Welcoming the Spring

Greetings all,
this is long overdue but better late than never. Spring as I'm sure you'll agree is a time of frazzledness, increased activity and generally having too much going on. But we always find time to herald the welcome of Springtime, as I've done in two events in different places at the end of last month.

Ostara with Swansea Pagan Moot
Me? Lead a ritual? Really? Not a most comforting notion, as even though alas I'd lead the Imbolc ritual, someone else wrote it. So I rifled through every past Ostara ritual I'd done, and soon I was tottering to the Works to stock up on a couple dozen plastic and polystyrene eggs , a few buckets of paint and some permanent markers, not odd at all, I'm sure the cashier thought to herself. For the University's Ostara talk we painted eggs in the spirit of the season, and some people came up with some quite imaginative designs. The leftover eggs were saved for later pursuits...
When the Sunday evening of the 25th March rolled round, despite heaving traffic in Mumbles we had a good turnout at the roundhouse, we drew symbols on the eggs marking our intent for new plans or ideas, charged them individually and then together in a bowl, and welcomed the Spring with this lovely song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGxQBcit_ps
We rounded the evening off with a bardic circle and some runic galdr chanting. Hail and welcome Spring!

Leaping Hare
The Leaping Hare convention in Colchester is run annually by Colchester Pagan Network and the Pagan Federation. My first experience of it was last year, but this year, held on the 31st March, was even better (better company might have had a small part to play in that too :P.) There were talks on Runic cosmology, the spirit of the 'Leaping Hare', traditional witchcraft and more, far too many lovely things to buy, and Sam's drumming workshop was really fabulous. There's usually so much going on in such a small venue that you won't get to have a go at everything - which lures you back for more next year! My highlight, as with last year, was the ritual at the end to herald the arrival of Spring. As the cakes and wine were passed around the circle the woman standing next to me hissed "What do I say! I've never done this before." It makes me begin to realise just how far I've come on this path, and how much further I have to go.....
http://www.freewebs.com/leapinghare/