Happy Oestara!

Last year, I wrote about Easter's pagan roots for those of you that are unaware that most of the cultural trapping of Easter, as it is practiced here in the US is pagan in origin.

This year, I get to start some of the exciting family traditions with Rowan, because he is old enough to participate and understand more. So what are we doing?

Yes, this mama bought peeps.

Today, I picked up the symbols of Oestre, goddess of spring and renewal, namely, rabbits, baby animals, and eggs. I got Rowan a bright spring green bucket decorated with bunnies in lieu of a basket (we can use it at the beach later this year and is so much more durable than those flimsy dyed baskets)!

I got some reusable plastic eggs to stuff full of sweets, coins, and stickers of baby animals. I got a gy-normous chocolate rabbit, mainly for the satisfying squeal factor. Yes, mama loves it and panders!

Norway's "Easter Witch"

I picked up some chalk eggs for us to draw flowers on the sidewalk after our egg hunt. I plan on decorating the house when he naps tomorrow, and taking him out of the house immediately afterwards. After we pick up his daddy from work, we'll come home and "discover" that there are eggs hidden everywhere! I think he'll get a big kick out of it.

Tonight, we have guests coming for dinner and it is a potluck. But if we were doing this sabbat to the nines (as I hope to do next year) we would have a suckling pig.

For those of you looking for ideas, I have an Oestara Pinterest board, as well as boards for Beltaine and other sabbats (and non Witch holidays, too!). What are you doing with your Witchlets this sabbat?

Ideas for Lughnasadh?

I was just talking to my partner about what we should do with Rowan for the upcoming sabbat. When our son, Rowan, was born we made a commitment to observe all the sabbats with him from the very start. We want him to have fondly remembered rituals and holidays from childhood.

But observing sabbats with a child under one is difficult. What to do? We've had decent rituals (albeit simple ones) with him thus far, but his particular age and ability level is getting harder and harder to accomodate.

His first sabbat was Imbolc, and he was tiny. We introduced him to Nimue, one of the gods of the Feri pantheon- (without getting too in depth and giving you a Feri 101, Nimue a child god who has power of a god in the hands of a six year old. She's impulsive, prone to fits of pique, and is fiercely protective of her children.) When we did Imbolc with Rowan, we were parents for a mere few weeks. We were tired and the baby was small and less active than he is now. It was a simple introduction, in front of her altar in our temple.

Oestara was lovely- we had Feri guests and together we held a ritual specifically for baby Rowan- he was blessed by each person there and then introduced to our 7 directional Feri guardians. He got hungry during the ritual and mom and baby had to sit at one point and get our boob on in circle, but the ritual was lovely nonetheless.

Beltaine we went up to Wolf Creek Radical Faerie Sanctuary in Oregon and did their Walpurgisnacht bonfire, Maypole dance, and introduced Rowan to the Sacred Land where he was conceived (the previous Beltaine).

Midsummer was a simple feast and introducing him to bits of fruit.

And now we are coming up on Lughnasadh, when Rowan will be 6 months old- a wiggly, squiggly 6 month old who won't hold still or keep quiet, nor will he be able to participate like a toddler could in dancing or as a preschooler could in crafts. So what do we with a child do at this age?

A wonderful go-to guide for slightly older children is Circle Round, written by three priestesses in the Reclaiming trad. I have a copy of this book and cannot recommend it enough. When Rowan gets older it will be a great resource for us! In the meantime, I intend on documenting what does and doesn't work with a child his age as we go along.

If anyone has age-appropriate activities you'd like to share, I'd be much obliged. Feel free to leave comments here on the blog- and we'll get a discussion started!