the rest in a steamer. It does not take very long to steam vegetables, so keep an eye on them. When ready, they will turn a darker green color. It will probably only take five minutes or so once the water for the steam starts boiling. If you would like the asparagus a little softer, cook it longer. While the asparagus is steaming, zest one tablespoon of lemon peel and then juice the lemon and mix the juice and zest together. Drain the water off of the asparagus and pour the lemon mixture over the asparagus. Lightly salt and pepper if you wish.
Stuffed Eggs with Stone Ground Mustard
Hard-boiled eggs are a must for an Ostara celebration. Try this twist on traditional deviled eggs.
Ingredients:
1 dozen hard-boiled eggs, cooled and peeled
4 teaspoons finely chopped scallions
4 teaspoons finely chopped celery
4 teaspoons stone ground mustard
½ cup mayonnaise
Curry powder to taste
Slice cooled and peeled hard-boiled eggs in half lengthwise. Scoop yolk out into a bowl and mash. Add scallions, celery, mustard, and mayonnaise to the yolks and mix well. Spoon filling back into each egg half. Top with a sprinkle of curry powder.
Grecian Goddess Quiche
Ingredients:
6 eggs
½ cup milk
2 tablespoons chopped red onion
¼ cup chopped black olives
½ cup chopped Roma tomatoes
¾ cup precooked spinach
½ cup chopped red peppers
¾ cup crumbled feta cheese
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
1 teaspoon chopped fresh basil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 frozen (ready-to-bake) piecrust
Preheat oven to 400°F. In a bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add in milk and beat for another minute. Add in all other ingredients and mix well. Pour the egg mixture into the crust and ensure that the pieces of vegetables and cheese are equally spread out throughout the crust. Bake for 35 minutes. Check to make sure quiche is firm in the center before removing from oven.
Mint Lamb Chops
Ingredients:
½ cup olive oil
½ cup chopped fresh mint
1 tablespoons minced garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
4 lamb chops
Combine olive oil, mint, garlic, salt, and pepper in a casserole dish. Add lamb chops and marinate for 20 minutes. Flip chops over and marinate for another 20 minutes. Place chops on a broiler pan, coating well with the mint mixture. Broil chops on each side for about 6 minutes.
Hot Cross Buns
Ingredients:
4 cups flour
1 package active dry yeast
1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
¾ cup milk
½ cup vegetable oil
⅓ cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 cup raisins
Icing:
1 egg white, beaten
1 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Combine 1½ cups flour, yeast, and cinnamon in a large bowl. In a saucepan with a candy thermometer, combine milk, oil, sugar, and salt and heat it to 120°F. Once heated, pour mixture into flour mixture and then add the eggs. Beat on low to blend, scraping sides of bowl, then beat on high for 3 more minutes.
Using a spatula, fold in raisins. Add in the rest of the flour. When it gets too thick to work with a spoon, pour out onto a lightly floured surface and knead with your hands. Shape into a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl. Cover with a dishtowel and let rise for 90 minutes. Dough should about double in size.
Punch the dough down and place back onto a floured surface, cover, and let sit for another 10 minutes. Divide the dough into 12 to 15 portions, and roll each portion into a ball. Place the dough balls two inches apart on a greased cookie sheet. Cover with a towel and let rise again for 45 minutes. Using a sharp knife, make a crisscross cut into the top of each bun. Brush each bun with egg white. Bake at 375°F for 12 to 14 minutes.
While the buns are baking, mix up the icing by adding all ingredients in a bowl and beating with a mixer. Add more milk if you need to thin it to drizzling consistency.
Allow buns to cool for about 10 minutes before drizzling the icing on top of them.
Honey Cake
Anything made with honey is great to have at Ostara as the bees have woken up from their hibernation and are busy buzzing around and getting the honey made. Dishes with honey celebrate the awakening of the bees and the awakening of the plant life the bees depend on in order to make their honey.
Ingredients:
2½ cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup honey
⅓ cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 cup orange juice
Preheat oven to 350°F and grease and flour two round eight- or nine-inch cake pans. Blend all dry ingredients together and then add all wet ingredients, mixing well. Pour into pans and bake for approximately 28 minutes. Check centers of cakes with a toothpick and remove from oven when the toothpick comes out clean. Allow cakes to cool in pans for 5 minutes and then turn out onto wire racks.
Ham and Parsley Sauce
Parsley is another early herb that has many uses. From cleansing the palate, to decorations, to a staple herb, parsley does it all. This Irish parsley sauce drizzled over a cooked ham is just the thing for a beautiful spring day.
Ingredients:
A ham
For the sauce:
¼ cup butter
¼ cup flour
1¼ cup light cream
1 bunch of fresh parsley finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Bake your ham in the oven, following the recommended time and temperature. A few minutes before it is done, start the parsley sauce. Melt the butter in a pan and add the flour to make a roux. Stir constantly so it doesn’t burn, and cook for several minutes. With the heat on low, slowly add the cream and continue stirring constantly until the roux is completely blended in. Stir in the parsley, salt, and pepper, and allow to simmer for 4 to 5 minutes while continually stirring. Remove from heat and serve heavily drizzled over sliced ham.
Cheesy Dill Mashed Potatoes
Dill is a great herb to associate with spring. It is a quick-growing herb that slightly resembles the asparagus plant. It has a fresh green taste to it as well.
Ingredients:
4 cups mashed potatoes (you can cheat and use instant)
8 ounces softened cream cheese
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons dried dill
Grease a two-quart casserole dish and preheat the oven to 350°F. Using a hand mixer, combine the mashed potatoes, cream cheese, egg, and dill. Whip it until the cream cheese is fully incorporated and smooth. Use a spatula to transfer the mixture into the greased pan, smoothing the top out. Bake for 45 minutes.
Grasshopper
For the adults, this rich and minty alcoholic beverage is a perfect accompaniment to Ostara. Its light green color blends in well with the colors of the season, and its minty taste is cool and refreshing. Even the name evokes feelings of spring and the outdoors. The grasshopper can be made in a blender with ice cubes to make it a frozen drink or in a shaker on the rocks.
Ingredients:
1 part cream
1 part white crème de cacao
1 part crème de menthe
Mix all three parts together in a shaker and pour over ice in a martini glass. Or add mixture to a blender with ice cubes and blend until smooth for a frozen drink.
Kids’ Spring Green Punch
This punch can be made up for kids to have their own cool green drink.
Ingredients:
8 cans guanabana nectar (or guava and banana nectars separately)
4 cans 7UP soda
1 quart green sherbet
Mix all ingredients together into a punch bowl and serve.
While many of the previous recipes are considered traditional foods for this time of year, several of them do not go very well with the more contemporary diets often enjoyed by Pagans, such as vegan, vegetarian, or pescatarian. They may not be options for those who simply like to eat a more sustainable localized diet.
Asparagus is a spring vegetable, as well as lettuce, mushrooms, and radishes. These vegetables grow quickly, and they grow better in cooler temperatures than hotter ones. These few vegetables can be combined into soups, salads, and many other dishes. Another spring, and often local, food item is fish. With the warming of lakes and rivers, fish become more active and hungry, and therefore more easily caught. If you are an angler yourself, you know just how true this is. If you visit farmers’ markets or food co-ops, fresh fish are highly in season, and often at a good price.
The following recipes are for those looking for menu suggestions that fit in vegan, vegetarian, or pescatarian diets.
Raw Asparagus and Avocado Soup
If you aren’t used to eating raw foods, this will be a bit different for you, but this thick soup is filled with flavor and is healthy and rather inexpensive to make as well.
Ingredients:
1 pound asparagus
2 avocados
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
3 cups water
Cut the hard ends off of the asparagus and throw them away. Finely chop about ¼ of the asparagus tips and set aside. Chop the rest of the asparagus into pieces about half an inch long and place in a blender. Cut the avocados in half, remove the pits, and slice the flesh into small pieces. Scoop the avocado pieces out and add them to the blender. Add salt, pepper, and water to the blender and purée until smooth. Add the reserved pieces of chopped asparagus tips and chill for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Honey Ginger Carrots
Ingredients:
2 teaspoons ground ginger
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 orange
1 pound baby carrots
Use a slow cooker to make this delicious side dish. In a small bowl, mix together the ginger, honey, and olive oil. Zest and juice one orange and add to the mixture. Mix well and make sure the ginger doesn’t make any lumps. Pour scrubbed and trimmed baby carrots into the slow cooker and pour liquid mixture all over the top, mixing well to make sure all the carrots are covered. Cook on low for several hours until the carrots are tender.
Garlic Mushrooms
With the melting of the snow and the coming of the rain, the mushrooms will soon be out in full force, so any spring meal is the perfect time to include them. This recipe will make for a large pot of mushrooms and comes out even better if you can cook it slowly all day out in a cauldron over an open fire.
Ingredients:
3 pounds mushrooms
1 large onion
1 head of garlic
1 bunch fresh parsley
4 tablespoons butter (or non-dairy substitute for vegans)
2 cups Chablis wine
Clean the mushrooms and cut off the stems. Peel and slice the onion into at least quarters if not eighths—you do want large chunks, but not too terribly large. Peel the entire head of garlic and either dice or use a garlic press to crush it. Finely chop the parsley.
Using a large pot, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add in the onions and cook until they are translucent. Add in the wine, garlic, and parsley and mix well. Add in the mushrooms and mix everything together. Cover them and let the mushrooms cook for a couple of hours on low heat.
Honey Lime Scallops
Ingredients:
1 lime
3 tablespoons honey
1 pound of scallops
Zest and juice the lime and add both to the honey, blending very well. Stir mixture with the scallops, making sure the scallops are completely covered. Place under broiler until scallops are cooked all the way through. Broiling time will vary depending on the size of the scallops.
Thai Chili Fish and Peppers
This wonderfully tasty and slightly spicy fish dish will awaken your taste buds for spring.
Ingredients:
1 red pepper
1 orange pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 small bottle Thai chili sauce
4 fish fillets such as tilapia or whatever is local for you
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Finely slice each of the peppers into small, thin strips. Mix them together in a bowl and add enough chili sauce to thoroughly cover the peppers. Place the fish into a pan and spoon the peppers over the top, making sure the fish is completely covered. Bake until the fish is white and flaky. Baking time will vary depending on the thickness of the fish fillets.
Egg Drop Soup
Ingredients:
¼ cup scallions finely chopped
1 tablespoon ground ginger
6 cups vegetable broth
1 dozen eggs
1 tablespoon cornstarch
¼–½ cup cold water
Add scallions, ginger, and broth to a pot and allow to boil. While waiting for the broth to heat, crack open all of the eggs into a mixing bowl. Beat with a mixer or a whisk until they are well blended. In a separate cup, mix cornstarch and cold water; stir until dissolved and well blended. Once the broth is at a rolling boil, gently and slowly pour the egg into the broth, keeping the bowl moving at all times as if drizzling the egg in. If the broth stops boiling, stop pouring and allow the water to heat back up to the rolling boil. Once all of the egg has been poured in, slowly pour the cornstarch mixture into the boiling soup and stir. Allow to boil for 3 minutes to thicken up the soup.
Crafts
Ostara crafts are a fun way to be creative with your group or family during this holiday season. Spring is a wonderful time to begin new projects as well. Have fun and let the creativity flow with these fun projects.
Cascarones
Homemade cascarones can be filled with whatever you can fit into them. Glitter or chalk powder can make them a whole lot of fun and a huge mess, which makes them great for outdoor use.
You will need:
• Hollowed out whole eggshells, either real or papier-mâché
• Filling (glitter, chalk powder, confetti, herbs, etc.)
• Decorations (paint or dye, markers, stickers, etc.)
• Small funnel made of paper to fill eggs
• Tape or glue to close after filling (optional)
When making cascarones out of real eggs, there are a few tips to keep in mind. First of all, it’s a lot of work. You have to poke holes in both sides of the egg and blow out all of the white and yolk, which can actually be painful, as well as a pain. Then you need to make sure you rinse them out really well so they don’t start smelling bad in a couple of days. After that, you have to give them time to dry so whatever you stuff them with doesn’t just stick to the inside of the shell. Another option is to use papier-mâché eggs from a craft store.
Before you fill the eggs, whether real or papier-mâché, you will want to decorate them, either with dyes, paints, stickers, or even crayons. Now would be a fun time to experiment with making natural dyes and see how that turns out. If it doesn’t turn out too great, it doesn’t matter too much as you are just going to smash it anyway!
Once the eggshells are decorated, you have to actually fill them with something, which means one of your holes should be large enough to get things in, while the other is still small enough to not let things out. This is why glitter and chalk dust are great materials to use. A small paper funnel rolled just right will quickly fill eggs one right after another. Fill them as full as you want. The more you fill them, the more mess you can make, which can be kind of fun!
To actually use the cascarones, you simply throw them at people. When they make contact, they will explode, covering the intended with whatever is inside (particularly glitter and chalk dust!) Be careful using real eggs, as there is a possibility of actually hurting someone this way. Broken eggshells can be very sharp and cut people, so the papier-mâché versions do offer a safety benefit. Also with the paper papier-mâché eggs, you will find they have a good size hole to fill them that is often covered with a piece of thin paper. You can carefully remove this paper and add more ingredients to go along with the confetti, or remove the confetti altogether to fill completely with your own ingredients. All you have to do then is simply tape or glue the covering piece of paper back into place.
If you are making the eggs just for fun, you don’t have to worry too much about things like colors or what they are filled with, but you can also use cascarones in a spiritual manner. To use them spiritually, you will need a good list of correspondences including colors, herbs, and oils. When you are preparing each cascarone with a specific person in mind, you will want to paint or dye it in colors that will have some significance for the intended. Are they in desperate need of money? Paint the shell green with dollar signs on it. Do they have trouble sleeping? Perhaps a gentle blue or a peaceful lavender with some Zzzzzzzzs will help do the trick. If you are making them for a lot of people, mark them with the person’s name or initials, or keep a list with the person’s name and a description of what their cascarone looks like. Just make sure you have some way to ensure the right cascarone ends up with the correct person.
After the cascarones are decorated with the spiritual symbols, you will need to fill them with items that correspond with the need of the person or the blessing you would like to bestow upon them. For the person in need of money, some green glitter along with some green chalk dust and a bit of oak moss would make a nice combination. For the person who can’t sleep, you can mix light blue and lavender glitters and chalk dust along with some lavender buds and perhaps a little valerian.
When “bestowing” these blessings on someone, it is best to give the egg a little crack on the edge of something first and then pull it apart slowly over their head. Move it around while pouring it over them so everything doesn’t dump out in one big pile. If you smash the egg directly on top of someone’s head, it will hurt and you run the risk of cutting them with sharp eggshells. These will make plenty of mess, so be prepared to do it outside. You may want to provide a towel to cover people’s clothes. Be prepared to do plenty of vacuuming later on because, even when done outside, a lot of ingredients will get tracked and carried back inside.
Eggshell Plant Pots
These are fun little crafts to make for people of all ages. They can also be used to decorate your altar if you like.
What you’ll need:
• Eggshells—Keep as much of the egg whole as you can, breaking out just the top of the small end
• Potting soil
• Grass seed (cat grass is a good one to use)
• Paint
• Glue
• Any color pipe cleaner
Begin by making the stand for the egg out of the pipe cleaner. Wrap it in a circle several times at the bottom of the egg, giving it a little stand to set in. Glue the egg to the stand and let the glue dry. You can make all of the stands ahead of time so that when the kids or guests are ready they can just spend time decorating them and then planting the seeds.
Paint the eggshells any way you like. You can make them look like people (perhaps have a contest to see who can make their egg look the most like themselves or maybe a famous person). You can decorate them with symbols such as runes, zodiac signs, pentagrams, or any other symbols you find appropriate. These could be used as altar decorations. They can also just be painted in solid colors. Whatever you want to do with them is up to you.
Once they are painted, they will need to dry. You may use markers to color them instead of paint to decrease the drying time, but you can get a better color choice by going with paints.
When they are all dry, use a spoon to add some potting soil to your egg planter and then add lots of the grass seed and water. Cat grass grows relatively quickly, so it shouldn’t take long before you start seeing sprouts come up. Make sure to check the dampness of the soil every day to make sure they are getting enough water. With the small amount of soil in the eggs, they will dry up rather quickly.
Painted Garden Stones
Garden stones can be painted to be used as markers for what is planted in the garden or they can be used as decoration in flower gardens, fairy gardens, and smaller planters. They can line sidewalks, ponds, or birdbaths. They can also be placed just about anywhere you can think of to liven up a dull area or to make a serene location even more special and personalized.
Believe it or not, they now have premade craft kits you can buy to make these, though that seems to take away most of the fun. A premade kit really limits your creativity to what is in the kit, from the type and size of the stones to the color paint. You also won’t find any other kind of embellishments that you could add if you come up with your own ideas.
If not using a kit, you’ll need:
• Stones
• Outdoor paint
• Glitter and spray adhesive (optional)
• Outdoor paint sealer
You can buy small bags of tumbled stones at craft stores (usually in the floral department as they are used for weighing down vases) and at dollar stores. Those stones will be rather small in size, a couple of inches at most, but that size is good for planters or terrariums or even for altar decorations.
It may take a little more imagination to find larger stones. If you are tilling the ground to plant a garden, chances are you will find at least a few. These stones are usually rougher as they have been sitting in the ground and not exposed to the elements. Smoother stones can be found on beaches, especially if you wade out into the water a little bit. You may also find stones at riverbanks, though generally a lake will have far more. If you don’t have access to any of the above, you can check with a local landscaper. You will have to pay for them of course, but it is another option. Garden markers don’t need to be terribly big—fist-size usually works well. If you can get free rocks, then larger is always okay, too.
Make sure any paint you buy is marked “outdoor” paint, so you don’t waste time painting only to have a rain come along and erase everything you did. You can also invest in a paint sealer (also marked “outdoor”) to help the paint last even longer. If you want to add glitter, you will want an assortment of colors and a spray adhesive. Paint the rock first, then use the spray adhesive, followed by the glitter. When everything has completely dried, you will spray the sealer over everything to protect it all. You can also use rhinestones or other embellishments, but these are a lot more difficult to attach. Look for glue that is outdoor safe and does not have to be used with a porous material. Rocks just aren’t very good for soaking things in!
Once you have gathered your stones and your supplies, it’s time to get creative! While in the vegetable garden you may just want to mark the rows with what is in each one; you can use more than just words. If you are artistic at all, you can paint a picture of the item. Just about anyone can paint a tomato or a carrot. Most vegetables are pretty simple to paint, actually, so you can either put just the word, just the picture, or both. You can also decorate them with painted leaves or flowers as well.
Rocks in flower gardens, fairy gardens, or wherever you want can be done a bit more creatively. Maybe you want to create a peaceful feeling. A great way to do that is to paint words that help create that feeling and then decorate around them with painted flowers, glitter, or other types of embellishments.
Here are some words that can be used to help create that perfect location: serene, serenity; tranquil, tranquility; peace, peaceful, peace of mind; relax, relaxed, relaxation; Zen; Om; calm, calmness; quietude; harmony, harmonious; soothing. Or you may try: cheer; merriment; enjoy; happy, happiness; bliss, blissful; ecstasy; pleasure; joy, joyful; delight, delighted, delightful.
Perhaps you would like: hope, hopeful, hopefulness; faith; love; patience; paradise; euphoria; heaven; elation, elated. Or you could use: blessed, blessed be; dreams, dreamy, dreamland; enchantment, enchant, enchanting; beguile, beguiling; bewitch, bewitching; spellbinding; charm, charmed, charming; enrapture; entice, enticing; fascinate, fascinating. These suggestions can also get you started on a list of your own. Come up with more ideas.
You can also write brief quotes on rocks or break up quotes to go across several rocks. You could use this from Puck in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: “If we shadows have offended, think but this, and all is mended, That you have but slumbered here while these visions did appear.” This is a great quote to include in a fairy garden, as are many more from this Shakespearean play. A little research for famous quotes on a specific topic will give you all kinds of results of different things you can work with.
Ostara Terrariums
Even if you can’t do any type of outside gardening, you can create an indoor garden with a simple terrarium. Terrariums can be made out of all kinds of things. Generally people use aquariums that have had a seal leak and can no longer hold water for fish. There are tons of other ways to make terrariums though. Any type of a waterproof container, or a container that can be made to be waterproof, can serve as the terrarium base. This is another great way to reuse and upcycle items that would otherwise get thrown in the trash. Everything from an old hardcover book to a wine bottle to a light bulb (not fluorescent) can be turned into a terrarium with the proper tools.
Using old books to make a terrarium may take a lot of time, but it creates a really spectacular look. Here are the supplies you’ll need to make a terrarium from a book:
• An old book (thrift stores or library book sales have them really cheap if you don’t have some at home)
• Glue (for paper)
• A pencil
• A utility knife
• Plastic sheeting
• Clay (any kind of modeling clay that can be used for
waterproofing)
• Potting soil, plants, small stones, or other embellishments
Your first step will be to decide whether to leave the front cover intact. If the book has beautiful endpapers, it can be nice to let the front cover lie open, but if you are short on space you may want the book to be closed. If it will stay closed, start by drawing the shape you want the hole to be on the front cover of the book. Very carefully cut it out with the utility knife. Close the book and, using that opening as your guide, trace the opening with a pencil so it appears on the first sheet of paper. Keeping the book closed (if you open the book, the holes won’t line up right), use the knife and cut through several layers of the paper following the pattern. Once you remove those pages, do it several more times until you get most of the way through the book. You do not want to cut all the way down to the back cover. Keep about ¼ to ½ inch uncut to add to the base.
If you are starting with an open book, draw the shape on the top page. Then leave the book open while you cut the holes in the pages. Continue the same way as the closed book, cutting until there is a ¼ to ½ inch base.
Next, starting with the back of the book, glue the last page to the back cover, then the next page to the bottom and so on. When you get to the part that is cut out, you will continue gluing the pages together until you reach the front cover, leave that loose for now. If using an open book, leave several of the top pages loose for now.
The next step is to work on waterproofing. Take the clay and totally cover the bottom and the sides of the cavity you have created. Make sure there are no areas where water can get through and get into the pages of the book. You will need to follow the directions on the clay for letting it harden, though you obviously can’t use a kiln or even an oven at too high of a temperature. After the clay has dried, add some plastic sheeting or wrapping for extra protection and glue the overlap down in between the top page and the book cover. If using an open book, glue the plastic between the last glued page and the loose ones. Then glue down any other loose pages. Gently fill the cavity with potting soil and add your plants along with any other embellishments, such as stones or moss, that you wish to include.
The plants you choose for these terrariums is important, as you will need ones that don’t have giant root systems. Air plants are ideal for small terrariums. Air plants, also known as Tillandsia, do not need dirt to grow, but they do need water and plant food in order to thrive. Bonsai trees can also be planted if you have enough room and the tree is small enough.
Whatever you plant, you can also decorate these terrariums for different times of the year. An Ostara terrarium could include some of the fake colored grass used in baskets this time of year. Miniature items can often be found in craft stores for several holidays including Easter, which uses much of the same decorations and symbols as Ostara. Miniature baskets, bunnies, chicks, eggs, and even chickens are some of the items you should be able to find. If your craft store doesn’t have anything small in the seasonal section, check in the dollhouse section. It’s truly amazing some of the things you can find in miniature sizes these days. Pastel colored beads, glitter, sequins, or confetti can all help to make your terrarium festive. These items can all be changed out for different decorations later on. Small terrariums are a great way to add the earth element to your altar for sabbat rituals, particularly if you decorate them for the sabbat itself.
Decorate with Colors
Another great way to spruce up your surroundings is by bringing some colorful decorations into your home and/or your altar. The colors associated with Ostara are generally pastels. Pastels are associated with spring and babies—which in the animal world we see plenty of during the springtime.
Yellow is one of the most dominant colors at Ostara, and it is seen in the natural world as well. We see it in daffodils, crocuses, and tulips. It’s also seen in baby chicks that start off usually yellow (some brown or black), and then when their pinfeathers come in they are a different color. By the time they are fully grown they are completely different colors from what they were when they were hatched. Yellow is also connected with the sun, which is now showing its power over the dark as the days grow longer than the night.
Orange is another color that represents the sun. Though it isn’t used as often in Ostara celebrations, you can use the symbols or likeness of a big orange sun to decorate your altar. It is associated with friendship and attraction.
Green is another big color at Ostara, as the earth itself is beginning to turn green—from the grass to the buds that are starting to come out on the trees to the leaves and stems of flowers bursting through the ground. It represents fertility and abundance, and it soothes difficult situations.
Blue is for peace and tranquility. The lighter shades, such as baby blue, are associated with spring, and the Goddess in her maiden form. Blue is also another popular color of the crocus, hence one of the reasons it is associated with spring. One of the first signs spring has arrived in the north is the sighting of the bird the robin. When the robin returns, it builds its nest and lays its eggs, which are a beautiful, almost sky-blue color. Speaking of the sky, the winter in some places is often very dingy and gray with a whole lot of overcast skies. The sun doesn’t get to shine down upon us too often, so when the gray clouds clear away and the sun comes out, the great big blue sky is a most welcome sight.
Violet is probably the second or third most popular color for Ostara, in a close race with pink. Violet is another color of the crocus and obviously the spring flower violets. The color violet is associated with spirituality. It complements yellow very well and is also used in its lighter shade of lavender.
Pink is highly associated with spring. Many fruit trees bloom in either pink or white, so in the spring, pink blossoms are everywhere. Pink crocuses can push their way up through snow-covered ground. The crocus is a very hearty early flower that serves a purpose—it lets people know that even if the ground is covered with snow, the earth is waking up underneath it all and pushing itself onward. Pink is also associated with love, compassion, and household peace. This color also complements yellow very well, and the two are often paired up together for decorations.
White is the color of new beginnings, like a fresh piece of paper just waiting to be written on. It is a color of innocence (the maiden), purification, and healing. Many spring flowers, including the crocus and snowdrops, and many fruit tree blossoms are white.
There are different ways to incorporate any of these colors into your decorations and altar. Of course there are candles. This time of year you can usually find candles in these colors in the shape of an egg. You can also decorate actual eggs in these colors and put them in a small basket on your altar. You can even use the plastic eggs used in egg hunts.
Ribbons are a great way to add color to your altar, and they can be used in different ways. You can tie ribbons around the base of candles or onto ritual tools. Ribbons can be draped over other decorations such as flowers or a basket. Ribbons can also be cut into lengths two to five inches long and used as confetti.
Small knickknacks of rabbits and chicks can add to your altar as well. Thrift stores are a great place to look for your decorations, as you will not only save money, you will often be able to find things that you can’t find in a regular store anymore. The styles are different, and the medium/material used to make it may be different as well. Plastic is the big material used today, but at a thrift store you may be able to find wood or glass for the same, if not lower, price.
Of course any of the crafts you create can be incorporated into your altar setup as well. One of the great things about Ostara is that it is very easy for people who are not out of the closet to be able to decorate and celebrate it without people really knowing. It often falls close enough to Easter that the timing isn’t too much of a giveaway. It also uses so many of the same colors and symbols that it would be hard to tell the difference between a home decorated for Ostara and one decorated for Easter—other than things such as signs that say “Happy Easter!” which will most likely be lacking in a Pagan home.