Ostara, or the Spring Equinox, is on March 20th this year in the Northern Hemisphere. It is when the day and night are equal in length and it sits opposite Mabon (the Autumn Equinox) on the Wheel of the Year:
At Imbolc, we celebrated the promise of Spring. Ostara is the actual coming of Spring, and we celebrate the rebirth of the plants and the promise of growth and harvest. The days are obviously warmer and longer, and from this day until the Summer Solstice, they will keep getting longer. Common symbols of Ostara are rabbits, eggs, spring flowers, and pastel colors. This video tells the story of the mythology of Ostara and explains the significance of rabbits and eggs:
I did quite a few Ostara posts last year, showing vegan candy options and how to put together a vegan Ostara or Easter basket.
I also did recipe posts on a rustic spring roasted dinner,
white chocolate coconut nests,
And peanut butter eggs!
Chocolate covered cherries, five cup fruit salad, ranch dressing, potato salad, raspberry poppy seed dressing, five bean salad, lemonaise, orange julius, and honee would also be great recipes for Ostara or Easter, and I will be sharing some new recipes and crafts over the next 10 days!
My mom and I spent more than 10 hours watching a lot of YouTube videos to get new ideas for celebrating Ostara! We can hopefully save you some time by only sharing our favorites. The first ones are about the Goddess Eostre or are overviews of Ostara, and the latter ones give ideas for how to celebrate:
I made a lemon bundt cake to have with tea while we watched the videos. I still need to tweak the recipe, but will share it soon!
Then, we listened to my Ostara music playlist (video is at the bottom of this post) while we replanted the seedlings we had started at Imbolc. Unfortunately, the pods got moldy so I don’t know if the seedlings will survive. We did our best to give them a chance though!
I get sterile water every month for my ventilator heater in these bottles. I don’t like to waste anything, so I always save the empty bottles for food storage. They make nice little planters too!
My mom cut the bottoms off, and then drilled four drainage holes in each one:
Then we added potting soil and transferred our seedlings:
We used a plastic lid to hold the containers so any water dripping through the drainage holes won’t damage our table:
Here is some of our thyme,
Parsley,
Sage,
And our single rosemary:
Finally, we watered our baby plants with snow water from Imbolc. If anyone has any other suggestions for how to keep them alive, please let me know!
I hope this post gives you some good ideas for celebrating a vegan Ostara (or Easter)! My mom and I wish you many Spring Blessings!
Thank you for helping to make the planning easier by including the links to your previous Ostara/Easter posts and recommending some of your other recipes that would be a good fit for this occasion.
This is just about my favorite time of the year. New life, longer days and Summer is still ahead. The beauty of the fresh greenery and the fragrant flowers makes me smile. Thank goodness I do not have Springtime allergies!
Well, except for Easter lilies. Ha.
Last year, I started seeds in an egg carton. I did not plant them in time, they over grew- causing the roots to go down into the cardboard. The carton then turned moldy. I did not think that I should plant moldy cardboard bits, so I tried to seperate the roots from the carton.
I planted them. Sadly, non of them survived. I was so disappointed in myself. I would have had tomatoes, carrots, zucchini, green beans, peas, watermelon, yellow squash, radishes and pumpkins.
I ended up buying a few tomato plants and a strawberry plant from my local farmers market, to try and make up for the loss.
So, I hope and wish for all the best for your little sprouts!
I have not listened to your full holiday play list, yet. I like the music of Celtic Woman in general. Their renditions of Orinoco Flow, May It Be, My Lagan Love, O Danny Boy, Somewhere Over The Rainbow, Beyond The Sea, You Raise Me Up and so on, are great.
Though not directly related to the arrival of Spring, I have been playing Enya’s Caribbean Blue and Sumiregusa (wild violet), which in my opinion are two of her most beautiful songs. If you have never heard “You Are Loved (don’t give up)” by Josh Groban- it’s an uplifting song. Good any time of year.
I look forward to the rest of your new Ostara posts! I know the bundt cake will turn out nice.
Will The Plant Based Egg be available this month, or next month?
Hi Elizabeth! That’s too bad about your seedlings from last year! I’m still not sure any of mine will survive, but they are looking a little better since we repotted them. I did plant more seeds just in case, and we will be buying some plants at Beltane too.
I love both Celtic Woman and Enya! I had not heard “You Are Loved” but listened to it and it is beautiful too.
My mom and I colored vegan craft eggs yesterday, and I made hot cross buns today! Those posts will both be up soon!
The Plant Based Egg is ready to ship, but we are still working on getting the website and online store up and running. You should be able to order it in about a week!
Great! Thank you! Yes, I think I will try to plant new seedlings this year. Around the equinox, or thereafter. I am thinking of putting seeds inside some of the hallow vegan eggs that will be hidden for the egg hunt. Then the finders could take them home to their own garden to plant, or just plant them at mine. Perhaps I will just skip the egg carton stint. Actually, I suppose I could start seeds inside of plastic egg halves. That way I can still have festive green sprouts to display for the occasion. I’ll have to think of a seed that sprouts bushy and full.
I found vegan bunny lollipops this year! Gummy bears and worms, too. Vegan according to their website. It’s Surf Sweet by Wholesome Sweeteners.
Congratulations to Gus! That’s great. 🙂
Hi Elizabeth! Your egg hunt sounds like it is going to be fabulous! Surf Sweets is a great company and they do have quite a few vegan options!
Thank you!
You’re very welcome!
Thank you for this post. This will be my first vegan Equinox/Easter. The videos are informative. The links to other related posts make navigating easier. My celebration this year, will begin on the Equinox and stretch past Easter Sunday. I am still in the planning stage, so this post is helpful. I will definitely include some of your recipes. I like the roasted dinners, the bean salad, lemonaise and all the treats.
One of my relatives favorite sweets are chocolate covered cherries, so I’ll have to get to work on that asap.
I think I may serve scrambled tofu sandwiches. My family likes to serve fluffy scrambled eggs between pieces of buttered toast.
It will be nice to see the new recipes you post.
I just completed my first full three weeks of 100% vegan meals. It was easy, actually. I ate plenty of oatmeal, bean burritos, salads, protein shakes, fruit, dark chocolate and so on. I am still learning. I am trying out bean pastas now. I’m glad that I can buy wheat-free vegan tortillas where I live. Bread, too. The food has not been bland at all. Peaches and vanilla cream protein shake? Not bland. Carrot spice oatmeal with walnuts? Not bland. Sweet oranges? Not bland. Perfectly seasoned vegan refried beans with flavorful medium heat salsa, wrapped in a soft flour tortilla. Not bland, actually. Dark chocolate with crushed coffee beans. Definitely not bland. All affordable in my local area as well.
Thank you for inspiring me. Thank you for creating this blog.
– Gus
Congratulations on three weeks vegan, Gus!!! That is very exciting and I am thrilled to have played a small part in your success! You are making some fabulous-sounding meals!
I fully support celebrating holidays for as long as possible! Definitely make the chocolate covered cherries up ahead of time because they get so much better as the fondant melts. Please let me know how everything turns out!
I have to go make some scrambled tofu now to eat on buttered toast! I always serve it with roasted potatoes, but sandwiches would be quicker and just as yummy!
Thank you. It feels good!
I credit my mom for the fluffy scrambled egg buttered toast sandwich. Easy eats.
So, long story short: plans did not go as planned. I was not able to host my family get-together this year, so my Easter celebration was not fully vegan. My family used real eggs to dye, though they were the backyard ones I mentioned under the craft egg post. I shared the vegan info videos with my curious family members and the information was well received. I was able to bring many dishes with me, potluck style. Many of the recipes were from this site. My family was impressed. The chocolate covered cherries were appreciated by my relative. She said “this is vegan!?”. Win. I also brought some “craft” stuff with me, like smooth egg shaped rocks for the kids to paint and set out in the garden. I knew the typical hollow plastic eggs would already be there.
I brought a sturdy poster board with pieces of colored, decorated paper cut into egg shapes, that were taped loosely against the board to create pockets. Inside the pockets were little treats, coins, paper money, play coupons and so on. The kids prick the paper eggs to spill the goods.
I let my clever relatives figure out how to make a game of it. Anyway, the stuff I brought ended up being more popular with the kiddos than dyeing eggs. So, not bad. Not what I was going for, but there will be other times.
My personal Equinox celebrations were excellent. Very meaningful. I spent a lot of time outdoors in nature.
I’m delighted that your vegan dishes and crafts went over so well! It sounds like a great success to me, and I really appreciate your sharing your experiences with everyone here! I’m glad you had a good Spring Equinox as well. Sometimes solitary celebrations are the most meaningful. I also find that being outdoors in nature is when I feel the most connected and grounded. Thanks again for sharing, Gus!