THE SPRING EQUINOX — which in 2026 falls on Friday, March 20th — is one of only two moments in the entire year when day and night are almost exactly equal in length. The sun crosses the celestial equator, rising due east and setting due west, and for this single day, light and darkness hold each other in perfect tension. After this point, the balance tips. The days grow longer. The light wins.

In pagan and Wiccan traditions, this moment on the Wheel of the Year is called OSTARA.  The name comes from Eostre, an Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and dawn whose association with fertility and renewal.  Eostre gave her name to Easter, and the symbols we now associate with that holiday — eggs, hares, flowers, new clothes — are the direct descendants of her spring festival.  Ostara is a powerful festival that celebrates the spring equinox, a time of balance, growth, and the return of light.  For women, Ostara is a moment to honor our own cycles of renewal and embrace the feminine energy of creation, fertility, and transformation.

Ostara sits between Imbolc (February’s first stirring of spring) and Beltane (May’s full bloom). Where Imbolc whispers something is beginning, Ostara declares it.  The ice is breaking.  The ground is softening.  The seeds you planted in the dark half of the year — literally or figuratively — are now pushing upward through the soil.