Ostara, chocolate eggs and Mother Goose

Ostara, chocolate eggs and Mother Goose


During our childhood, my sister 'Julie' and I celebrated every Easter time together by seeing which one of us could consume the most chocolate eggs in the shortest amount of time, (hopefully before my parents awoke).

I can still see my younger sister now, surrounded by shiny wrappers with her face covered in chocolate holding her tummy; and me having to call my mum because she was about to be sick everywhere.

Our family, friends & neighbours all gave eggs to us. Throughout the neighbourhood it was a pretty standard practise, most families to indulged their offspring by purchasing a wide array of Easter eggs.

The eggs were proudly displayed upon the shelf like glittering jewels; until that special sunday when the chocolate fest commenced.

On reflection, I can’t think why we were allowed to just munch our ways through mounds of choccy, but I remember how excited we got as children at the prospect of which eggs we were going to unwrap & eat first.

We talked about it for weeks beforehand, and got up as early as we had on xmas morning with the same level of anticipation to be the first to get our hands on those brightly coloured boxes of our hearts desire.

One of the other peculiar practices foisted upon us as children at school consisted of the annual ‘Grande Easter Bonnet parade/competition’.The lucky contestants were lined up like embarrassed Carmen Miranda’s’ along the length of the playground all wearing the offending home made articles that had taken many of the more competitive mothers weeks to construct; prior to the event.

The winning prize (normally an Easter egg) usually went to some child whose father was a set designer for ‘Crossroads’ or of similar ilk.

Later on in life I learned that the word ‘Easter’ derives from Germanic Goddess of Spring called Ostara or Eastre she also has connections with the Greek Goddess of Dawn/Springtime named ‘Eos’. The word for the direction ‘East’ also stems from Eos.

The ancient word for the springtime was thought to be named ‘Eastre’.

Christianity campaigned to win over Pagan holidays through fostering the celebrations themselves and pilfering our more ancient symbolism, finally staking claim to its truer meanings & origins.

Ancient Egyptians held a widespread belief that the universe itself was egg shaped.The womb of the Great Goddess was seen to be an egg.

Creation stories of Gods and Goddesses being born form eggs were well known, Hathor the great goddess of nature shape shifted into a Nile goose called ‘The Great Cackler’ and gave birth to the sun.

Today’s remnants of the old creation stories linger with us still in the form of the pantomime character ‘Mother Goose’ the goose that laid the golden egg.

A common practice which greatly predates Christianity was the painting of eggs by the Anglo Saxon folk who buried the brightly coloured eggs as offerings to Mother Earth buried in the hope that prayers be answered.

The Christian resurrection of Jesus Christ takes also stems from more ancient stories of the birth, death & resurrection of the Isis’s husband Osiris, God of renewal.

Many similar creation stories have been adapted by various cultures/Pantheons throughout the ages with an element of spiritual truth running through each.

The Spring-time symbolism of eggs/ Easter egg hunts/egg decorating/hares/rabbitsand rebirth filter through the ages globally and in time honoured fashion continue to do so from a more ancient nature based religion.

This year when I hand over Easter eggs to my children I shall be pointing out that theirs more to the humble choccy egg than meets the eye.

Hopefully before the ‘choccy fest’ commences they may be interested enough to take some time and learn a little more.