As a Happy Blasphemer and a wicked old witch, Easter is one of my favorite holidays because the Christian holiday is rife with Pagan tradition. While the pagan sabbat, Ostara is not associated with Easter, it's abundantly amusing to me that the name Easter was probably derived from the German goddess, Ostara.
To make this an official, Thought Of The Deity, Goddess Post, here are some pictures of Ostara: Hail Ostara!
To make this an official, Thought Of The Deity, Goddess Post, here are some pictures of Ostara: Hail Ostara!
 |  Artist, Helena Nelson Reed |  |
I really don't celebrate Easter these days, but I still adore many of the Easter accoutrements: decorating eggs, fanciful chocolates, flowers, feasts. The hysterical Peeps dioramas are something I look forward every year. I'm also a merry prankster who enjoys memes some of my more religious relatives find offensive.
A long time annual tradition of mine is to read, Michael Moorcock's novel about demagoguery, Behold The Man; so good. I also enjoy reading the Thomas M Disch story from his book, The Word Of God, (preferably out loud to an audience) which describes the adventure Christ and Saint Peter have when they come down to earth to watch Mel Gibson's movie, The Passion Of The Christ. It's a gem.
An obscure reference, Moorcock fans will chuckle over.
When I was a child, my favorite things about Easter Sunday were all transplants from europe because my mother was fascinated with and wanted to expose us to other cultural traditions. So, I enjoyed attempting to decorate boiled and also hollowed out eggs in a variety of ways. In additional to the cliche American Easter Candy cache of jelly bean and chocolate eggs, chocolate bunnies, and peeps, my parents would often fill our easter baskets with paper egg boxes filled with treats or those crazy sugar eggs with a scene in the middle. They really weren't edible, but I loved them.
Today, rather than focus on a goddess, I'm going to talk about Easter Witches, a yearly Scandinavian ritual. Easter in Finland and Sweden combines Christian and Pagan traditions as it welcomes spring. In both countries Easter is primarily a secular tradition even though it is sandwiched between honored religious holidays, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Today, rather than focus on a goddess, I'm going to talk about Easter Witches, a yearly Scandinavian ritual. Easter in Finland and Sweden combines Christian and Pagan traditions as it welcomes spring. In both countries Easter is primarily a secular tradition even though it is sandwiched between honored religious holidays, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
In Finland, willow twigs are decorated with bright colored feathers, crepe paper and ribbons. Part of the reason for this is that willow around Easter time is usually the only plant showing a sign of spring. It's common for Finnish people to place willow Twigs in a vase to designate spring.
“ This Finnish children's custom interestingly mixes two older traditions - a Russian Orthodox ritual where birch twigs originally represented the palms laid down when Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday; and a Swedish and Western Finnish tradition in which children made fun of earlier fears that evil witches could be about on Easter Sunday.”
-Reeli Karmaki, Pessi Children's art center in Vantaa
On Palm Sunday or Holy Saturday, depending on which part of Finland they live in, it's traditional for children to dress up as witches. Their costumes are very colorful with peasant scarves on their heads and painted freckles on their cheeks, they go door to door with the willow branches, exchanging them for chocolate easter egg treats or money. It's very much like our Western trick-or-treating on Halloween, but in my opinion way cuter.
Bringing nature indoors and welcoming spring is also achieved by planting small dishes of grass, placing decorated Easter eggs on the grass along with other decorative items like little bunnies and chicks. Cheery yellow daffodils are also placed about. Another remnant of superstitions of driving evil spirits away, is the lighting of bonfires on Holy Saturday. This is also supposed to keep the mischievous witches away.
Bringing nature indoors and welcoming spring is also achieved by planting small dishes of grass, placing decorated Easter eggs on the grass along with other decorative items like little bunnies and chicks. Cheery yellow daffodils are also placed about. Another remnant of superstitions of driving evil spirits away, is the lighting of bonfires on Holy Saturday. This is also supposed to keep the mischievous witches away.
Many cities have Easter markets where you can buy beautiful handcrafted items, antiques, religious items, delicious treats, beautifully decorated eggs and other spring and witchy themed things. One blog I read while researching this pointed out some funny things about the way Finns celebrate Easter that is different than other times of the year. Evidently, Finnish people do not go crazy for busy little decorative things except at Easter when they place all kinds of adorable things around the house. The author also says that fins don't care for yellow but it's everywhere at Easter time, and that they pretty much only eat lamb at Easter. You can read more about Finnish Easter traditions in her blog: Her Finland.
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Sweden has similar customs. Children, mostly little girls, dress up as witches. They wear old clothes that are too big for them, wrap themselves with shawls, put scarves over their hair and go door-to-door carrying a basket or copper kettle to be filled with treats.
I love that many of the old postcards and art from this tradition show the witches of Easter carrying copper kettles and drinking coffee! In Sweden the tradition comes from the belief that before Easter all the witches would fly to Blakulla (blue mountain), a German mountain to cavort with Satan. Swedes and Finns both light bonfires to drive away the witches returning from their party. Baskets and bouquets of Daffodils, called Easter Lilies in Sweden, are also a hit at Easter and are sometimes decorated with chicks and bunnies. Tulips, paper Easter eggs and Easter candy are all common in homes. Birch twigs in vases and outdoor trees are decorated with colorful feathers, paper eggs and other Easter themed items. Paskmust is a popular easter cola.
I love that many of the old postcards and art from this tradition show the witches of Easter carrying copper kettles and drinking coffee! In Sweden the tradition comes from the belief that before Easter all the witches would fly to Blakulla (blue mountain), a German mountain to cavort with Satan. Swedes and Finns both light bonfires to drive away the witches returning from their party. Baskets and bouquets of Daffodils, called Easter Lilies in Sweden, are also a hit at Easter and are sometimes decorated with chicks and bunnies. Tulips, paper Easter eggs and Easter candy are all common in homes. Birch twigs in vases and outdoor trees are decorated with colorful feathers, paper eggs and other Easter themed items. Paskmust is a popular easter cola.
She who arrives with the Kaffe is a popular witch!
What do you think about the Easter witches? What Easter time customs do you celebrate? Are you out of the broom closet? Do like to slip in a bit of pagan fun under your religious relatives’ noses? What are you favorite things about this time of year? What magical childhood memories do you treasure? I’d love to hear from you!
Here are some of the wonderful Witchy Easter-time pictures I have found on the interwebs:
Further Reading:
FINLAND:
SWEDEN:
EASTER WITCHES:
ART:
PEEPS:
BOOKS:
- www.gofinland.fi/blog/easter-in-finland
- https://mysuomifinland.wordpress.com/2015/03/2/7easter-markets-in-Finland
- https://finland.fi/life-society/wandering-witches-welcome.finnish-easter
- www.helsinkitines.fi/lifestyle/5862-christ-witches-and-bunnies-a-journey-through-tge-finnish-easter-traditions
- https://fillingmymap.com/2015/04/05/a-finnish-easter-with-bonfires-mammi-mignon-eggs-and-more
- https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/easter_witches_make_the_rounds_as_part_of_age-old_finnish_custom/1013263
- http://www.nomadepicureans.com/europe/finland/easter-in-finland
- https://herfinland.com/finnish-easter-traditions/
SWEDEN:
- https://www.littlepassports.com/blog/world-holidays/swedens-easter-witches
- https://somethingswedish.wordpress.com/2012/04/1/2/swedish-easter
- https://sweden.se/culturaltraditions/easter/
- https://www.thelocal.se.20160326/six-super-swedish-family-easter-traditions
- www.swedishfreak.com/holiday/easter/
EASTER WITCHES:
- https://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1889922_189008_1889922,00.htm
- https://witchawarenessmonth.wordpress.com/2013/03/28/blakulla
- https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/happy-easter-here-come-the-witches/
- www.dlc.fi/~marian1/gourmet/pasha_3.ht
- https://sweden.se/culturaltraditions/easter/
- https://www.thelocal.se.20160326/six-super-swedish-family-easter-traditions
- www.swedishfreak.com/holiday/easter/
ART:
PEEPS:
BOOKS:
- https://relentlessreading.com/2014/12/27/retro-review-behold-the-man-by-michael-moorcock/
- https://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/disch.html
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