The holiday is strongly associated with fertility goddess Ēostre. She is notably associated with the fecund symbols of the hare and egg. A hare was the animal that was sacrificed to her. Much like Thor's goat, and Freyr's boar.
The Venerable Bede gives us our only specific information about the Anglo-Saxon Goddess known as Eostre in his De temporibus ratione, where he informs us that the month of April was called Ēostur-monath, and that he believed the name was derived from a Goddess that had been worshipped in ancient times. Some scholars, and even certain pagans consider the information unreliable and so dismiss the claim. I would counter however that we have ample evidence of not only a heathen religious holy tide celebrated at this time of year, but other evidence, which while not direct, only adds credence to Bede’s claim.
Just as the Anglo-Saxon month of April was Eoster-monath, as we know from Einhard’s Vita Karoli Magni the Germanic Franks shared a similar name for their month of April: Ostarmanoth. So here we have some supportive evidence of the Anglo-Saxon practices from continental Germans.
So what happened to her in the Norse Pantheon?
The answer might be in the name itself.
Ēostre derives from Proto-Germanic Austrō, ultimately from a PIE root Hausōs (→ *awes-), "to shine". Hausōs thus translates to "the shining one". Both the English word east and the Latin auster "south" are from a root cognate adjective *aws-t(e)ro-. Also cognate is aurum "gold", from *awso-. The name for "spring season", *wes-r- is also from the same root. The dawn goddess was also the goddess of spring, involved in the mythology of the Indo-European new year, where the dawn goddess is liberated from imprisonment by a god (reflected in the Rigveda as Indra, in Greek mythology as Dionysus and Cronus)
Hausōs, one of the most important goddesses of reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion is the personification of dawn as a beautiful young woman.
a number of epithets of the dawn goddess may be reconstructed with some certainty. Among these is *wenos- (also an s-stem), whence Sanskrit vanas "loveliness; desire", used of Uṣas in the Rigveda, and the Latin name Venus and the Norse Vanir. The name indicates that the goddess was imagined as a beautiful nubile woman, who also had aspects of a love goddess.
As a consequence, the love goddess aspect was separated from the personification of dawn in a number of traditions, including Roman Venus vs. Aurora, and Greek Aphrodite vs. Eos. The name of Aphrodite Άφροδίτη may still preserve her role as a dawn goddess, etymologized as "she who shines from the foam [ocean]" (from aphros "foam" and deato "to shine").
The Italic goddess Mater Matuta "Mother Morning" has been connected to Aurora by Roman authors (Lucretius, Priscianus). Her festival, the Matralia, fell on 11 June, beginning at dawn.
The abduction and imprisonment of the dawn goddess, and her liberation by a heroic god slaying the dragon who imprisons her, is a central myth of Indo-European religion, reflected in numerous traditions. Most notably, it is the central myth of the Rigveda, a collection of hymns surrounding the Soma rituals dedicated to Indra in the new year celebrations of the early Indo-Aryans.
So to put it plainly the main attributes that are most important to Hausos (Eostre) is the fact that she is a young and beautiful woman. Who has connections to the rising sun, gold, fertility, and love. She is often desired or captured.
Now I have heard it proposed that Baldr fits this the most, since he is the most beautiful and beloved of the gods, who is sent to the underworld and brought back in spring. But this does not sit well with me. It seems to fit more with Jesus and the Christian interpretation of Hausos in a post Christianization sense. To me a better fit would be Freyja. Though she is associated more with cats, then with rabbits. It is plain that the name was rooted into the word Vanir, and she fits the description in all other aspects. She was even desired by the Jotunns but Thor took her place. Or quite possibly Idunn. For is is beautiful and young. and her Golden apples are a powerful symbol of rebirth and fertility. And she is even snatched away by the Jotunn Thjazi in eagle form, according to the prose edda. The root for gold could also refer to the golden apples of Idunn. Carole M. Cusack comments that, among adherents, Eostre is "associated
with the coming of spring and the dawn, and her festival is celebrated
at the spring equinox. Because she brings renewal, rebirth from the death of winter, some Heathens associate Eostre with Idunn, keeper of the apples of youth in Scandinavian mythology".So who do you honor during the festival of Ostara? Well for those who don't mind including Anglo-Saxon Dieties into the mix, you could use the name Eostre. Though if you do, it is important to mention that the name Ēostre is the the Northumbrian Old English version of the name Ostara. And Northumbrian dialect was influenced by the Viking settlements.
Now this is how you combine Ostara with Norse practices. But there was already a blot chosen for the return of summer.
If we look to the Norse sources, and at the collection of sagas that comprise the Heimskringla, we see multiple mentions to three high holy tides throughout those sagas, such as mentioned in Ynglinga Saga, and is echoed again in Óláfs saga helga which states: “It is their custom to perform a sacrifice in the fall to welcome winter, a second at midwinter, and a third in the summer to welcome it’s arrival.”
Now most modern people would interpret this incorrectly,
because today we have a concept of there being four seasons in the year
(Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter), but we know from both ancient
Icelandic laws as well as Bede’s description of the Anglo-Saxons that
the ancient people’s had a cultural concept that the year was only
comprised of two seasons: Summer and Winter. Thus the first day of
Summer occurs sometime in what we might think of as the Spring today,
and ‘midsummer’ or the summer solstice (known sometimes as Litha) occurs
in the middle of the summer. The beginning of Winter occurs in the
Autumn and is marked by the celebration known as Winter Nights. By
following this reasoning the midwinter celebration is therefore Yule. We
see this timing echoed when we hop back across to the Anglo-Saxons.While the Norse sagas do specifically mention Winter Nights and Yule, the springtime celebration is never specifically called Ostara. We do however find ample celebrations held at this time amongst the Scandinavians: Sigrblot (which translates to victory sacrifice), Sumarmál or Surmanaetr (Summer Nights, sometimes occasionally called Summer Finding by modern heathens).
Now, I’m sure a few of you might be puzzled about why there would be a ‘victory sacrifice’ at what amounts to the beginning of the modern-day concept of Spring. In part the warmer months are generally when ancient peoples would conduct war-fare. But summer also was a time you start doing everything. During the harsh winters you just held tight and endured. But during the summer you do your crafts and plant your crops. So it is my personal opinion that for the Norseman, the Ostara festival should be replaced with the Sigrblot.
