Historically I've not been great at sticking to a festival calendar, with the exception of Lenaia and Anthesteria (those I've been observing consistently for over 10 years). It's helped in the past when a festival calendar has been shared with a community, but lately I've been wanting to settle on a calendar that only includes things that feel more personally meaningful. And indeed, some of these are ONLY meaningful to me. We'll see how this sticks, but now that I'm currently finishing up the last bit of work to complete my clinical herbalist program, I'm looking forward to having more time and energy for devotional work.
Having mirror festivals in October was based on a conversation with a friend/co-religionist in my tradition. We observed the parallels of Anthesteria with observances like Samhain, and they mentioned the idea of having another festival that mirrors Lenaia. I love this idea, and I'm thinking it might blend well into an Oschophoria-type observance. We'll see... this is not fully fleshed out yet. I suspect I'll be figuring it out as I go along.
2022 Festival Calendar
Jan 14 (sunset) - Jan 18th (sunset) - Lenaia
Feb 11 (sunset) - Feb 14th (sunset) - Anthesteria
March 12 (sunset) - March 20th (sunset) - City Dionysia
March 20th - Spring equinox: Bacchic Orphic Egg Hunt?
April 28-May 2nd (solar) - Floralia
May 4th - Alice Day
May 6-14th - Elevation Ceremony/Days of Remembrance for Anthony
June 2nd - Khariteia: Festival of the Graces
July 3rd - Dies Mortis of Jim Morrison
Near Full moon in July (13th) - Festival of Ariadne & the Mountain Mothers
Aug 8 - Day of the Beloved Trickster
Sept 21-23 - Festival of Orpheus: Poetry, prophecy, music, and honoring tradition
Oct 3-5 - Oschophoria / Mirror Lenaia: Fire mysteries, honoring the last harvest, sacrifice, beginning the underworld descent
Oct 31-Nov 2 - Days of the Dead / Mirror Anthesteria
Nov 4th - Looking Glass Day
Nov 24th - Lampteria
Dec 21st - Winter Solstice/Yule
Dec 22 - 31st - Festival of the Toys
Jan 1st - Kalends
Jan: Sphaira
Feb: Astragaloi
Mar: Trochos
Apr: Rhombos
May: Strobilos
Jun: Krotala
Jul: Paignia
Aug: Pokos
Sep: Mela
Oct: Esoptron
Nov: The Agathos Daimon
Dec: All the Toys
This is great. Interesting idea about the mirror festivals. These days my Oct-Dec period is kind of taken over by Northern European gods and traditions, but I will keep that in mind for the future in case that changes, as things are always in flux.
ReplyDeleteI too have most consistently celebrated Lenaia and Anthesteria of all the ancient Dionysian festivals - I think for over 20 years now! I wonder how common this pairing is for having special significance to modern worshippers.
Especially excited to see Alice Day and Looking Glass Day on there! So happy that others are celebrating these.
Thanks! Lenaia seems to naturally flow/connect to Anthesteria - I'm hoping to cultivate a similar feeling with the mirror festivals.
DeleteI suppose I have always taken it for granted that these are THE major Dionysian festivals from antiquity and the most important... but perhaps not so for every modern Dionysian? Strange thought!
I love celebrating Alice Day! And my partner who is not a practicing polytheist is more than happy to participate in such things when it involves thematic food and games and movie watching, which is even more fun. :D
I agree about Lenaia flowing into Anthesteria. This has become stronger for me over time. However, I don't really know if it's accurate to consider either of them the major festivals from the perspective of someone in classical Athens...so hard to say. I do think at least Anthesteria has gotten a lot of attention in modern times but how much of that is due to our own sensibilities, the similarities to Samhain which people are already familiar with, etc.? Interesting to ponder.
DeleteYes Alice Day is really appealing to a wide variety of folks for all sorts of reasons. Some come for the drugs, some for the fancy tea parties, some for the childlike fun. Or all of the above!
Yeah I'm not sure it's accurate to consider them major festivals either, just observing my own biases in that regard! It is indeed interesting to think about all the variables that might contribute to whether a festival has more or less attention now than it did... like how the relevance translates over time, how much information has survived, how adaptable it might be to a modern/solo polytheist, etc.
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