Contrary to popular neo-Pagan myth, the modern sabbat of Ostara is in all likelihood not named for a Teutonic goddess of spring.

The first recorded mention of any such goddess is in Bede's 703 CE work De temporum ratione. A Benedictine monk, Bede stated in chapter 13 that the Saxons called the fourth month 'Esturmonath' after their goddess and Eostra. Ronald Hutton postulates in Stations of the Sun that Bede's association of the word indicating the season of spring with an existing goddess was, in fact, little more than a creative leap. Bede's assumption served as the source for centuries of unquestioning conflation of season with this proposed goddess, thereby perpetuating the myth that there did indeed exist a deity by the name of Ostara. Other than Bede's statement, there is no other evidence of the existence of such a deity in the Germanic mythos, not even in the Eddas, the main source of Teutonic mythical information.

The Saxon word 'eastre' translates roughly to 'beginning', which extends to the Saxon use of the term 'Estor-monath' to mean 'month of beginnings', or 'month of openings' - their term for Spring. This, of course, is the source of the modern English word 'Easter', and of the modern German 'Ostern'. By comparison, most other languages use the Hebrew base 'pasah' to describe the festival of rebirth, fertility, and light. It is interesting to note that the date for Easter is calculated by the lunar cycle: Easter occurs on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox.

The English word 'east' is likely derived from the same etymological root in the Germanic language group, a root associated with the concept of 'dawn', 'light', 'shining', and, of course, new beginnings. All these concepts are associated with the Vernal Equinox when light and dark are balanced during the light's inexorable increase begun at the Winter Solstice. While there is little concrete evidence to support the existence of a goddess called Ostara, there are goddesses in other cultural pantheons who serve the same purpose, such as Eos and Aurora .

Ostara is one of the least-celebrated holidays in the modern Wheel of the Year, and this is in all likelihood due to the tenuous connection to an obscure deity, and the overwhelmingly prevalent Christian overtones to the season. Amusingly enough, Easter is celebrated in an extremely Pagan fashion with plenty of pastel colours and sweets into the shapes of bunnies and chicks, symbols of fertility consumed originally to attract similar energies to the one who ingested them. In a way, the Vernal Equinox suffers from arriving after Imbolc and before Beltaine in the modern Wheel of the Year: Imbolc celebrates the returning light, the first signs of Spring, and the stirring of fertility in herd animals, whereas Beltaine takes for itself the joyous celebration of fertility between man and woman. The Vernal Equinox is thus left with little to define it other than the sowing of crops.

Whether the Saxons did indeed honour a goddess by the name of Ostara during the fourth month, or whether Bede simply postulated a deity of that name, mistakenly led by the word assigned to the season, widespread use of this goddess-form to represent Spring personified has, in a sense, created her.

(c)A. Murphy-Hiscock 2003. Originally published in WynterGreene Ostara 2003.