Ostara is celebrated on the astronomical first day of spring- the spring equinox. It usually occurs around March 21- check an almanac. It is an exciting time of year and a celebration of the transition from the cold barren confinement of winter and the warm, fruitful freedom of spring... I would celebrate outdoors, share myths with the children about spring (the persephone myth is wonderful) if you don't want to have an egg hunt maybe try a scavenger hunt instead... and have a WONDERFUL meal which includes eggs and foods associated with spring... you could also use a few edible flowers (roses, for example) as garnish, or toss them into salads (I actually saw pansies on sale in the produce section of the grocery store the other day just for that purpose...) celebrate with friends and share joy and freedom... Eostara: This was a goddess with whom a rabbit was besotted, so he left eggs, dyed in the colors of spring, to please her. They pleased her so well that she charged him with the duty of pleasing all those who venerated her with these gifts of dyed 'Eostara eggs'. It is named for Eostre' a spring goddess who has one of those nifty stories where she is a constellation that looks like a rabbit, but in the spring she decends to earth as a great bird and lays eggs as gifts of the returning spring. Fertility extraordinaire. Goddess Ostara, maiden aspect of earth. She is the potential, the fertility, and the budding life of earth. She is the roundness and wholeness of creation. In the egg, all aspects of Ostara can be found. The pagan-christiantian connection debate Easter/Eostar: there is a lot of debate about the exact relationship between the two... the secular celebration of easter is based on pre-Christian spring festivities... eggs and rabbits/hares are fertility symbols... fertility energy is valuable at this time of the year when so many people's livelyhood depends on fertile ground and successful crops... The baby chicks etc are symbols of the birthing livestock and the feelings of renewal... the pastel colours are symbolic of the flowers and of the fresh young green which is seen so briefly in the spring... Many people (including your humble narrator) believe that the Christians just picked it as being a handy time for the Jesus, martyrdom thing, and So they were merged. If you think about it, what the heck does a bunny handing out eggs have to do with crucifiction? :) The Easter bunny The Easter bunny is a Hare. Their are significant differences in these animals and those differences are important to the symbol [nesting behavior is part of the connection between eggs and the hare] their coursing skills made them honored as objects of the hunt. Easter Eggs "Easter" eggs don't really have anything to do with the christian faith- they're adaptations of symbols traditionally used for fertility. (Spring = time when plants are growing, cows are calving, etc = time of rebirth = good time for fertility rites) Symbolism Why are "easter" eggs decorated? Originally they were dyed red- the fertile colour of mother's blood. They were cast upon rivers at first thaw, that they might bring fertility to the land. They were left on graves as tokens of rebirth. They were eaten, that their blessings of fertililty might live withing us. The egg is not only a symbol of fertility, but of the Goddess Ostara. Making your own -ukrainian method- They're dyed with onion skins- it's easy to do. Just boil the eggs in water with a bunch of yellow onion skins. They come out a gorgeous reddish-brown colour, the deepness of which depends on how much onion skin you use and how long the eggs stay in the water.... You can turn the stove off after boiling and leave the eggs in it for an hour or so to deepen the colour. These eggs are hidden around the house for children to find, and once they are eaten, throw the shells into a stream or river to bring fertility to the land. http://www.public.iastate.edu/~python/pagan/ostara.html