Spring Celebrations

As we did not celebrate Christmas, neither did we celebrate Easter this year.  As secular homeschoolers we do not observe religious holidays, but as a self-proclaimed tree-hugger, I do make it a point to hold festivities relating to the changing of the seasons (please note: we are not wiccan or pagan, simply secular folk who appreciate our planet Earth).

So we observed the 1st day of Spring, hosting a Spring Celebration, and inviting the kids’ cousins to come participate in our festivities. We decorated eggs in recognition of the fertility that Spring brings.  We held the annual egg-hunt outside–yes, that’s snow falling.

When the kids came back inside to devour their spoils, I read “A Spring Story” a myth from Anglo-Saxon legend about their goddess of the dawn and springtime.  Her name was Eostre or Ostara.  Not much is known about this goddess.  One legend says that she was always accompanied by a magical hare who could lay eggs, but the story we read told how Ostara transformed a bird into the rabbit, who could then only lay eggs once a year on the 1st day of Spring.

My son Winter has a keene interest in mythology, so the story suited us; however others might have used different literature, or skipped the story-session altogether.

We finished the events off with homemade carrot cake (my first try at carrot cake–it was delicious!).  We all had a good time, but the festivities did not end there.  We finished the day of celebration, by watching the first two episodes of LIFE on DiscoveryHD.  Our family owns the BBC series Planet Earth, and several of their Walking With…documentaries, so we all were excitedly awaiting the première of this new series.  It seemed only fitting to finish this special day with this.