A New Beginning: Celebrating the Spring Equinox Paperback – January 1, 2016

I want to respond to a prior comment because it almost convinced me not to buy this book, but I am glad that i did. We are a secular family but I want to teach my son about the many traditions that enliven the year. While I wouldn't presume to tell anyone whether or not a book feels friendly enough for their personal religious beliefs, I did not see the Christian bias a previous reviewer critiqued. That review states that the book transitions from a discussion of the ancient Saxons' Eostre to a page about "the real Easter" but this is not factually accurate. What the book actually says is this: "At the same time that Pagans celebrated their goddess of Springtime, Eostre, Christians observed Jesus' new beginning, when they believe he was raised from the dead. As more people became Christians, the name of their celebration changed from Eostre to Easter." Throughout the discussion of Easter, it is depicted as the holiday/celebration celebrated by one group of people (Christians); it states what "they" (Christians) believe and what they (Christians) call their holiday. It is historically accurate, if unfortunate, that many pagan celebrations and traditions were pulled into Christian traditions as that religion grew in the West (whether by accident or calculation, or both). I think this book does a good job of presenting both the pagan celebration and the Christian holiday and giving equal value to both -- this is in fact one of the things I appreciate most about this series of books.

This book is delightful! I was happy to find a Spring Equinox book that discussed many traditions around the world without fear of using the word "Pagan"! As a homeshcooling pagan family, this met all of our needs and helps kids learn about and understand where Easter traditions come from. The images are bright and playful, and keeps my son's attention as he contemplates the meaning of Ostara celebrations. I love it. He loves it. It's Perfect!

I've been reading all four of these books to my daughters and to their classes during school gardening. They're a little above their first-grade reading level and attention spans, but they enjoy these colorful books broken up into two or three parts. They give a good explanation of the astronomical reasons for the seasons and how people around the world celebrate them, which has sparked some interesting conversations about the customs observed by the kids in the class.

This is not a read all at once book. It is best to do a little bit at a time, discuss, do hands on activities, etc. then come back the next day and do the next section. In fact, this would make a great week-long unit. Book covers an equinox, how its related to spring time, cultural history, various harvest celebrations around the world, and some hands on things to do like making mashed potato eggs or Chinese lanterns. There is NO list of other cultural celebrations to research (like int eh fall book). .Overall. its a nice book with lots of great facts and its better than anything else I have seen on the market regarding this topic (spring equinox).Cautions: For parents, please consider the following context before buying the book. Many of the cultural harvest celebrations include offerings to gods, sun gods, etc. They also do rituals to bring them luck. Jesus Christ is mentioned in the Christian form of Easter, but the book does include its predecessor of pagan Eostre. There is debate over the actual pagan form of Eostre (based on what I have read in scholarly circles), but I feel that overall, its good enough for the purposes of this book. The Jewish festival does not mention the Biblical god.

This was exactly what i was looking for. Equal time is given to all the traditions. It does end on the Christian celebration of Easter but it doesn't paint it as the one correct way to celebrate as other reviews have said. It's brief and more of an introduction to these ideas so definitely more appropriate for younger readers...I would say under 10 years old would get the post out of it. I plan on getting the other books as the seasons change. The illustrations are lovely. Shipped promptly.

I’m room mom for my daughters classroom and struggled to find an appropriate book about spring for 3rd graders. This was absolutely perfect!Not only does it go into to the science of the equinox, but the cultural celebrations of spring around the world! We’re having a classroom party this week based on this book, and can’t wait!*ALL of my children, ages 2-9, enjoyed this book.

I like the book for the good multi-cultural recap of various traditions. We'll enjoy trying out some customs from around the world but it is disappointing in its clear and completely unnecessary Christian bias. There are a number of traditions described, culminating with a Germanic Ostre celebration and on the next page it says something along the lines of, "But now we know the real Easter, bla bla bla bla and has a church Easter scene. I'd take the page out of the book, except that I WANT the Christian tradition represented in any multi-cultural approach. The bias is completely unnecessary. There is no reason to speak to the reader as "we, the Christians". It simply alienates and pushes away most of the world's readers.

My daughter loves this book. As so many non-religious families we wanted to introduce our children to a variety of Spring Celebrations and I found this book to be very good.I found it informative without being biased towards any one religion. The pictures are colorful and draw you in. I love the scientific explanation included in the text and all the fun activities to try at the end.We read this book all the time and my daughter has been looking forward to celebrating many of these holidays this Spring.

Very informative book on the different ways the Spring Equinox was celebrated throughout history, and today. Well done