How to create an Ostara altar for the spring equinox?

An Ostara altar is not a reconstruction of an attested Anglo-Saxon rite. It is a modern Neopagan creation intended to mark the spring equinox. This clarification does not diminish its ritual value; it simply helps distinguish what we know about the ancient Ēostre from what contemporary traditions have developed around her.

The most important ancient source is Bede the Venerable. In De temporum ratione, in the 8th century, he explains that the Anglo-Saxon month corresponding approximately to April was called Eosturmonath and had once borne the name of a goddess called Ēostre, in whose honor festivals had been celebrated. However, Bede describes neither an altar, painted eggs, a rabbit, ritual colors, nor associations with stones.

The word Ostara belongs to a much later period. In the 19th century, Jacob Grimm proposed in his Deutsche Mythologie the existence of a continental Germanic form, *Ostara*, reconstructed from Bede's account and linguistic considerations. The figure of Ostara familiar to us today owes much to this Romantic reconstruction, and later to 20th-century Neopaganism.

Is Ostara an ancient equinox festival?

Not in its current form. Bede mentions a month and a goddess, but he does not say that her festival took place precisely on the astronomical day of the equinox.

The Wheel of the Year with its eight festivals, as it is used today in Wicca and many Neopagan traditions, took shape in the 20th century. It brings together the four major solar points - solstices and equinoxes - and four seasonal festivals drawn in particular from Celtic or British calendars.

Ronald Hutton showed that modern calendar festivals are not simply intact survivals of pre-Christian religion. They were shaped from folk traditions, ancient texts, folklore, Romanticism, and contemporary ritual creations.

Our article Neopaganism: History, Traditions, and Practices explores this distinction between historical continuity and modern reconstruction.

When should you set up an Ostara altar?

In the Northern Hemisphere, Neopagans generally celebrate Ostara around the March equinox. The astronomical date varies slightly from year to year and according to time zone; it usually falls around March 20.

There is therefore no need to fix Ostara from March 20 to 22 as an ancient three-day festival. You can set up your altar on the day of the equinox, a few days before, or when spring actually becomes perceptible in your region.

Our Sabbats calendar lets you find the updated dates of the Wheel of the Year.

Should the altar be dedicated to Ēostre?

Only if that corresponds to your tradition.

Bede names Ēostre but does not transmit any hymn, prayer, offering, or cult image to us. We therefore have no historical ritual that would allow us to say, “this is how the Anglo-Saxons honored Ēostre.”

A contemporary altar may choose to evoke this goddess, but it must be acknowledged as a modern reconstruction. You can also simply celebrate the equinox, the return of vegetation, the lengthening days, or your own relationship with the season without dedicating the space to a deity.

There is no historical reason to automatically place Freyja on it. The Norse goddess has her own traditions; identifying her with Ēostre because both are associated today with spring or fertility mixes two different bodies of tradition.

What should you place on a spring altar?

The most coherent approach is to start from the season actually visible around you.

A budding branch, a few seasonal flowers, a small pot of soil, seeds to sow, a bowl of clear water, or an object found during a walk are enough to create a very clear altar. The idea is less to accumulate “Ostara correspondences” than to make the transition from winter to spring tangible.

Daffodils, primroses, violets, or young shoots may be suitable when they are locally present. Avoid picking protected plants or flowers on land where gathering is prohibited.

A seasonal altar can also remain extremely simple: a candle, a few seeds, and a flowering branch may be more coherent than a table covered with objects chosen solely because a modern chart classifies them as “Ostara correspondences.”

Are green, yellow, and pastel colors traditional?

They are primarily contemporary.

Green for vegetation, yellow for the Sun, pink for flowers, or white for light form an easy-to-understand symbolic language. But no Anglo-Saxon source provides a color code for Ostara.

You can therefore use these colors as a modern convention, without attributing an imagined antiquity to them.

To place these associations within the broader history of occultism, see The Language of Colors in Magic and Occultism.

Are eggs really connected to Ostara?

Eggs are a very ancient symbol of life and birth, but their presence in European spring customs does not prove the existence of an ancestral rite dedicated to Ēostre.

Ronald Hutton recalls in The Stations of the Sun that decorated eggs given as gifts at Easter are very well attested historically in Europe and Western Asia. In Christian Europe, their importance is also linked to Lent: egg consumption was restricted during the fast, which encouraged their abundance and exchange around Easter.

It is therefore too simplistic to claim: “Christians adopted the eggs of Ostara’s pagan festival.” Spring egg traditions have their own history.

Nevertheless, there is nothing stopping you from using a painted egg on a Neopagan altar today. It is enough to regard it as a contemporary symbol of germination and birth, enriched by a very long European history of spring customs.

And what about Ostara’s rabbit or hare?

The association between Ēostre and a hare transformed into a bird, or between the goddess and a rabbit that laid eggs, circulates widely online. It does not appear in Bede.

The connections between the hare, spring, fertility, and Easter have a real folkloric history, but the famous story of “Ostara’s companion” is a later reconstruction.

You can therefore place a representation of a hare on a modern altar if this symbol evokes spring for you, but it is better not to present it as the documented historical attribute of an Anglo-Saxon goddess.

Should crystals be added to the altar?

No. Stones do not belong to any historically attested tradition of Ostara.

Jade, rose quartz, aventurine, and citrine appear in contemporary lists because they are now attributed with qualities associated with growth, love, or the Sun. These associations belong to lithotherapy and modern esotericism.

If a stone already has a place in your practice, you can use it. It is simply not necessary for an altar to be “complete.”

Are a cauldron or chalice necessary?

No more than that.

The cauldron, chalice, athame, wand, and pentacle belong to different modern ritual systems. Their presence depends on the tradition followed, not on the sabbat itself.

An equinox altar therefore does not need to bring together a mandatory list of tools. If you practice a form of Wicca with a defined altar arrangement, follow that system. Otherwise, simply remain faithful to the purpose of your space.

You can find the shop's altar items if you would like to set up a permanent space, but a seasonal altar can be composed almost entirely of items you already have at home.

Where should you place the altar?

Placing an altar in the North systematically is not a universal rule.

In some modern ceremonial systems, the North is associated with Earth; in other traditions, the altar is placed in the East, in the center, or according to the architecture of the space. A religious household shrine follows yet other practices.

For a personal seasonal altar, choose a stable, clean, and accessible place. Avoid areas where objects could be knocked over, and keep candles away from fabrics, dried flowers, and branches.

Natural light can be useful, but it is not a ritual requirement.

How do you build a simple Ostara altar?

Begin by emptying and cleaning the space. Then place in the center an item that represents the return of spring to you: a flowering branch, a small pot of seeds, or a candle.

Add a second living element or one intended to become living: seeds, a bulb, a young shoot, or a seasonal bouquet. A bowl of water can evoke spring rains and the renewal of vegetation.

If you wish to use decorated eggs, place one or more as a symbol of birth. A hare representation can be added as a reference to modern spring folklore, without claiming that it reproduces an ancient altar to Ēostre.

A green, yellow, or white candle can complete the arrangement. These colors are chosen for their current symbolic clarity, not because an Anglo-Saxon code was passed down to us.

What should you do in front of this altar?

An altar does not need to be purely decorative. You can use it as a gathering point for a few days to observe the seasonal transition.

One simple practice is to place seeds on it and then sow them after the equinox. The seed then becomes a genuine link between the symbolic gesture and the natural cycle.

You can also write down what you would like to begin during the season, read a few pages about local plants, keep a journal of the buds' development, or simply light a candle at sunset.

This simplicity has one advantage: it prevents Ostara from becoming an accumulation of ready-made correspondences.

Can you make an offering on the altar?

Yes, provided you know who or what you are making an offering to.

If your practice is devotional and you honor a particular deity, follow that deity’s customs rather than a generic list of “Ostara foods.”

If the altar celebrates only the season, you can symbolically place a piece of bread, a few seeds, or an item from your meal, then remove it after the rite. It then becomes a personal gesture of gratitude, not a reproduction of a known Anglo-Saxon custom.

Avoid leaving milk, honey, or sugary foods outside in nature under the pretext of making an offering: they can disturb or make certain animals ill. A respectful gesture can be as simple as planting a suitable plant, feeding your compost, or maintaining a green space.

Which foods are actually in season?

Bananas, strawberries, apricots, and honey are sometimes presented as “Ostara foods,” but this list has no historical basis, and several of these products do not even correspond to the beginning of spring in mainland France.

A seasonal meal depends on the climate and local agriculture. At the end of winter and beginning of spring, depending on the region, you are more likely to find leeks, spinach, cabbages, early radishes, young shoots, herbs, stored apples, eggs, and the first spring vegetables.

The best way to give a meal seasonal meaning is therefore to look at what actually grows around you rather than follow an international esoteric list.

Should the Goddess and God be represented?

Only if your tradition requires it.

The “Goddess and God” pairing belongs especially to certain forms of Wicca and modern neopaganism. It is not the known theology of the Anglo-Saxons in Bede’s time.

A Wiccan Ostara altar can perfectly well use this structure within Wicca. A Germanic polytheist, an eclectic neopagan, or someone celebrating only the equinox has no obligation to adopt it.

To understand how these systems were formed, see Who Is Gerald Gardner?.

Does the altar need to remain in place for several days?

There is no required duration.

You can set it up just for the day of the equinox, keep it for a week, or let it evolve until Beltane. A seasonal altar can even remain in place all year and change gradually with the plants, fruits, leaves, and lights available.

This gradual approach fits well with what the equinox actually marks: not the sudden arrival of spring in a single day, but an astronomical moment within a longer climatic and biological transition.

A modern altar does not need to pretend to be ancient

This is probably the most important point. We know very little about the festival Bede refers to. Filling in the gaps with pastel eggs, a statue of Freyja, rose quartz, a cauldron, rabbits, and a triple-moon tablecloth may produce a beautiful contemporary altar, but not a historical reconstruction.

Neopaganism does not need this false antiquity to be legitimate. A practice created in the 20th or 21st century can be meaningful if it acknowledges its sources and its time.

You can therefore build an Ostara altar from simple things: what is growing now, what you want to begin, and how the spring light changes your daily life.

Our article The Ostara Sabbat presents this modern festival in greater detail, while the Sabbat calendar places it within the Wheel of the Year.

Sources and references

For the ancient testimony concerning Ēostre: Bede the Venerable, De temporum ratione, chapter 15, composed in the 8th century. A translation of the passage devoted to Eosturmonath is available on Tertullian.org, based on Faith Wallis's scholarly translation.

For the caution needed when approaching reconstructions of pagan spring festivals: Michael Alexander, “Rites of Spring: Imagining Origins”, Cambridge University Press, 2021.

For the modern history of paganism and seasonal reconstructions: Ronald Hutton, “The Origins of Modern Paganism”, Gresham College, 2024, and The Triumph of the Moon, Oxford University Press.

For the history of Easter eggs in Europe: Ronald Hutton, “An Egg at Easter”, in The Stations of the Sun, Oxford University Press, 1996.

Cover image: Ostara by Johannes Gehrts, 1884. It is a romantic representation from the 19th century, not an ancient image of the goddess. Public-domain work preserved on Wikimedia Commons.