Ostara 2024 Celebration: Ostara Meaning in Magic and Witchcraft

Last Updated on February 13, 2024 by Eva Maria

Welcome to another Wheel of the Year post that is all about Ostara 2024. Today we will talk about the Ostara celebration – the witchy way to celebrate Spring Equinox 2024. 

Since I was a little kid, I truly enjoyed that time of the year. Nature was waking up from the winter sleep, and the first flowers like daffodils and crocuses were peeping out from the ground. In Poland, there is a tradition of saying goodbye to winter by throwing a Marzanna doll into the river. It is usually a poppet made from natural materials such as straw, paper ribbons, and strings. 

Also, many familiar Christian traditions are borrowed from the old pagan way. As witches, we can still enjoy our Ostara 2024 by decorating eggs, or Pisanki, as we call it in Poland. Fresh bouquets can be brought to your altar and little figures of rabbits put around the house for good luck and fertility for the upcoming growth season.

Ostara 2023 Altar and Decoration printable page

Ostara Meaning

Ostara Sabbat is a fairly new tradition in Wiccan and Witchcraft circles. It was first introduced by Aidan Kellly in “The Witch Calendar” in 1974. Since then this Pagan holiday has been growing in popularity and many modern Ostara rituals came into existence. 

Whatever you choose to do on that day, make it special to YOU! The most beautiful thing about practicing witchcraft is the ability to follow the personal path of spiritual growth and celebration of nature. 

These simple Ostara celebration ideas are just my proposition. They are the things I like to do and incorporate into my practice. Whatever you do, I hope this day will bring you a lot of joy and excitement for the brighter half of the year. 

When is Ostara 2024?

Ostara (Spring Equinox) is the time of the year when the sun shines directly over the equator. In the Northern Hemisphere, it is celebrated between the 19th and 22nd of March, and in the Southern Hemisphere between the 20th and 23rd of September. 

In 2024 Ostara is going to be exactly on Wednesday, March 20, 2024, at 4:06 AM CET. To find out the date and time in your location, search in Google for this query: “spring equinox 2024”.

In the Latin language, equinox means equal night. It is also the time when the sun enters 0 degrees Aries and marks the new astrological year. 

Ostara celebration

The Ostara celebration, also known as the Spring Equinox, is a time to welcome the renewal of the natural world and the arrival of spring. This holiday has been celebrated by various cultures and spiritual traditions for thousands of years and is often associated with themes of growth, fertility, and new beginnings. Many people mark the occasion with special rituals, feasts, and gatherings to honor the changing of the seasons.

If you’re planning an Ostara celebration, there are many ways to make it a meaningful and memorable experience. Some ideas include decorating your home with symbols of spring, such as flowers, colored eggs, and bunnies. You can also create an altar or sacred space to honor the season and perform rituals that involve lighting candles, burning incense, and offering prayers or intentions. Another popular activity is to gather with loved ones and share a feast, perhaps featuring foods that are in season, such as asparagus, peas, and lamb

Whether you’re a seasoned practitioner or new to the world of spirituality, an Ostara celebration can be a beautiful way to connect with nature and tap into the energies of the season. By taking time to honor the cycles of life and the rhythms of the earth, you can deepen your spiritual practice and cultivate a greater sense of gratitude and joy. So why not gather some friends, put on some music, and celebrate the arrival of spring with a joyous Ostara ritual?

photo of a beautiful spring time stairs full of blooming flowers

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Ostara 2024 and Spring Equinox 2024 Rituals:

1. Decorating Ostara eggs

One of my favorite Ostara rituals is decorating eggs. Traditionally we boil the eggs in onion skins so they get this rich, red-like color, and then we scratch them with a sharp object – a thick needle or paper-cutting blade. If you have small children, this is not the ideal craft to do with them, yet you can still enjoy that Ostara celebration as an evening relaxing activity. 

The other way I liked to make my pysanky, was by decorating empty shells or plastic eggs with strings and seeds. As kids, we loved making these and it was our big family tradition. We used paper glue and colorful strings. In between the spaces, we sprinkled colorful sand or poppy seeds.

If you want to use this method, you empty the eggs by making two small holes in each side of the egg, and then blow out the egg, leaving just an empty shell. While making these types of Ostara eggs, you need to be very gentle and try not to squeeze the egg too hard, as it will simply break. And that is truly heartbreaking!

Photo of Ostara Eggs - Traditional Polish Pisanki

2. Planting the seeds with an intention

The next one from the Ostara 2024 list is connected to growth. It’s the time when we like to plant the seeds that we will enjoy harvesting later. Even if you don’t have a full-size garden, you can still plant some aromatic herbs on your balcony or even a windowsill. 

As I am mostly traveling, this one is a bit challenging for me. I’d love to keep some fresh herbs on hand, so I’m going to make a mini garden in our future mobile home (which is a work in progress now)! 

For that ritual, you need to choose something easy to grow from seed, like basil, parsley, chives, or coriander (cilantro). 

Pick up your seeds and set the intention. It can be something that you wish to see grow in your life. It’s good to be specific, as this is more likely to bring the desired outcome. I like to focus on my abundance, spiritual growth, and relationships. 

To go even further you can choose the intentions corresponding with herbs that you’re using.

When you feel like you poured enough of your beautiful, personal energy into the seeds, it’s time to plant them! Choose a nice soil blend (there are some specific ones for sprouting seeds) and look after your little intention. Give them warmth and moisture and see the intention growing day by day.

This is one of the most beautiful Ostara celebrations and I highly recommend connecting with plants on this personal level. See the potential in seeds, nurture them with love and positive feelings, and focus on the abundance and fertility of the earth. 

Photo of Planting seeds - one of the Ostara rituals

3. Decluttering and doing some major spring cleaning

In my opinion, all the Sabbats are a great time to remember about cleansing. It’s good to do it more often, yet with the busyness of our lives, it can be quite challenging sometimes. 

And since spring is commonly associated with cleaning, why not make it one of the Ostara 2024 rituals? 

For me, a minimalistic approach is one of the most important things. Most of the time I live on the road, and my belongings need to fit in two backpacks. And because of this lifestyle, I highly appreciate decluttering and having things that bring positive emotions and values ( I still have a problem with keeping too many books and journals, but hey! No one is perfect! ) 😀

Text clean your space

For an Ostara spring cleaning, you can start by getting rid of few things and making more space for an abundant energy flow. Then you can wash all your floors, windows, doors, and dust the shelves. I like to make my magical cleaning water by adding some essential oils plus an extra intention. 

After your surroundings are clean and tidy it’s time to make some abundance magic so, let’s jump to the next one of the Ostara rituals, which is…

4. Enchanting your house for abundance

To do this ritual, you need only one, magical ingredient – grounded cinnamon! 

After your house is fresh and cleaned up, it’s time to do some abundance magic. Pick up a small pinch of cinnamon and sprinkle it in each corner of the room, window, and door. During this activity bring all this wealth and abundance into your home. 

Then you can also take a little pinch and put it under your doorstep mat to physically welcome all that prosperity into the lives of everyone living in this household.

Photo cinnamon - using it during Ostara rituals

5. Taking a balancing bath

After all that cleaning it’s time to cleanse yourself. 

There is no way I can give you all these other Ostara 2024 rituals and forget about the magical bath or shower ritual

To do this you need to take some time just for yourself. If you’d like a divine experience, pick up some fresh flowers to add to your bath. If not, get some cleansing salts: sea, Himalayan, or Epsom, and essential oils.

I would recommend one of the oils associated with Ostara: jasmine absolute, rosemary, rose, lavender, ylang-ylang, copal, primrose, orange blossom, lilac, violet, or any other flower scents.

You can light candles (pastel colors are perfect for Ostara celebration!) and immerse yourself in this beautiful and cleansing water. 

If you only have a shower, you can bring some beautifully scented flowers and hang them inside it, or infuse your shower gel or shampoo with some of the Ostara essential oils! Or… You can make a special floral and divine foot bath!

Whatever you do, I hope it will leave you relaxed and happy for celebrating other Ostara rituals. 

Photo of a floral bath  - one of the Ostara rituals

6. Learning more about the Ostara goddess

The name of the Ostara holiday came from the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre. She was first mentioned by the monk Bede in his 8th-century writing “The Reckoning of Time”.

The word Eostre/Ostara comes from an old Proto-Indo-Europan language and it means “dawnmorningto shine

To this day we know almost close to nothing about that goddess. It is said that back in the days, the month of April was called Ēosturmōnaþ and celebrated with feasts, bonfires, fresh flowers, and bellringing in the honor of Ostara goddess. 

She is associated with fertility, love, dawn, light, beginnings, cycles, rebirth, spring, growth, and renewal of life. 

Her sacred animal is a rabbit.

Photo of woman with a rabbit - as a Goddess Ostara

7. Checking and revisiting our resolutions (or creating new ones)

Ostara 2024 holiday is associated with beginnings. Back in the days, our ancestors would see it as the time of the new cycle in the Wheel of the Year. 

We are slowly melting away the winter stagnation and are ready to take some action. The fertile and abundant earth is supporting during that time, and we can connect with mother nature and give new birth to our dreams and ideas. 

Find some quiet time and find your New Year resolutions list (if you made one). Check with yourself what you managed to accomplish in the last 2,5 months and what worked well. Did you give up on something? Or maybe you need to make some small adjustments? 

It’s also possible that your life perspectives changed and you’d like to start a new venture. Ostara sabbat is a perfect time to do so!

Find 1-3 things to accomplish in the growth season (just like the seeds we are planting), and make sure to check on them weekly. Set realistic, yet exciting goals. Schedule simple follow-through steps that can be easily accomplished and the progress can be measured. 

Ostara celebration don’t need to be very complicated. Even spending 5-10 minutes on writing and reframing your goals would be a great start. You could also follow it by the next activity and make some special time for spring journaling.

Photo of an old fashion leather journal - setting goals is one of the Ostara rituals

8. Finding balance exercise

Ostara 2024 is a time of balance – as day and night become equal and the whole world experience equilibrium. We can utilize this harmonized energy in our favor and make a simple exercise that will allow us to see ourselves in a more holistic way. 

Prepare a piece of paper and a pen. 

Divide your page into two sections. On the left side write everything that you associate with the darkness and your inner shadow It might be something like resentments and regrets, bigger or smaller problems, negative things that you say to yourself, the side that you’re trying to hide from the world, etc. 

On the right side shine the light on all of these problems. Write a solution for each point that you made on the other side. Make it specific and easy to implement in daily life. 

It might look like something like his: 

LEFT – My Shadow: I am obsessively striving to be perfect.

RIGHT – Shine the light: I know my worth and I know the worth of the things I do. From now on, I will say to myself „Better done than perfect” and do 70% of my full capacity. For most people that is good enough. So when I accomplish it, I can just simply move on to other important things to do!

Photo of yin and yang

9. Blessing your gardening tools and working in the garden

If you are a Green Witch, you most likely have lots of plants around you. And Ostara 2024 is a great time to set goals for a new gardening season. 

You can plan your garden, start sprouting some seeds and make sure that your plot is ready for welcoming new life. 

Gather all the needed seeds, soil packs, tools… and bless them. Be thankful for all the fruition that is yet to come. Be thankful for the ability to grow your own, colorful foods. And most of all be thankful for nature’s abundance that is present during that time. 

Power up all of these items with your energy. Pour the whole heart into it and make sure that it is all cleaned and ready for a fresh agricultural challenge. 

Even if it’s not going to become one of your Ostara celebration, it would be nice to spend some time appreciating all the food that Earth is providing to us. Even if it simply appears on the supermarket shelves, it had its beginnings in the dark soil as a mere potential. The potential that grew into something that sustains your life. And that is enough to be grateful for the earth sustaining our lives. Am I right?

Photo of a gardening woman

10. Going for a walk and picking up fresh flowers

One of my favorite spring-time Ostara rituals is to simply go on daily walks. I love to see the changes that are appearing around me. The new leaves, all the flowers, and the freshness of the grass. 

Everything is so beautiful during that time and it just presents itself with these new beginnings and opportunities. 

Here, where I live in Portugal, the winter is our actual spring-time. We have the greenest grass and the most beautiful flowers during February. Then it slowly gets warmer, more colorful, and dryer.

Wherever you are, I bet you can enjoy the awakening new life in nature. You can find the beauty in blue skies, or the first yellow flowers that appear around you. Maybe you will be lucky to find some snowdrops or crocuses on your way, and if not, you can always bring home some store-bough flowering bulbs or bouquets. 

The spring flowers remind me of beauty. Together with butterflies, they make great Ostara altar decorations. And bring lots of hope for the upcoming warmer season. 

11. Sprouting some seeds for an Ostara salad

This is the one thing from this list, I haven’t fully tried myself. But I think it makes a great addition to all of the previous Ostara rituals that I presented here. 

To sprout seeds (legumes or nuts), you need to get… some seeds (and the best are the organic ones). Here is the list of the most common ones: lentils, clover, radish, mung beans, and chickpeas. 

You will also need a sprouting container or simply a clean jar and a cheesecloth. 

Step 1. Soak 1 part of seeds (legumes or nuts) in 3 parts of water for a specific amount of time (this post will explain this process in more detail, as I am not a real expert here). Put the sprouting lid on your jar or cover it with a breathable natural fabric.

Step 2. Drain and rinse your seeds. While rinsing shake all the seeds inside and make sure to properly drain all the water. Put your jar upside down, yet able to breathe, so the seeds can further drain. 

Step 3. Rinse and drain your sprouts twice a day until you see the small sprouts. You can eat them anytime but the best ones are 1/5 – 2” long sprouts. 

There are many benefits to include fresh sprouts in your diets, and they are a great addition to your Ostara salad. I cannot wait to try this thing myself. Follow me on Instagram if you want to see the results and have a peek into my daily life!

I could easily go on, and on with my ideas, yet I don’t want to bore you, my dear reader. That’s why I have just two more things for you and then I leave the space for you to choose the most suitable Ostara celebration for you.

BONUS 1 – Ostara tarot spread

Click on the photo to download a free PDF!

Ostara 2023 tarot spread free printable pdf page

BONUS 2 – Free Ostara Printable Book of Shadows PDF (2 pages)!

Click on the photo to download a free PDF!

Ostara 2023 correspondences free printable pdf page


Ostara Printable Bundle

For only $4.99 you can get your copy of a 9-pages Bundle with Ostara correspondences, herbs, crystals, crafts, oil blend, altar ideas, and a page about the Goddess Eostre.

Wheel of the Year / Sabbats / Pagan Holidays book references: 

  1. “Witch’s Wheel of the Year: Rituals for Circles, Solitaries & Covens” – Jason Mankey 
  2. “The Modern Witchcraft Guide to the Wheel of the Year: From Samhain to Yule, Your Guide to the Wiccan Holidays” – Judy Ann Nock
  3. “Ostara: Rituals, Recipes & Lore for the Spring Equinox” – Kerri Connor
  4. “Witchery” – Juliet Diaz
  5. “Practical Magic: A Beginner’s Guide to Crystals, Horoscopes, Psychics, and Spells” – Nikki Van De Car
  6. “Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Complete A-Z for the Entire Magical World” – Judika Illes
  7. “The Mystical Year: Folklore, Magic and Nature” – Alison Davies
  8. “Year of the Witch: Connecting with Nature’s Seasons through Intuitive Magick” – Temperance Alden 
  9. “Llewellyn’s 2021 Sabbats Almanac: Samhain 2020 to Mabon 2021” – Suzanne Ress
  10. “Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen” – Scott Cunningham
  11. “Celebrating the Seasons of Life: Samhain to Ostara” – Ashleen O’Gaea
  12. “Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Correspondences: A Comprehensive & Cross-Referenced Resource for Pagans & Wiccans” – Sandra Kynes
  13. “Llewellyn’s Complete Formulary of Magical Oils: Over 1200 Recipes, Potions & Tinctures for Everyday Use” – Celeste Rayne Heldstab

Some of these books can be found on Kindle Unlimited. Try your first month for free!

Eva Maria
Eva Maria

Eclectic Witch with tons of interests (Buddhism, Yoga, Ayurveda, Alchemy, Naturopathy, Aromatherapy, Herbalism, Climbing, Traveling, Jewelry making, Crocheting, Arts and Crafts and all sorts of readings).

Creator at @witchjournaling and host of the witchcommunity.com

2 Comments

  1. Thank you for creating this content. I have recently begun the process of de-converting from Christianity. I’m not sure if it’s possible to be an atheist pagan but that seems to be the direction my heart is leading me. I am seeking a path that emphasizes gratitude and intent. One that respects our planet and works with nature. For my first celebration I plan to focus on welcoming the new life emerging all around me and showing thanks for what the earth has provided. Your post will help me along the path I’m now following.

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