A Story for Springtime

Eostre, the Goddess of Springtime, was bringing Spring to the land when she happened upon a young girl who was weeping in the forest. The girl had found a bird who had frozen to death in the snow. Taking pity on her, Eostre went to the girl to bring the bird back to life but Eostre could not save the bird's wings so she turned the bird into a rabbit instead.

Having once been a bird, the rabbit retained its ability to lay eggs and every Spring thereon the rabbit would lay eggs in all the bright colors of Spring as a thank you to the goddess Eostre for saving its life.

And that is the story of the Easter Bunny and the tradition of why we decorate eggs in bright colors. Eostre was the Goddess of Springtime and fertility hence the further symbolism of rabbits (procreation), eggs (fertility) and chocolate (aphrodisiac).

Day and Night Divided

Today is the Spring Solstice, otherwise known as the Vernal Equinox. The day is said to bring us equal portions of both day and night. So on this day, earth is considered to be truly in balance. Are we?

A very simple and beautiful way to celebrate the return of the Sun is to create transparencies out of card stock and colored tissue paper. The light shining through the cut outs is a beautiful symbol of the return of the Sun and reminds us of our own light within that can shine through to the outer world through our being.

Simply draw and then carefully cut out your design, attach tissue paper to the backing with tape and place your creation in front of a strong light. You may even like to attach it to a window so the sunlight can shine through it during the day. This is a wonderful activity to do with children and they come out quite beautiful. They can be kept very simple with just stars, moons or suns or you can get a bit more involved with your project.

Here is an old Native American Legend you can share with the children on how Day and Night were divided:

After the world was made, some of the animals wanted the day to last all of the time. Others preferred that it be night all of the time. They quarreled about this and cold not come to an agreement. After awhile they decided to hold a meeting and they asked the great Bear to preside as the judge.

The Bear proposed that they vote to have night all the time but the Ground Squirrel said out loud "Wait! I see that the Raccoon has rings on his tail divided equally, first a dark color and then a light color. I think day and night should also be divided equally like the rings on the Raccoon's tail."

The other animals were very impressed with the wisdom of the Ground Squirrel and they quickly voted for his plan and divided day and night just like the dark and light rings on the Racoon's tail, succeeding each other in regular order.

The Great Bear was furious! He was so upset with the Ground Squirrel for taking over his position that he thrust out his paw and scratched the Ground Squirrel's back with his sharp claws. This is why all of the descendants of that Ground Squirrel now forever have thirteen stripes on their backs.

The End.