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(Magick Wand Sound)
Today, we’re going to learn a little bit about the sabbat of Ostara.
I suppose, first, I should ask you if you know what a sabbat is!
And this might even be a good place to let you know that when you look up the meaning
of a word that Pagans use all the time,
very often you’re probably going to get some pretty strange stuff.
I’ll bet that probably ALL of you know people who are not Pagans.
You probably have met and know quite a few people who are Christians.
They worship and serve differently than we do.
In our last episode I showed you that there have been many, many Gods and Goddesses,
and have been throughout all of history,
so there are many, many ways to worship, serve and believe.
In fact, there are plenty of people throughout the whole world who don’t believe in ANY
Gods whatsoever.
And you know what? That’s all right.
Isn’t it nice to have choices?
There are many, many, MANY ways to do all kinds of different things,
and I tell you that all the time.
This is one of those things, okay?
But DO remember: All knowledge is worth having.
So we’re going to introduce you to some ideas along the way,
and you get to make your own choices.
You should know that everything changes all the time.
You’re growing older and learning to do new things, and so do other people.
But it’s not just people who change.
How we celebrate our birthdays change all the time.
The things we like changes too.
You may or may not know it, but here, in the United States,
we have the opportunity to change who our President is once every four years.
And THAT changes all kinds of things too.
One of the other important things that changes all the time is language –
or the words that we choose to use.
When my mother was young, she thought that when something was really neat, it was “groovy.”
(Laughter) Groovy Baby!!
Well, my mother is still alive today, but very few people use that word when they want
to say something is pleasant, or cool, or neat.
Instead, a lot of people say it’s “awesome” or “fantabulous” or it’s “like a boss.”
So – the words we choose to use change all the time.
Imagine how many words have changed in the last hundred years.
How about the last 500 years?
How about the last three THOUSAND years?
Lots and lots of changes!
I’ll bet the people who built the pyramids in Egypt never used workds like,
oh, I don’t know, “fantabulous,” “groovy,” huh?
Or how about “radical?”
That’s radical dude! (Laughter)
I’ll bet they never said that!
It’s important to understand that everything changes all the time,
because if you look up the word “Pagan,”
you will often find the definition means a country dweller,
or someone who is uneducated, or unsophisticated.
Today, the word Pagan usually means something quite different,
and now it usually, when you look it up, on occasion, you may even find that it does say
it’s someone who believes in many Gods and Goddesses.
That’s a general definition.
So – what about Sabbat?
It used to mean “A secret meeting of witches and sorcerers for worshipping the devil.”
Can you say it with me?
“NOT!!” Okay? That was never true.
Back in the 14th, 15th, 16th century in France, that’s what the definition was.
Pagans do NOT worship “the devil.”
As I said, you will find all kinds of these kinds of definitions
if you look up words that we, as Pagans, use all the time.
There are a lot of reasons for why those words are that way in the dictionary,
but for today, I’m going to tell you that Sabbat is any one of the eight festivals celebrating
the changing of the seasons.
You may already know that.
Now – isn’t that much better?
Pagans celebrating a sabbat together can be one of the most wonderful times you’ll ever
have.
And I certainly hope you get the chance to celebrate MANY sabbats with
LOTS of Pagans throughout your whole life.
But you should really be aware that a whole LOT of people
don’t see things the way we, as Pagans, do.
Many Chrisitans celebrate a lot of THEIR holidays right around the same time
that we celebrate OUR holidays or Sabbats.
That’s just the way it is.
And sometimes, even if you don’t serve, worship or believe in the Christian God, or
Jesus,
you are probably GOING to feel left out because so MANY of your friends
are doing things at church or with their families.
And, probably, many of your friends at school are Christians too,
so they talk about how they’re going to celebrate THEIR holidays.
So how about if we talk about those birthday parties again?
Let’s say you were invited to two birthday parties on the very same day.
That’s not fair. I’m sure you’d like to go to both of them.
But what if you couldn’t? How would you decide which one to go to?
I guess that depends on YOU, doesn’t it?
Or, maybe it depends upon which one your Mom or Dad would LET you go to.
Maybe you COULD go to both.
Maybe you could only go to one, but you could send a gift to the other one.
There’s so many choices!! (Laughter)
Maybe you like one person better than the other. Or maybe you would decide to not go
at ALL.
So now, we’re thinking about those two birthday parties
– those two different kinds of birthday parties,
let’s go back to celebrating Sabbats and holidays.
Because so many of your friends probably do celebrate Easter and Christmas,
while Pagans are celebrating Ostara and Yule,
you just MIGHT feel left out.
Then again, maybe you don’t.
Do you know there are plenty of people who never celebrate birthdays?
Not once in their lives?
And there are some people who don’t celebrate ANY Sabbats or holidays at all.
AND, there are even people who celebrate the Sabbats in their own homes,
but also celebrate Christian holidays with their grandparents and other family members.
You need to understand that there are many, MANY ways to celebrate just about everything.
So let me ask you something – what would you do for your OWN birthday party
if you didn’t like cake and ice cream?
Would you be afraid that your friends would make fun of you for having pie instead?
How about you – would you make fun of your friend if he or she
wanted pie instead of cake and ice cream for THEIR birthday party?
Well I hope not.
Just like YOU don’t want anyone to make fun of you –
you should really think about it before making fun of somebody else.
And, as far as Ostara is concerned – or any of our 8 sabbats –
maybe if you learn more about how and why WE celebrate the changing of the seasons,
you’ll begin to feel better and not so left out.
Maybe you have Jewish friends, or friends who are Hindu or from some other faith or
religion.
Maybe you have friends who are atheist. Certainly possible.
Do you know that even some Pagans celebrate differently than other Pagans?
It’s true.
Again – just like birthdays.
Just because I might always have cookies for my birthday instead of cake and ice cream,
that doesn’t mean that I make fun of my friends who always
DO have cake and ice cream for their birthdays.
I might feel a little sad for my friends who don’t celebrate their birthdays at all –
because I love to celebrate –
but I don’t make them feel WORSE for not celebrating the way that I do.
And I don’t make them feel like they’re doing anything wrong.
We all have our own choices.
So if you and your best friend both had birthdays on the very same day,
and they had a bigger party than you did,
do you think it would be a good thing to feel sad because you
didn’t get all the things that they did,
or do you think it might be a better thing to do by
celebrating your own special day in ways that are important to you?
You get to choose.
Me – I like to feel good and happy, and I like to celebrate.
So I would choose to focus my attention on making my special day something worth celebrating.
Your Christian friends may very well be celebrating Easter in many of the
same ways that we celebrate Ostara,
but they are celebrating something very, very different than what we are celebrating.
So, perhaps ... just perhaps ...
you might want to think about how wonderful it is that we can
all choose to celebrate the things that are important to us,
no matter who else is celebrating something else?
So – how about if we learn a little bit about Ostara,
so we’ll have a better idea just what it is we’re celebrating anyway?
What do you say?