WORKSHOP – Spring Tea: An Ostara Ritual
Between Tea, Books, Flowers and Folklore
Step into the quiet turning point of the year and celebrate Ostara, the ancient festival of the Spring Equinox, when day and night stand in perfect balance and the earth begins its gentle awakening. Rooted in old European seasonal traditions and often associated with renewal, fertility and light returning to the land, Ostara marks the threshold between stillness and growth — the moment when seeds stir beneath the soil and life prepares to bloom.
At Story Owl, we gather to honour this luminous pause in the Wheel of the Year through story, symbolism and slow creativity. Surrounded by books, flowers and warm tea, you’ll explore the folklore of hares and eggs, ancient signs of rebirth and possibility, and the timeless human ritual of welcoming spring with intention.
This workshop is an invitation to notice what is quietly beginning within you, to tend it with care, and to step into the new season feeling more balanced, inspired and attuned to the rhythms of nature.
What we'll do:
♦ Welcome with Spring Tea
♦ Stories of Ostara: Light, Hares and Renewal
A brief journey into the symbolism of the equinox:
• the balance between day and night
• the egg as a symbol of potential
• the hare and the myths of spring
• traditions of renewal and fertility
An intimate storytelling moment that frames the rest of the experience.
♦ Ritual Egg Painting
Each participant receives a white egg (boiled or wooden) to paint.
The egg represents what has yet to be born.
While painting, you will be invited to reflect:
• What is beginning to germinate within me?
• What do I want to see flourish by summer?
You may paint symbols, words or intuitive forms. This will be the symbolic object you take home.
♦ Guided Writing — “What Is Beginning to Emerge?”
A short reflective exercise:
• Something new I feel awakening
• Something I need to leave behind
• One small gesture I will repeat this spring
The card can be kept alongside your egg.
♦ Ostara Tea Blending Ritual
Each participant composes their own spring tea from a selection of dried herbs.
You will choose 3 or 4 herbs, create your blend, give it a name and take it home.
This tea becomes a continuation of the ritual — something to drink slowly, remembering what you chose to cultivate.
♦ Equinox Ritual
Let this gathering be your gentle threshold into spring — a moment to pause, create, and welcome the season with intention. As light and shadow find their balance in the world outside, may you leave with something just as precious within: a quiet sense of renewal, a spark of inspiration, and the feeling that something beautiful has already begun.
Meet your Ostara guide
Catarina Alves de Sousa is a writer, creative copywriter and co-founder of Story Owl, a bookshop–café dedicated to stories, readers and slow creativity. After years helping brands and people find the right words, she’s now building a space where books, conversation and imagination naturally spill into workshops, circles and cosy gatherings.
Since childhood, Catarina has had a quiet but enduring fascination with Celtic culture. Ireland and Scotland remain her touchstones: the landscapes, mythology and winter light of those places continue to shape how she reads, writes and pays attention to the world.
Now that a bookshop–café (a lifelong dream) is part of her daily rhythm, she has a home for the seasonal practices and literary inspirations that have accompanied her for years. In this Imbolc Workshop, Catarina brings together mythology, storytelling and gentle creative work to welcome the first light of the year, help participants identify the “seeds” they want to nurture, and step into the coming months with more clarity, purpose and imagination.
