On the first day of Spring, the Spring or Vernal Equinox is celebrated by Wiccans and Witches throughout the world. Spring Equinox (which is also known as Festival of Trees, Alban Eilir, Ostara, and the Rite of Eostre) is a fertility rite celebrating the birth of Spring and the reawakening of life from Earth. On this sacred day, Witches light new fires at sunrise, rejoice, ring bells, and decorate hard boiled eggs - an ancient Pagan custom associated with the Goddess of Fertility. The aspects of the Goddess invoked at this Sabbat are Eostre (the Saxon goddess of fertility) and Ostara (the German goddess of fertility); in some Wiccan traditions, the Green Goddess and the Lord of the Greenwood are worshipped on this day. Like most of the old Pagan festivals, Spring Equinox was Christianized by the Church into the religious holiday of Easter which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
On this day in ancient Rome, uprooted pine trees were carried through the streets of the city by the devotees of the cult of Attis and taken to his temple as part of an annual ritual (Procession of the Tree Bearers) to mourn the god's demise.