On festivals
And while I’m on the subject of festivals – what limited contact I still have with other Hellenic polytheists suggests to me that perhaps few are really endeavoring to celebrate festivals, or at least to do so fully. I suspect this is most often due to a lack of other people to celebrate with, but that is no reason to ditch festivals altogether! After all, we do this primarily for the gods, not for our own amusement (although they can be very enjoyable). Another problem may be that people aren’t really sure how to make a day into a festival, rather than a brief ritual, especially when solitary. Or are uncertain if the ancient festivals still apply, but wary of creating their own new ones.
So for anyone struggling with these issues, I direct you to an article I wrote awhile back on festivals in general, and specifically how going outdoors can provide answers to a lot of the problems: Outdoor Festivals (via Wildivine.org). In addition, if you have any questions I might be able to answer, ask them here or email me. Am always happy to help people jumpstart their practice. I’ve been doing this for a long time, for the most part either alone or with one or two other people, so I have an idea of the challenges involved.
Festivals were a very important part of ancient Greek religion. Ours is a celebratory faith, and our gods love a good spectacle, a bountiful feast, beautiful processions and altars, etc. And festivals mark important seasonal and agricultural transitions, the anniversaries of significant events, specific aspects of the god involved, times of liminality, and religious obligations not satisfied by everyday ritual.
I will also note that over time some festivals can take on a very intense quality that will lead to deeper Mysteries. My nine-festival cycle for Dionysos, for instance, has changed my whole perception of Him and my role as His priestess, and still continues to evolve as I tread His path. There is something special there that is markedly different than simply doing generic ritual for Him (listening to music, drinking, pouring libations, dancing, are all fine ways to honor Him but they do not constitute a specific festival).
I hope the heortai are kept alive in modern Hellenismos. The gods deserve our best.
If many festivals are community oriented how do you approach this in Hellenismos?
Well, I can only comment for myself, but I simply focus on the festivals (and elements within festivals) that are not primarily about human community, or don’t require the community to actively (or knowingly) participate. For instance, a harvest festival is typically a community event, but here we might go to the farmers market to involve ourselves in the local celebration of agriculture, and then cook a private feast from the local ingredients and share it with the appropriate gods. Most festivals can really be whittled down to you and the gods anyway. Sure, it would be nice to have a whole community to worship with, but the community should never be the sole focus of a religious festival anyway.
Fortunately, there is no rule about which festivals you have to celebrate. So without a dedicated group of women, I might forgo the Thesmophoria for instance. But if I wanted to still celebrate Demeter’s agricultural mysteries alone, I could craft a new festival (perhaps using some of the same elements) to do so. Many ancient festivals make no sense at all to do now, like the Synoikia, so can be immediately discarded. And we should remember that every different area had their own festival calendar, so it’s MORE traditional to create our own than to entirely mimic the Attic one (as some people have tried to). If you have no religious community, then your religious calendar will not be community oriented, and that’s fine.
Synoikia
Well, it might still make sense if one was native to and living in Atttika.
[...] just read this blog post on a forest door, I started thinking. The blog post, which was very interesting and I hope you’ll [...]
I know I have issues with festivals. However, with a Kemetic practice, there are so many festivals to choose from, most of which we know nothing about. (There’s a festival for Sekhmet putting down the followers of Sutekh, but no one knows a thing.) You have the festivals that you practice for your gods, but then, which ones are more important?
Then there’s the calendar issue common to Kemetic practices. And that’s when I really get stuck.
That’s the problem, though – getting too overwhelmed by concern over “getting it right” can lead to not doing anything at all, which is much worse. If there aren’t enough (or any) details on those ancient festivals, I say scrap them and start making your own. Make ones that make sense for your community (even if that’s just you), for your physical environment, for the group of gods you deal with most often, etc. Do those enough over the years, and they will build up tradition and be just as meaningful as anything from ancient times.
I don’t know about the calendar problems in Kemeticism but I’m tempted to say scrap those too if they’re prohibiting you from moving forward. Maybe just start with a simple lunar calendar, or even just use the regular civic calendar. As much as I can be a calendar nerd sometimes regarding Greek stuff, I still say the most important thing is doing something, and sticking to *some* kind of calendar, rather than reconstructing the ancient one.
I have to agree that this is an issue within the “pagan community”, not just the Hellenic one. And it’s something I struggle with too. Most of my ideas involve very simple elements, like attending an event (or creating one), and having a small feast after the day’s events. But for half the year it’s bitterly cold here and makes outdoor ritual close to impossible (although this year we’ve had really unseasonably warm weather — although I suppose this is “regular” to the rest of the world
— and I’m glad Anthesteria falls later this year so it might be more seasonably appropriate), and I also live in a house where I’m not longer really able to cook for myself (too many fights, not enough room, etc.). It really sucks out a lot of the idea of a day being a festival day, and I can really feel it when I try and do what I can, y’know?
Thanks for posting this.
Thanks for posting this. I was actually brought that point up earlier in a discussion with a friend of mine: that we celebrate festivals for the Gods not ourselves (I still think way too many pagans make themselves the center of their worlds rather than joining the one already extant and finding their place in it). Having said that, I must admit that I’m rather lousy with celebrating the Gods and Spirits so sometimes I do something and sometimes not. It’d be cool for me to have a calendar such as the one you recently posted (after all people talk about melding the ‘spiritual’ with the ‘mundane’, how well does a festival calendar seem to accomplish that task) but I’m not anywhere near that. Blessings.
Well, I haven’t always had this festival calendar. When I first started out, I was just celebrating the Wiccan Sabbats. Then I started learning more about Hellenic tradition and incorporating elements into those holidays, and then I slowly hived off a few fully Hellenic festivals, and now over 15 years later I’m still tweaking them, learning what works and what doesn’t, adding details, merging, separating…. it’s an ongoing process, probably indefinitely. In other words, we all have to start somewhere, and the sooner you start working on it, the sooner you’ll develop your own system. I do think, however, that it’s important to make some commitments, spiritually, and celebrating at least a few festivals each year is a good place to begin. Just fulfilling that commitment will energize you to do more for Them.
This is very timely for me, I’ve been struggling with this recently. We can read about the festivals, but how to translate what we know into something that is relevant, meaningful and powerful NOW, especially when what we know about some festivals is somewhat limited. This is only my second year of observing Dionysian festival days. I feel like over time I’ll be able to add, personalize, create my own… but it’s just getting over that hump of organizing the practical or ritual aspects of what to DO. I’ve been asking myself things like, What does the festival mean to Dionysos? What does it mean to me? How do I balance mystical/solemn with frivolity/celebration? (In other words – reminding myself not to be TOO serious all the time – depending on the occasion.) And when still left with uncertainty, I’ve been reminding myself to dive in anyway and DO something, whatever it is. I feel that’s what’s most important — to bring action into devotion and enchantment into the “everyday”.
I’ve decided this year to do divination specifically on the Noumenia to get some guidance on what focus to take that month or during the month’s festivals, and that’s helped a little bit — my husband and I had already decided on a procession and going out dancing tomorrow for the Lenaia. I really like your idea of making and wearing a garland, I may add that as well.
I don’t know if this will be encouraging or discouraging, but it’s taken me over a decade to get some of these festivals to where they really feel right. In other words, be patient, keep working at it, it will happen. And it’s not as if all that “practice” is worthless, far from it! You learn so much – about the gods, about your spiritual priorities, etc. – by going through the process, rather than just being handed something complete (although I admit that would be nice sometimes). Sounds like you’re asking the right questions, so I’m sure you’ll get there. You’re absolutely right – the most important thing is to DO it, even if it’s not perfect.
You should definitely wear garlands! Adds immediate festive atmosphere. If you make them out of fresh greenery (as opposed to the silk kind from craft stores) then you can just wear them on the procession and then discard them before actually going to a club or wherever. Maybe you could sing or chant something on the procession to make it more formal. Or be silent and contemplative, or even just only talk about Dionysos. Also, maybe consider some preliminary activities before going out dancing – libations and incense at His shrine, playing music you associate with Him, decorating His statue (if you have one) with fresh ivy. In the future, if you want to go further into this festival, you could make a liknon from a simple basket, fruit, and a clay phallus (easy to make). That’s one of the things that would make it specifically Lenaia as opposed to any other Dionysian celebration. Just a few suggestions – this is how I slowly expanded my festival days.
[...] talks about the importance of festivals: And while I’m on the subject of festivals – what limited contact I still have with other [...]
[...] reading posts like Dver’s On Festivals and They can hear you, Sarah Lawless’ They’re Watching You, and P. Sufenas Viris [...]
Action « the night wanderer's path said this on February 8, 2012 at 11:37 PM |
[...] A few resources I should have included in my last post: [...]