Before the Resurrection: Pagan Traditions Hidden in Easter

A look at how ancient pagans celebrated renewal—and how their traditions echo today.

Long before chocolate bunnies and Sunday services, there was another festival that honored the turning of the season—Ostara.

Celebrated on the Spring Equinox, Ostara is rooted in Celtic and Germanic pagan traditions and marks the balance between light and dark, death and rebirth.

While Easter may dominate the modern calendar, many of its symbols—eggs, rabbits, flowers—can be traced back to this sacred day and the goddess Eostre herself.

Often credited as the origins of Christian Easter, Ostara and the celebration of the Spring Equinox has been a story of death, resurrection, and rebirth far before Jesus walked the earth. 

The Romans and the Egyptians, too, had tales of their deities being reborn during this sacred time between Winter (Death) and Summer (Growth). In Germanic history, the people would celebrate the pagan holiday by painting egg shells with rabbits and flowers, an offering to the deities of fertility and abundance. 

Also in Germanic lore says Eostre (the patron goddess of both Ostara and Spring) happened across a dying bird laying in a field. In order to save it, she used her magic to transform the bird into a hare to keep it warm.

The hare retained the ability to lay eggs and on the feast of Eoster the creature would hop throughout the village, leaving eggs as a symbol of Eoster’s generous heart.

It became a common practice for parents to leave eggs out for their children, a sign that the hare had blessed them with a gift from Eostre.

Sound familiar?

Divination rom The Swamp Witch's Oracle by Toni Keniston | Coming October 2025 - Luck is on your side if the Rabbit graces your day. What you invest your time, energy, and resources into now will surely see their happy harvest in the coming months. The spirit of the Rabbit encourages you to move quickly towards your ideas and not to stress too much over the details. There will be time for that, but for now, hop after your dreams and get some movement towards something bigger than your present moment. The window for this creation is narrow and soon your energy will be drawn to other things. Allow yourself one month at something new before you abandon hope. You may need a lunar cycle to see things clearly. 

Then there is the very pagan timing of Easter which is calculated using a lunar calendar rather than the Gregorian. Falling on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring Equinox.

The truth is that many pagan holidays are still widely celebrated even in mainstream society, often unbeknownst to those practicing them.

Want to celebrate these humble pagan traditions but not sure how? Here are a few ways to incorporate this season of rebirth into your life on todays mainstream holiday: 

1. Plant an egg near your front door. This encourages fertility and abundance in your gardens and in your home! 

2. Bring in fresh flowers. Adorn your table or altar; fresh flowers early in the season invite in the energy of renewal and rebirth and are shared practices with our pagan ancestors.

3. Spring Clean! Opening up the windows, clearing out the dust, and clearing stagnant energy in your home is a wonderful way to set the intention of Spring.

4. Create a blessing bowl or simmer pot. 

5. Dress candles 

6. Bless your seedlings

7. Make a Spring Jar. Take a mason jar and fill it with moss, greenery, egg shells, stones, flowers, and a candle. 

8. Create “Egg Dust”. Keep and dry out your eggshells and then grind them into dust with a mortar and pestle. Not only is this is a wonderful pest deterrent in the garden but also is a protective energy in your spell casting and at your front door.

   
   

Regardless of how you practice, may you enjoy this turning of the wheel and invite in rebirth and abundant growth into your life.

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