Easter - one of the holiest festivals in Christianity. The best thing about it for me as a child was, of course, the search for Easter eggs. Out and about with the basket, tracking down hidden treasures. Eggs in all shapes and colors. Boiled, painted, made of chocolate - crocant eggs, rabbits and lambs. Since I was a passionate Christian as a child and read the Bible avidly (the stories of the Old Testament, with all their bloodthirstiness, particularly appealed to me), the presence of the Easter lamb explained itself in the context of a Christian festival, rooted in the Jewish tradition of the "sacrificial lamb", of course.

What the message of love and peace from Jesus of Nazareth has to do with the slaughter of animals to appease a god - this question only came to me in later years.

But back to the topic: Where did the bunny come from? And why does it lay eggs? Parents and grandparents had no real answer to these questions. It wasn't until much later, when the Internet was successfully introduced, that I came across "Ostara", the pagan goddess of the Germanic-Anglo-Saxon region, who gave her name to the Christian Easter festival. I learned that it is the festivals of the year, the equinoxes and solstices, which in the tradition of the Pagans and Germanic tribes, Celts, Etruscans and other, partly forgotten cultures, determine the rhythm and meaning of the festivities and I learned that the church largely superimposed its calendar on these dates and replaced these ancient festivals with Christian festivals. I'm generalizing here, of course, but so the commonality of Easter and Ostara is broader than the mere date. The equinox determines the beginning of spring. Easter and Ostara follow the first full moon in spring.

The pagan Ostara festival celebrates the rebirth of life, when the trees blossom, the buds sprout from the earth and the fertility of nature is exuberant. It is the rebirth of light, which is celebrated as the days grow longer again, culminating in the "victory over the night" at the summer solstice - the longest day of the year.

Christianity celebrates the rebirth of Christ, the "light of the world". Or in the words of the Gospel of John: "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." This light is symbolically lit with the Easter fires. Fertility, as you can imagine, is more than just hinted at with the eggs and the hare, which is known for its love of reproduction. The egg has a deeper symbolism here, as life must first break out of its shell in order to "see the light of the world".

Us humans carry these cycles within us, nature reminds us of this. Whether Christian, nature lover or simply "just human", almost everyone feels the time around Easter. Winter is over, the light returns and with it - life. The rebirth of the light or the rebirth of Christ or the light of Christ is a joyous celebration that is preceded by the "way of the cross". Even if the comparison is a bit of a stretch, as the "hardness of winter" is difficult to compare with the way of the cross, the underlying energetic pattern is much older than our festivals. After hardship comes lightness, death is followed by life, light is always reborn from darkness. With this in mind: Happy Easter.