In the Roman tradition, this period is under the influence of Mars, the God of War, the vitalistic principle, generating fire. In the same way, the zodiac sign of the period is Aries, a fire sign under the domain of Mars. The month of March is in fact a month of beginnings, and in the pre-Roman Italic world the vēr sacrum (holy spring) was celebrated in March: groups of young men were ritually exiled from the community and sent to explore and conquer new lands following divine auspices. This practice of clear martial symbolism is attested in several Indo-European cultures, especially among the Germanic peoples, and perhaps the Indo-European expansion itself may have originated from similar events.
Another male deity linked to the spring equinox is Ukko(/Uku), the God of Thunder and War, in the Finnic tradition. During this season, a festival (ukonvakka/ukuvakk) was held in his honour after the seeds were sown. ln the field where the seeds were sown, a bread was ground and spread onto the field. This bread was the symbol of the fertility of the field and it was kept in the grain storage house and brought onto the dining table during special festivities (f.ex. Yule). So during the rebirth of nature, the energy was evoked to aid in the new harvest season as well.
Despite the martial and masculine connection of the period, the spring celebrations more generally aimed at celebrating the rebirth of nature, and its renewed fertility and vitality involve important female deities such as the West Germanic Goddess Ēostre (deriving from the Indo-European Goddess of the Dawn, and implying the symbolism of physical and subtle awakening) and the Western Slavic Dziewanna, the luminous and vernal aspect of Maržanna (the Goddess of Winter who had to be ritually "destroyed"). The spring celebrations linked to female polarity in various cultures are separated by a few weeks and extend to the month of April.
Finally, we can say that this period reveals in itself the explosion of both male and female energies, the first through martial activities and the second through fertility.
