Not quite--there is historical basis for it. The spring month in the Germanic calendar (the first month of Summer) was Ôstarmânoth, celebrated with the festival of Ôstara, though the Wiccan observation is far different than what it was, with the whole birth of the god and all that. When I got to speak with some of the members of the Dutch Heathen band Heidevolk, they described Ostara as nothing more than a celebration of the world coming back to life and the "return of the sun" or the Summer half of the year.
Nope.
There isn't a spring month in a Germanic calendar, it was devised by a peoples that did not recognise spring, let's not impose modern ideas on pre Christian Heathens. Being English by birth I can tell you changes in vegetation that indicate the end of winter and the beginning of summer vary widely from Mar-May depending upon the severity of winter and where you live in England. As you've probably guessed I'm not a fan of generic ritual cycles.
The cult of Eostre/ *Ostara is modern, there never was a goddess Ôstara she a figment of Jacob Grimm's imagination, or to be more charitable a linguistic reconstruction based on the Anglo Saxon Eástre/Eostre. Grimm's portrayal of Eostre in his classic work Deutsche Mythologie (1835), has been a longstanding factor in the misrepresentation of Eostre and her proposed cult.
Grimm (1835) wrote that the Old English (OE) word Eástre (also Eostre) was cognate (from the same root) with the ON (Old Norse) austr ,Gothic áustr and the OHG (Old High German) ôstarun. Grimm used comparative linguistics to reconstruct the OHG *Ostara, that is to say Grimm supposed that the word *Ostara must have existed due to its OE counterpart, Eástre. He then concluded that *Ostara and Eostre must have represented goddesses, whose cults were extensive and celebrated at spring throughout the Germanic world.
Etymologically, Eostre is derived from the word OE word ēast, which has cognates in many Germanic languages. Based solely on the fact that the sun rises in the east, Grimm speculated that Eostre and Ostara must therefore be goddesses of the dawn, or in his words;
"Divinities of the radiant dawn, of upspringing light, a spectacle that brings joy and blessing and whose meaning could easily be adapted to the resurrection day of the Christian god.......Bonfires were lighted at Easter.......Water drawn on the Easter morning is holy and healing.......Then, through long ages there seem to have lingered among the people Easter-games so-called, which the church itself had to tolerate : I allude especially to the custom of Easter eggs, and to the Easter tale".
J.Grimm; Deutsche Mythologie,1835
In the 1950s, Grimm's work was expanded upon by other mythographers and Eostre and *Ostara were linked to goddesses named after the dawn in non Germanic languages, in particular, Aurora (Latin), Eos (Greek) and Usas (Sanskrit). It was then postulated that all these goddesses arose from a common Proto Indo-European (PIE) goddess of the dawn, which in reconstructed form would have been *Haeus(os. It is from this point that we have the pervasive notion of Eostre as a Spring goddess.
But such a deduction cannot be drawn, it is too big of a leap to go from a word derived etymologically from the OE word ēast and arrive at a Spring goddess with an extensive cult that reaches all the way back to PIE. Shaw (2011) also cautions, that there is a distinct lack of evidence for uses of the word ēast or derivatives of the word ēast to mean either Spring or dawn in the Germanic languages. Seeking specific functions for Anglo Saxon deities is also problematic as, Shaw (2011) states, as they appear to be defined by their relationship with social groups or geographical area.
There is no primary written account or archeological evidence to support a Germanic cult of the dawn or a Spring goddess and no academic support for the existence of *Ostara. Only one brief mention of Eostre exists, it was written in the 8th century by the Northumbrian monk, the venerable Bede.
As Hutton (2008) states, ". The spring has no recorded festival associations in northern Europe before the arrival of the Christian Easter". But evidence does supports heathen peoples celebrating the end of winter and the coming of summer, the 10th century Ynglinga Saga attests to three Heathen celebrations; near winter's day - a sacrifice for a good season, mid-winter - a sacrifice for a good crop, and near summer's day -a sacrifice for victory (summer being raiding season). In the Anglo Saxon context a sacrifice at winter's end may be supported by passage (stanza 1140) in the epic poem Beowulf, " Pa waes winter scacen, faeger foldan bearm. Fundode wrecca, gist of geardum; winter was gone, the bosom of the earth beautiful. The exile (winter) the guest, longed to be quit of these courts (Swanton translation;1997).
Essentially, Eostre has been re-mythologed to fit neo-pagan ritual calendars, particularly the eightfold cycle. Re-mythologising or invention of tradition is borne of the desire to find myths that fit modern mythological ritual cycles and attempts to re sacralise the earth, but the modern depiction of Eostre does not fit at all comfortably with the mythology, history or linguistics.
- Ronald Hutton; Modern Pagan Festivals: A Study in the Nature of Tradition, Folklore, Vol. 119, No. 3 December 2008.
- Philip Shaw; Pagan Goddesses in the Germanic World: Eostre, Hreda and the Cult of the Matrons, 2011.
- Michael Swanton; Beowulf: Revised Edition,1997.
though the Wiccan observation is far different than what it was, with the whole birth of the god and all that.
I don't follow?
Well, the 18th century. But Valborg was a "continental" name of Freyja, a connection of the season which makes sense as both Freyr and Freyja are given sacrifices at the beginning of Summer to provide for a fertile year. The whole connection with Walpurgis and Christian sainthood is very much akin - I would daresay identical - to the plight of the Celtic goddess Brighid, who was demoted to nothing more than a Mother Superior and her priestesses told as nuns during the Christianization of Ireland.
Valborgsmässoafton, known as Valborg is the Swedish translation of the German Walpurgisnacht (Walpurgis Night in English) named after Saint Walpurga. There was no continental Freyja she is exclusively a Scandinavian goddess, she is not attested outside Scandinavia. Not sure where the idea that Valborg is a byname for Freyja but I'm going for fakelore.
Possibly the other way around in this instance; Saint Walpurga (original name Walburga) she was an actual person, an Anglo-Saxon missionary to Germany in the 8th century. I expect the Church timed her feast to appropriate or neutralise local non Christian folk traditions, that they found distasteful. In this case Walpurgisnacht seems to have been intricately tied to averting witches, evil spirits that congregated on Brocken, a peak in the Hartz Mountain range to party. Why was Saint Walpurga linked to this night? The only explanation I can find is that she protected people against magical arts (V. Raman; Variety in Religion and Science: Daily Reflections).
