kyrene | Festivals, holidays, et cetera

I'll be honest--after my local Hellenic group exploded and I spent time recovering from the hell I went through being subjected to all of their shit, I stopped celebrating the Hellenic holidays. I put up an olive branch last year on my door--I think during the Pusnepsia for the eiresone--but that was essentially it. I've done my usual offerings and libations and what-not throughout the year, but the only real festivals I've done so far have been a solitary New Moon ritual for Hekate, a Thelemic version of the Samhain festival, the equinoxes, and a Festival of Hekate.

Hekate's REALLY been present these days--glad she's got an altar by the door of my bedroom now. :)

I'm not even certain what I would celebrate if I did. There are very few Athenian festivals that grab me: Anthesteria, Thargelia, Rural Dionysia maybe. I like the idea of honoring secular holidays and the solistices and equinoxes in a Hellenic fashion--I really don't want to create my own holidays out of thin air, and I think aspects of the Pagan wheel of the year make sense to me. At the very least I think that the solistices and equinoxes speak to me. The changing of the seasons always affects me on some profound level.

Festivals came about due to local customs and actual meaning, and were localized to a particular city or town. The winter time has always meant Dionysos to me, while the summer has always meant Apollo. The equinoxes have always made me think of Demeter and Persephone. So perhaps those would be good places to begin. New moons for Hekate, Samhain for Persephone and other chthonic deities, Beltaine for Aphrodite. I think full moons would be a great time to honor Artemis and/or Diana.

Cycles of nature are timeless, and I need Dionysos to keep me warm during the cold New England winters. Brr.

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Do you think there's something inherently "holiday" about the solstices, equinoxes and cross-quarters? An awful lot of cultures' holidays seem to come on a relatively small number of dates.

I know I've always experienced some of the ... effects ... of those dates. And I've heard deities refer to dates using the Wheel of the Year as a reference point ("at Samhain," "not before Imbolc") instead of calendar dates, though it's not always a good idea to draw conclusions from what may be a personal mannerism.

I stopped celebrating the Hellenic holidays...I've done my usual offerings and libations and what-not throughout the year,

I never could get into the swing of things. The calendar was too unfamiliar for one thing. I have tried to find ways to correlate thigns into my daily planner...but it was hard to think in that calendrical cycle. I've celebrated some Roman holidays on a low-key format but that's because its easier to key that into the Gregorian calendar.

I like the idea of honoring secular holidays and the solistices and equinoxes in a Hellenic fashion--I really don't want to create my own holidays out of thin air

I try to celebrate our American holidays in a Hellenic fashion as best I can, making correlations as I can do so.

I did get rather regular in leaving offerings to Hekate at crossroads in the dark of the moon...lunar cycles mean a lot to me for some reason. It could be due to my interest in astronomy, so I'm always looking up, and observe the phases often.

There are very few Athenian festivals that grab me: Anthesteria, Thargelia, Rural Dionysia maybe.

Its Panathenaia Hekatombaion and Poseidonia for me. Personal reasons I suppose. But that's really about it.

Festivals came about due to local customs and actual meaning, and were localized to a particular city or town.

Exactly, due to some locally significant mythological event for instance, or the city patron. Its one reason I point out that you can reconstruct the religion of a particular place and time. Save for a few festivals, there weren't many pan-hellenic festivals, any more than there was a pan-hellenic religion. Even the Gods were associated with different myths and rituals in different cities Which is one reason I've always looked at the 'generic' rituals in Homer as being more useful than others...they weren't tied to a specific polis, but where rather generalized for the entire Hellenic populace, and so didn't exactly match up with any one place.

You realize that you are describing the path of Spira the way we celebrate it.

That is hilarious. I had no idea.

Maybe I should take a look at your website... lol

Ya...the website is a little too light on information that someone with your depth of knowledge would be looking for. Just email myself....or Sora...or one of the other elders on there.

Basically each grove (group) schedules it how they like.....but we have many celebrations through the year. But in Calgary for us its Apollo in the summer and Dionysos in the Winter with a ritual to makr the passing from one to the other. We have celebrations for Eos on the vernal equinox, A Greater Dionysian festival in march, Selene in June, Hekate in the fall, Artemis in the spring. We honour artemis on the waxing crescents, etc. We have our own mysteries ritual (Artemisian Mysteries) as well. The group in Toronto is similar but different at the same time. They have a festival for Gaia I think and may have something for persephone at the autumnal equinox, etc. Basically each group honours the gods in a modern context considering secular holidays, and the cycles of the sun and moon. That last sentence is Spira in a nushell.

Could I get the link at least? A's description makes sense to me too (goodness knows, I could never keep the festival days straight) Might give me a kick start in laying out my routine.

www.spiracanada.com

Thank you! I've not had much luck finding Spira online, and its always at least seemed interesting.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SpiraCanada is good too.

Nuri, I can't recomend Spira enough for a person that is at all interested in Hellenic Religion in a more modern format. The only reason I didn't work with them was because they are more mystically inclined than I am--which is not at all :-D

I've told you that!!

I could never get into the Athenian calendar either, it focuses too much on gods I feel nothing for and leaves my patron out entirely. Couldn't get into the cycles of nature either. And yet I wanted holidays, my practice felt kind of empty without them.

Festivals, holidays, et cetera

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