This is a story of Ostara. It may not be the one you heard, but I thought I would share because I like it.
A Story of Ostara
Ostara is the maiden goddess who heralds the beginning of spring. When she appears on Earth at the dawn of the Spring Equinox, everywhere she goes, plants and animals begin to grow and give birth. She is so full of potential, that when anyone crosses her path, some of her optimism rubs off on them.
One Spring, Ostara was late to Earth. When the animals started to awaken, they noticed that Ostara had not returned. Immediately, they began to worry. The bear said, āI bet sheās not coming.ā The fox said, āOf course, she is coming, she has to come.ā The rabbit said, āI bet sheās not coming because we always take her for granted. Maybe we should do something special for her.ā All the animals agreed with the rabbit and they all ran home to find a very special gift for Ostara to thank her for bringing Spring.
While the animals were preparing their gifts for the Goddess, the first Robin of the season, showed up in the forest. She flew to every animal home to see all the wonderful gifts they would give the Goddess. Robin was so impressed with all the gifts that she wanted to give the Goddess a gift as well.
Robin decided that she was going to make a most delicious breakfast of worms for the Goddess. Robin flew to her favorite spot to dig worms only to find that the ground was still frozen. She was very confused, but she persisted, she flew to several other spots only to find that the ground was frozen everywhere. Finally, Robin became so cold and so tired, that she just fell to the ground.
A few minutes later, Ostara started her work across the Earth. She very quickly noticed a little bird laying on the ground, frozen half to death. Ostara gently picked up the little bird and began to blow on her in order to warm her up. As Robin started to perk up, Ostara profusely apologized to the bird for being late and told the bird she would grant her one wish. The bird wished she was a rabbit with nice thick fur so she would never be cold again.
Ostara turned the little bird into a rabbit but allowed the rabbit to continue to lay eggs so that she would always remember that she was once a bird.
Now every year on the morning of the Spring Equinox, rabbits lay eggs and decorate them to give to the goddess as a gift of gratitude for her kindness.
Thereās a lovely book series by Lisa Emerson for little ones with beautiful stories written in kind of fairytale style but my little one does not have the patience for that yet, so yours is perfect. I will read every one of her books to him at some point, probably around the time referring to him as a tornado starts being less accurate. Sometimes he actually spins as he runs through a room
This is a beautiful story, @sara32 ā thank you for sharing it with us! It sounds really familiar to me, almost like Iāve read it somewhere before. Did you write this?
@BryWisteria
Iām glad you liked the story. I canāt take credit for writing the story, I just took the base of the existing story and added my own personal touch.
Thanks for the feedback,
Blessed Be
It is a really lovely one, @sara32! If you donāt mind, would you please add in or share the name of the original author/source to give them credit too? The forum requires a source/credit note to help protect against potential copyright complications.
You are welcome to credit yourself as well for the contributions you added- itās really lovely that you added your own touch! I think that makes the story even more special
The story of Ostara and the Hare is a folktale. It is a story that was told a long time ago and passed on from generation to generation by word of mouth. To the best of my knowledge, no one person wrote it. Over the years, the story has changed because everyone, including me, likes to add their own flare.
I added the part of including all the forest animals because it lends itself to a gathering of friends and family. And I changed the bit about the bird being near death to the bird being exhausted in the snow because being exhausted is a lot easier to deal with than being confronted with death especially if you were to present this story to children.
Oral traditions are like a game of telephone gone right with each teller adding their own flavor to the story- youāre absolutely right, thereās no need (and no way!) to credit an author when there isnāt just one traceable one. Apologies- this is all set then! Thank you very much once again for sharing this lovely tale, Sara!
Did you write it, 
If you donāt mind, would you please add in or share the name of the original author/source to give them credit too? The forum requires a source/credit note to help protect against potential copyright complications.
