Happy Ostara!

Happy Ostara!

Sorry this one is a little bit late. It's been a crazy, busy, very festive weekend. Spring is finally, officially here and I'm loving every sunny moment of it.

I've been thinking for a week how I wanted to approach this post. I knew I didn't want to give you the same "This is what Ostara is" spiel that you can find with one quick google search. That's boring. If you want to know the history of Ostara and the technical information, Wikipedia has a pretty good explanation. Instead I think I'm going to go with a more personal approach and just mull over how the Spring Equinox matters in my life. Maybe it'll give you some things to consider as you celebrate spring.

Every year my Sabbat celebrations look different from the years previous. I haven't yet built any real traditions, not having children to pass traditions onto. My family largely doesn't celebrate my holidays either, so it gives me the freedom to go with the wind on how I want to honor the seasons.

This year my family's St Patrick's Day dinner got pushed back a few days due to work schedules, so it landed on Ostara. The table was decorated green and gold, with lots of food and even more drink. To the family it was St Patrick's Day dinner. In my head, we were celebrating the first day of Spring. I even provided myself a bottle of last year's dandelion wine, and some Green Goddess pudding for dessert. It was more of a personal celebration than anything, but enjoyable none the less. We enjoyed each other's company, spent time outside in the fresh air and sunshine, and I even got to play on the teeter-totter! (In my new Vibrams of course!)

Today is the real treat! I attended my friends' open circle put on by their Coven, complete with feasting and merry making! A true Ostara celebration in the company of fellow Pagans. I couldn't think of a better way to welcome Spring. Well, I could... but it's not appropriate for all audiences. Again, I'll be toting along a bottle of my home-made brew, and perhaps a few other springtime gifts. Not to worry, I'll be all about making dandelion wine very soon. I just have to wait for the dandelions to appear, then I'll share my project with you!

So what does Ostara mean to me, outside of all the fun and feasting? Of course there's the whole "Fertility Festival" side of the Sabbat, but being single and not wanting to be fertile and raise babies yet, I'm not all that focused on bunnies and whatnot. No breeding like rabbits here! I have been up to my eyeballs in eggs, but alas brown eggs aren't that great for coloring. The colors all come out a little... well... brown. Who wants to eat a dirty-looking Easter egg? I'd rather pickle them.

Mostly my celebration of Ostara consists of jumping clean into the renewal and rebirth aspects of the holiday. I'm expressing a good deal of it through my obsessive Spring Cleaning & Cleansing. I have to say, the house is looking and feeling so much better! But it's more of a spiritual, emotional and relational spring cleaning that I need to do.

Taking stock of friendships and relationships, or the lack there of is hard work, but it's gotta be done. It's time to dust out the cobwebs and start putting a little elbow grease on those! No time like the present, right? And of course there's that business about being single. I suppose springtime is a good time to take care of that. I am working on preparing for the planting season and getting the garden going, and as part of that I planted an avocado seed, with the hope that it'll maybe bring me a little springtime love. You remember in the movie, Bambi, that when spring came around, all the animals got "twitterpated?" Yup, that's what Ostara is really all about. Nature and people getting "twitterpated." It really is something in the air. Can't you feel it too?

And let's not forget the spirit. If there's one thing that needs some renewal after a long, dreary winter, it's the spirit. The Unitarian Universalist fellowship I've been attending (I still hesitate to say "my church" as it doesn't really feel like it yet) is organizing a fantastic workshop called "Building Your Own Theology." It sounds like just the thing I need- really, truly analyzing what I believe and why. Nothing like a good old scrubbing of the belief system, right? If anything, it'll come out a little bit cleaner than it went in, I hope.

But in the end you know it wouldn't be a holiday celebration without a lovely treat to celebrate it with. Remember that Green Goddess Pudding I mentioned a moment ago? You're gonna love this...

Green Goddess Pudding

Ingredients:
1 ripe avocado
1/4 cup coconut milk
3 Tbsp erythritol
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon lemon juice

Pistachios, craisins, chocolate chips, almond slivers or other goodies are optional.

This is really easy, I swear. Just put all of your pudding ingredients into a large bowl and beat the heck out of it with a hand mixer. You can do it manually, but the mixer makes it so much easier.

Really, that's all you have to do to make a sweet, tasty pudding. If you want to dress it up a bit, fold in any of the goodies listed above. I used some chopped pistachios (about half a cup) this time, but I'm thinking dried cherries and chocolate bits would be fantastic.

I topped mine with a dab of home-made whipped cream, and garnish with a few whole pistachios to make it pretty.

This recipe is very versitile. You can use regular milk, almond milk, or any other kind of milk. In place of erythritol you can use honey, sugar, stevia. Increase or decrease your sweetener to taste. Maybe use a really ripe banana instead? It's a really good recipe to play with. Feel free to get creative and experiment!

I really have to admit, of all the ways you can eat an avocado... turning it into a thick, decadent pudding is probably my favorite. It just comes out so creamy and smooth, with a very light nutty flavor. And the best part of all? It's good for you too.

Eat, Drink & Be Merry! Happy Ostara everyone! I hope Spring brings you lots of growth and beauty in the coming months. Now I'm going to kick back, relax with a bowl of pudding and one more glass of dandelion wine, and be thankful that winter is finally over.