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Sharing
Ostara With Your Kids
By
Rhonda Mulkey
Many followers of the Old Religion are finding it difficult to
include their children in their faith. It is something we all
want to do, share something we love so dearly with our young ones.
The difficulty in finding age appropriate and creative activities
to keep the young, active mind engaged for any length of time
is the most frequent complaint. Hopefully I can be of some assistance
with this problem.
 In
this article I would like to address celebrating the Spring Equinox/
Ostara with your children. There are so many wonderful activities,
I fear I will short change you. Take what you like of these ideas
and run with them, make them your own and most importantly have
fun!
Eggs, eggs and more EGGS! We all know that pretty, colored eggs
are a big part of this Sabbat, but we can do so much more than
simply color them. A great way to spend time with your children
is collecting plant material for making natural dyes. During this
outing would be the perfect opportunity for telling, and in successive
years, re-telling the story of how the Hare and Egg became such
a big part of Ostara.
Enlist the aid of your children when burying eggs at the cardinal
points of your property. Take this time to explain to them that
the reason we do this is to ensure that we have plenty of food
in the coming year and to keep those living with us safe. Don't
forget a good dose of egg magick in your garden. Be sure to bury
your eggs before you begin planting.
I don't know of any child that doesn't enjoy a cascarones.
Cascarones (pronounced cahs-cah-ROE-nays) are the carefully hollowed
out egg shells that have been filled and decorated then broken
over one's head. Please be sure to never fill an egg over
three quarters, as doing so would cause the egg to be very hard
and cause pain to the recipient. Cascarones can be filled with
ingredients for a number of spells. I really suggest using dry
ingredients, as most people don't care to get gook in their
hair.
Another thing to do with our lovely hollowed out eggs is to decorate
them, then string them up and hang the eggs from trees. None of
these activities have to be done with real eggs, you can use plastic
eggs as well. For the frequently busy parent this is the best
way to participate in an otherwise time consuming activity.
Now is the time to welcome the Faeries. Find a spot you feel the
Faeries would visit. Help your children to prepare gifts for them,
then as a family, take the gifts out to your chosen area. State
out loud your invitation. The children may want to leave notes,
then leave your gifts.
Faeries are known for living in hawthorn bushes so one fun way
to enlist their help would be to tie wishing ribbons to the hawthorn.
Be sure to always leave gifts for the Faeries.
My children love to garden and I love to encourage it! Every year
we go to the garden center and each one of my children gets to
pick out their very own seed pack. They plant these seeds on Ostara.
The fledglings are the children's responsibility. They care
for their plants day in and day out. You can't imagine how
excited they get with each stage of growth. Knowing that they
have played such a major role in this plant's life and helped
it to grow into something so beautiful wows them year after year.
I think this is my favorite activity with my children.
Let us not forget spring cleaning! The besom/broom is a tool with
many uses. What does this have to do with children? Most children's
stores carry child-sized brooms, and with the Harry Potter craze
child-sized besoms come out every Samhain. When we use our brooms
to cleanse our homes of negativity our children can learn to do
the same thing with their child sized besoms. Allow them to use
their brooms to cleanse negativity from their own rooms. Hopefully
this will also encourage them to clean their rooms in other ways.
Creating a Sun Wheel can be a fun activity with little effort.
We have been known to use branches from recently trimmed trees
to make our Sun Wheels. My children think the best possible way
to make a Sun Wheel is by baking hot cross buns. We won't tell
them, but I think they are right.
The final activity before Dad hiding the eggs is the making or
decorating of the basket. According to how creative you want to
get and how talented you may be this could take a while and be
a great deal of fun. Let the kids go crazy with paints, stickers,
glitters and glue until they are satisfied with their works of
art. Once the baskets are complete it's time to head out for
the Great Hunt.
Now go, have fun and laugh until the Sun sets!
Rhonda
Mulkey is the High Priestess of Magickal Order of Night (M.O.O.N.). She's
parenting five children with good old-fashioned Pagan values. Contact
her at rmmulkey@alltel.net
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Seasons
