OSTARA - The Spring Equinox, Eostre and the Making of a Modern Festival

di Marcus J Wells (Autore)

Marcus J Wells, 2026

Was Ostara an ancient spring equinox festival, or did the festival take shape much later? The spring equinox is a precise moment in the Sun's annual course, but its meaning has never been the same everywhere. Across the Northern Hemisphere, lengthening daylight and the first signs of spring invite ideas of renewal and balance. Yet the familiar modern festival of Ostara has a more complicated history than many popular accounts suggest. In Ostara: The Spring Equinox, Eostre and the Making of a Modern Festival, Marcus J Wells follows the evidence from the sky to the written record and into contemporary practice. He examines the eighth-century monk Bede's brief account of the goddess Eostre, the later nineteenth-century proposal of a wider Germanic goddess called Ostara, and the adoption of Ostara as a modern Pagan festival. Along the way, he explores the Christian calendar, seasonal work, spring symbols, and distinct observances such as Nowruz and Japan's Higan without treating them as versions of Ostara. Clear, thoughtful and grounded in historical evidence, this book separates what the sources document from what remains uncertain and what modern communities have created for themselves. It offers readers a richer way to understand Ostara: not as a simple, unbroken survival from antiquity, but as a festival shaped by seasonal observation, scholarship, religious change and revival.

• Autore: Marcus J Wells
• Anno edizione: 2026
• Editore: Marcus J Wells
• Formato: EPUB2 con DRMFREE
• Lingua: Inglese
• Compatibilità: Tutti i dispositivi (eccetto Kindle)
• Layout: Reflowable
• EAN: 9798237801385