the magnificent Ishtar gate
Ishtar gate lion
A shop assistant in my local grocery store wished me “Schöne Ostertage” (happy Easter days) but what I heard was the name of the goddess Astarte, which is a counterpart of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar. I found myself thinking of her today. Some scholars speculate her name is at the root of our Easter, but as far as I know this has not been proven beyond doubt.
I found two fascinating links today that I want to share.
A link to a great post by a fellow blogger that I stumbled upon just today.
symbolreader 
Yes, interesting links indeed. In the northeast of Holland (historacly saxon area) we also know the easter-fires. Hope they will really bring some spring soon this year (or us it else written in the stars?).
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Interesting thing about the Easter fires. I love these ancient rituals that have survived through time. In Zurich we have Sechseläuten, the burning of the Bööögg, which is a figure of a giant snowman, but that takes place later in April. I hope the winter is not going to hold on until then, though.
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http://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sechsel%C3%A4uten#section_3
The german Wiki says this Böögg burning indeed also is connected to the tradition and meaning of easterfires. It says also something about people dressed as ‘larven’ (parasites?) scaring children in the streets. This remindes me of my mother telling me once that they used to burn their strawbeds in spring to destroy the flees in them.
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I thought of this the moment I saw her name and thought you might enjoy it. I love this album, and this is my favorite track: Of the Sleep of Ishtar – Karl Sanders
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I love that track! Thank you very much. You know how people identify with certain archetypal forces and Ishtar has always been extremely important to me personally…
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lol Good post. I was thinking of posting on Ishtar today but didn’t, I even played the part of the Ishtar Bunny for sister and my housemate today~
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You should have taken a photo of you dressed as the Ishtar Bunny.
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Oh no I was just myself a sex bunny~ Haha
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