Eostre and the Hare – An Easter Story
Written by: Lesley Caron Veater 2018
(adapted from many available Eostre/Hare stories).
Here is a story of Eostre to share with children at Easter….
Many many years ago, during the time of dragons and castles, there was a beautiful goddess named Eostre. Eostre had long thick hair the colour of golden wheat and her eyes were as blue as the sky above in Spring and it was her job to make sure the Earth wakened from its deep Wintery sleep.
During the Spring the world came alive. Birds would chirp from the trees as they built nests for the little eggs that would soon hatch into baby birds. Butterflies came out of their cocoons wearing wings of gorgeous colours. All the mother animals of the world gave birth to babies and beautiful flowers opened their petals. Spring was a time of new beginnings. It was a time to celebrate.
Every year, on the first day of Spring, Eostre held a huge spring festival in the meadow. Animals and children from all over the world would attend and bring gifts and offerings for the goddess of Spring to seek their wishes and show how happy they were with the fresh new season.
One year, on the day before the festival. The hare wanted to give Eostre a gift.
But the hare had nothing that would be fit for a goddess.
The hare was so very poor and he had a hard enough time feeding himself never mind giving a gift to someone.
That day while searching through the forest for some food. The hare found a beautiful fresh egg nestled in the grass. The hare was very hungry and sat down to enjoy his lucky find. He was about to crack open the egg when he suddenly stopped.
‘This egg would make a nice gift for Eostre,’ he thought to himself. ‘An egg symbolises birth and Spring. Yes, a very nice gift indeed!’ So the hare hopped home to decorate the egg and prepare his gift.
The next day the hare went to the meadow and hopped up to the Goddess. He shyly presented her with his gift. Eostre took one look at the egg and gave the hare a huge smile. It was a beautiful egg. The hare had painted the egg with lovely designs coloured from the dyes of roses, buttercups and other plants. He had then sealed the egg with beeswax so it would glow.
The Goddess was so happy with the gift that she wanted everyone to have one and share her joy. Eostre knew that the hare was very poor and to give her the egg was a very unselfish act. He could have eaten it and had his belly filled. Eostre decided to reward the hare.
That day, the Goddess of Spring told the hare that he could come and live in her castle. He would only have one job. and that would be to deliver a decorated egg to children around the world, for Eostre loved children. Children symbolised birth and innocence. The eggs would be delivered on the eve of the Spring Festival, so that the children would wake and find them in the morning.
And so, every year, Eostre’s bunny (for a hare is a kind of rabbit) and his descendants of which there are very many, would deliver eggs to the children.
Today, we call the hare the Easter Bunny because the Sunday after the full moon of the Spring Equinox is Easter Sunday our Christian celebration. Besides, Easter egg is a lot easier to say than Eostre egg.
Notes:
Our Angle Saxon ancestors called the month of April Eostremenath and Bede tells us of Eostre’s veneration by the Anglo Saxons as the Goddess of Spring. Despite earlier historians debating that there is too evidence she is mentioned in the Lacnunga manuscript held by the British Library , a document that provides us with the earliest written evidence if an English tribal shamanic culture.
Eostre is said to have had a hare as a consort or to have driven a chariot pulled by hares through the fields at Spring. Interestingly, Boudicca and Andraste, our most famous Sussex goddess figure, both had significant encounters with the Hare as representative of the masculine force in the land.
