Aren't there any 'pagan' celebrations for the spring that are similiar to a church service on Easter morning?

Question

Getting dresses up, socializing, but teaching instead of preaching. That kind of similiar.

To Isabella: Wow. People are strange...
Thanks for the info!

Answer 1

For Ostara, we have an egg hunt for the children and we get together to tell stories and discuss the symbolism of the eggs and the hares and then we discuss what we are planning to do for the coming year. We sort of symbolically "plant" our plans.

On Beltane in May, we give baskets of treats to the children (Maybaskets) and we dress up and get together again to tell stories and share and we have a fantastic Maypole dance.

Answer 2

Ostara...It already happend on march 21.

Ostara is one of the eight major Wiccan holidays or sabbats of the Wheel of the Year. Ostara is celebrated on the Vernal Equinox, in the Northern hemisphere around March 21 and in the Southern hemisphere around September 23, depending upon the specific timing of the equinox. Among the Wiccan sabbats, it is preceded by Imbolc and followed by Beltane.

"The Festival of Ostara at the spring equinox marks the end of winter and the beginning of the season of rebirth (spring), and is celebrated by a blot in honor of Frigg and Freya and/or the disir, the collective of female fertility deities."[1] The "blot" is a celebratory meal (also known as "cakes and ale") that is believed to be shared with the the God/ess.

Answer 3

Many pagans don't worship in an organized fashion, but some organized 'covens' might, if the members wanted it.

I have small children, so I have no doubt I'll be up with the sun *groan*.

If you're interested in pagan holidays, here's a great site:

http://www.asiya.org/sabbats/index.html

Look under Ostara for Easter.

Answer 4

Non-religious Easter traditions
As with many other Christian dates, the celebration of Easter extends beyond the church. Since its origins, it has been a time of celebration and feasting. Today it is commercially important, seeing wide sales of greeting cards and confectionery such as chocolate Easter eggs, marshmallow bunnies, Peeps, and jelly beans.

Despite the religious preeminence of Easter, in many traditionally Christian countries Christmas is now a more prominent event in the calendar year, being unrivaled as a festive season, commercial opportunity, and time of family gathering — even for those of no or only nominal faith. Easter's relatively modest secular observances place it a distant second or third among the less religiously inclined where Christmas is so prominent.


Canada and the United States and parts of UK
Throughout North America and parts of the UK, the Easter holiday has been partially secularized, so that some families participate only in the attendant revelry, central to which is decorating Easter eggs on Saturday evening and hunting for them Sunday morning, by which time they have been mysteriously hidden all over the house and garden. According to the children's stories, the eggs were hidden overnight and other treats delivered by the Easter Bunny in an Easter basket which children find waiting for them when they wake up. The Easter Bunny's motives for doing this are seldom clarified. Many families in America will attend Sunday Mass or services in the morning and then participate in a feast or party in the afternoon.


Belgium
Belgium shares the same traditions as North America but sometimes it's said that the Bells of Rome bring the Easter Eggs together with the Easter Bunny. The story goes that the bells of every church leave for Rome on Saturday which is called "Stille Zaterdag" which means "Silent Saturday" in Dutch. So because the bells are in Rome, the bells don't ring anywhere.


Scandinavia
In Norway, in addition to skiing in the mountains and painting eggs for decorating, it is tradition to solve murders at Easter. All the major television channels show crime and detective stories (such as Poirot), magazines print stories where the readers can try to figure out who did it, and many new books are published. Even the milk cartons change to have murder stories on their sides. Another tradition is Yahtzee games. In Finland and Sweden, traditions include egg painting and small children dressed as witches collecting candy door-to-door, in exchange for decorated pussy willows. This is a result of the mixing of an old Orthodox tradition (blessing houses with willow branches) and the Scandinavian Easter witch tradition. Fake feathers and little decorations are also placed on willow branches in a vase. For lunch/dinner on Holy Saturday, families traditionally feast on a smörgåsbord of herring, salmon, potatoes, eggs and other kinds of food. In Finland, the Lutheran majority enjoys mämmi as another traditional easter treat, while the Orthodox minority's traditions include eating pasha instead.


Netherlands

People watching the Easter Fire in 'De Achterhoek' in eastern NetherlandsIn the eastern part of the Netherlands (Twente and Achterhoek), Easter Fires (in Dutch: "Paasvuur") are lit on Easter Day at sunset.


Central Europe
In the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, a tradition of spanking or whipping is carried out on Easter Monday. In the morning, males throw water at females and spank them with a special handmade whip called pomlázka (in Czech) or korbáč (in Slovak). The pomlázka/korbáč consists of eight, twelve or even twenty-four withies (willow rods), is usually from half a metre to two metres long and decorated with coloured ribbons at the end. It must be mentioned that spanking normally is not painfull or intended to cause suffering. A legend says that females should be spanked in order to keep their health and beauty during whole next year. An additional purpose can be for males to exhibit their attraction to females; unvisited females can even feel offended. Traditionally, the spanked female gives a coloured egg and sometimes a small amount of money to the male as a sign of her thanks. In some regions the females can get revenge in the afternoon or the following day when they can pour a bucket of cold water on any male. The habit slightly varies across Slovakia and the Czech Republic. A similar tradition existed in Poland (where it is called Dyngus Day), but it is now little more than an all-day water fight.

In Hungary (where it is called Ducking Monday), perfume or perfumed water is often sprinkled in exchange for an Easter egg.

Answer 5

Easter IS a pagan celebration.

The date is determined by calculating the Vernal Equinox. It's named after a pagan fertility Goddess. Her symbols are eggs and bunnies.

Can't get much more pagan than that.

Answer 6

There is Beltane that celebrates the return of spring and the balance of male and female. I'm not sure when it is, though. This site should give you some information.

http://www.treeandthewell.org/celticholidays.htm

Answer 7

Ostara - you missed it, but Beltaine is on it's way!
(even more fun than the church service!)

EDIT: toadstool - you are mistaken - beltaine is may 1 and not the summer solstice, that's midsummer, june 21

Answer 8

Yes, pagans discovered the holiday. They were the first to celebrate.

Answer 9

Spring Equinox, it already passed.


But the Summer solstace (Beltane) is comming in June,
the first day of summer.

there's afew smaller sabbats, but ileft my calnder book at home.

Answer 10

What do you mean? Dressing nice and hearing an old guy yammer?

Yeah, if I'm an old guy.