Comments | cavalorn: The case for Eostre, part 1: The Eostur Sacrifice

cavalorn

The case for Eostre, part 1: The Eostur Sacrifice

Mar 23, 2016 18:35

Yes, you read that right. This year's Easter rant is going to redress the balance somewhat in favour of Eostre. As I've pointed out from the start, I've never been opposed to Eostre herself, just the baseless neopagan accretions that have built up around her. However, I've been pruning a bit close to the bough, and babies are in danger of being ( Read more... )

Comments 11

timeminihk March 24 2016, 01:28:42 UTC

Thanks for sharing.

elessa March 24 2016, 16:29:11 UTC

I was hoping you would add to the extensive articles you have written regarding Eostur/Eostre. Thank you for this!

fotthewuk March 30 2016, 14:49:52 UTC

Very interesting.

I'm splitting hairs (hares?), but: "whereas Easter was the first full moon after Spring Equinox" isn't strictly true. It's the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. So "have to endure another 28 days before they can have theirs" should be more like 21-28.

Also: "This means that Eostur and Easter would have coincided on some years, but more often, the Christian celebration would have come first.". I'm not altogether convinced of this. I might need to draw a diagram, or something.

fotthewuk March 30 2016, 19:10:57 UTC

So, here's the thing...

Easter: Christmas to the spring equinox (6 days of December, 31 of Jan, 28 of Feb, 20 of March) is 85 days. Plus up to a full moon cycle. Plus up to a week to the next Sunday, gives a range of 86 - 119 days after Christmas.

Eostur: 4th full moon after Mōdraniht, so we have between 3 lunar months and a day, and four lunar months, gives a range of 85 - 112 days after Christmas.

If anything, then, it seems more likely that Eostur would occur first.

cavalorn March 30 2016, 23:19:30 UTC

Modraniht is Christmas. It's a fixed date, Dec 25th. The first month of the year, 'aefterra Geolla' (after Yule), begins with the first new moon after December 25th. Eosturmonath is the fourth lunar month of the year.

So if, for example, After Yule begins on Jan 21st (as it apparently did in 1996) then Eostur falls 2 weeks into Eosturmonath, or May 2nd. On a rough finger-count I make that 127 days after Christmas.

I'm working from John Robert Stone's calculations here.

fotthewuk March 30 2016, 23:33:40 UTC

> Modraniht is Christmas. It's a fixed date, Dec 25th.

Yes, this is what I am basing my calculations on.

> The first month of the year, 'aefterra Geolla' (after Yule), begins with the first new moon after December 25th. Eosturmonath is the fourth lunar month of the year.

> So if, for example, After Yule begins on Jan 21st (as it apparently did in 1996) then Eostur falls 2 weeks into Eosturmonath, or May 2nd. On a rough finger-count I make that 127 days after Christmas.

I don't really understand any of this reference to months or weeks. If "Eostur was the fourth full moon after Modraniht", and 4 lunar cycles of 28 days is 112 days, I don't see how Eostur can be any later than 112 days after Christmas. Am I missing something?

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