Easter/ Ostara/ Eostre; Music, Art and a little info for the holiday weekend.

Taken from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%92ostre

Eostre

Old English Ēostre (also Ēastre) and Old High German Ôstarâ are the names of a  Germanic goddess whose Anglo-Saxon month, Ēostur-monath, has given its name to the Christian festival of Easter. Eostre is attested only by Bede, in his 8th century work De temporum ratione, where he states that Ēostur-monath was the equivalent to the month of April, and that feasts held in her honor during Ēostur-monath had died out by the time of his writing, replaced by the "Paschal month."This goddess is responsible for the easter bunny and easter eggs, both related to spring, fertility and the changing seasons.

Above; Ostara (1884) by Johannes Gehrts. The goddess flies through the heavens surrounded by Roman-inspired putti, beams of light, and animals. Germanic people look up at the goddess from the realm below.

Above; Eástre (1909) by Jacques Reich. Directly derived from Gehrts' image (above), with the Germanic worshipers replaced by a picturesque landscape.

Taken from
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_William_Waterhouse

John William Waterhouse

John William Waterhouse (6 April 1849 — 10 February 1917) was an English Pre-Raphaelite painter  who is most famous for his paintings of female characters from Greek and Arthurian mythology. He paintings were also full of images of spring and celtic symbolism.


Waterhouse was one of the final Pre-Raphaelite artists, being most productive in the latter decades of the 19th century and early decades of the 20th, long after the era of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.

Because of this, he has been referred to as "the modern Pre-Raphaelite", and incorporated techniques borrowed from the French Impressionists into his work.
And to finish, music that feels like spring, Jethrotull and Bouree , then and now;