I am very much into learning about Pagan traditions and today marks the Spring Equinox - known in the Pagan calendar as Ostara. Today the light is equal to the darkness and celebrates the rebirth of the land.
The name comes from Eostre, who was said to be the Saxon Goddess of Spring it is pronounced o-STAHR-uh. Tonight there is also a Supermoon - so try and take a glimpse if you can.
Symbolically, Ostara is represented by rabbits (a symbol of the Goddess ) and eggs (fertility and life).
Colours associated with Ostara are: Pastels, light greens and blues, yellows and pinks.
Herbs and Flowers: Crocus, daffodil, ginger, honeysuckle, iris, jasmine, rose and violet.
Gemstones: Aquamarine, moonstone, rose quartz and amethyst.
Anyways, I thought I would attempt to decorate some eggs naturally. I have seen beautiful eggs before that people have dyed using onion skins so I thought I would give it a go myself.
You can use spinach, tea, red cabbage, beetroot, turmeric, onion skins - basically, anything that stains, to dye the eggs naturally. I have also picked some daisies and leaves to try and add a botanical design.
You are supposed to boil your eggs first and let them cool - but as this was an experiment I decided to just give it a go. The only things I had in the cupboard were turmeric powder and normal onions, so I peeled off the onion's skin and added a spoonful of turmeric into a pan of boiling water, with a spoonful of white vinegar and some salt (apparently the white vinegar helps the dye bond to the egg) and left the concoction to bubble for about half an hour.
I also used some white vinegar to paint onto the egg shells and stuck on some leaves and a daisy (face down). I then used an old pair of thin tights to wrap around the egg, tying it with some wool.
Next I left these two eggs to soak in the turmeric/onion skin mixture overnight to see what effect it would create. This didn't work well, as I used brown eggs the pattern didn't really show up - the effect would have been better using white eggs.
Intrigued, I went and bought a red cabbage and used the same method - boiling a few slices of it until I had a deep purple liquid. These eggs were soaked overnight too. This worked really well, giving a deep blue colour.
For the last egg I used a tea bag, pink lemonade flavour, which produced a pink liquid, this again worked well, it may have been better on a white egg but now I know what I am doing I will probably try again.
So, there you have it - Spring is on the way. I will be trying this out again now I know what to expect - but next time I will be using white eggs and boiling them first.
If you are looking for some alternative Easter gift ideas there are some lovely items on Two hearts one roof's post.