MORE ABOUT OSTARA
Goddess Ostara, the maiden in German
mythology, celebrated when night and day are equal and
balanced (the spring equinox for the northern hemisphere). She
is also known as Eostre.
EGGS ON END: STANDING ON CEREMONY.
by Donna
Henes
Soon after I started celebrating the seasons in the city on the Winter Solstice of 1975, a friend returned from the Orient with an odd bit of equinoctial information for my interest. Apparently, in pre-revolutionary China, it was customary to stand eggs on their end on the first day of spring. To do so would guarantee good luck for the entire year. What an intriguing image! Of course I immediately set out to prove it on American soil.
That spring, I tested it out in the small park across the street from my home with an intimate band of neighbors. It worked! The following spring, I mustered all of my trust in cosmic continuity and advertised for a large public gathering to stand eggs up on the Spring Equinox at sunset on the waterfront in Battery Park in Manhattan. I assumed and fervently believed that the eggs would stand again as they had the year before. But still, the tiniest little thrill of terror would seize me and I would find myself wishing very, very hard for fear of my niggling ego: please, please let it work. What a primal prayer that was! For certainly, if the eggs had not stood, the earth would be sorely off orbit, and I wouldn't have a worry in the world!
Of course they stood. And the next morning a photo of them standing against a brilliantly lit skyscraper background appeared on thee front page of The New York Times. And the rest is history. EGGS ON END: STANDING ON CEREMONY has from the first captured the imagination of the press as well as the general public. Whatever else I have done or ever hope to do in my life, I will always remain the "egg lady!" Over the years the eggs have been covered and carried by every major television, radio and wire service network in the world. It is incalculable just how many millions of people have been exposed to and inspired by this delightful demonstration of astronomy, turned on by this silly science tidbit. Just seeing this phenomenon happen on TV or reading about it in a magazine sparks a zestful curiosity and appreciation of the mysteries of nature.
The event itself is astonishingly simple. The site, some towering landmark megalith, an urban Stonehenge, is decorated. A circle is cast -- marked in day-glo orange ribbons, thus transforming a secular public place into a sacred space. Scientific and mythic information sheets are handed out along with jelly eggs. Flares are lit to denote the number of days, weeks, months in a year. An orange laundry basket, which contains 360 eggs, is passed among the crowd. We all hold them up in the air together, pledging to walk on the Earth as if we were walking on eggs. Promising anew, in honor of the season, to protect our fragile yet resilient planet home. We count down the minutes to the equinox. And when the time is right, we stand our eggs in unison in salute to spring. No matter how many people attend, the real event is always each single person feeling for her/his self what gravity and balance and equilibrium might mean.
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