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Author Topic: Festivals, once and for all  (Read 2175 times)

Py23

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Festivals, once and for all
« on: December 05, 2013, 10:53:17 am »
What is going on with the calender? I tried, once, twice, million times.
And it's supposed to be easier for me because the "day starting at sunset" is a jewish thing too, but i just don't get it.
Decades? 4years?
Can someone just make a simple list of this days? or maybe it's some kind of a test to prove that you're worthy of being an hellenic pagan?

Astani

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Re: Festivals, once and for all
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2013, 11:14:34 pm »
Quote from: Py23;131489
What is going on with the calender? I tried, once, twice, million times.
And it's supposed to be easier for me because the "day starting at sunset" is a jewish thing too, but i just don't get it.
Decades? 4years?
Can someone just make a simple list of this days? or maybe it's some kind of a test to prove that you're worthy of being an hellenic pagan?


Well, the calendar is only important if you follow an ancient city's particular set of festivals. If you want a list of months and when festivals are, there are multiple sources.

Hellenion has an Athenian-based calendar here.

The blog Of Thespiae does a pretty good job of explaining the difference between our solar calendar and an ancient lunar calendar. And it has a Boeotian-based calendar here.

As for me, I don't think it's necessary to follow the old calendars. What's the point? There's too many out there and they're really just for keeping track of festivals. Which we can't really celebrate like we want to because we're sparse and that some Hellenic pagans may not follow the same calendar as you.

Honestly, I wish we would utilize the modern calendar and assign fixed festival dates to it that most everyone can follow.

I don't follow any of the Greek calendars since I believe the polis-specific festivals are unnecessary today. Or at the very least, right now. I observe Hecate's Deipnon on the last day of every month, the Noumenia on the first day, and Agathodaimon on the second like the ancient Greeks but I use the modern calendar. These are the days, I believe, to be important in establishing a rhythm to ritual and practice since they are focused on the household.

mlr52

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Re: Festivals, once and for all
« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2013, 11:33:06 pm »
Quote from: Astani;131536


Honestly, I wish we would utilize the modern calendar and assign fixed festival dates to it that most everyone can follow.
 

 
Have a mini celerbration every day.
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Astani

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Re: Festivals, once and for all
« Reply #3 on: December 05, 2013, 11:36:19 pm »
Quote from: mlr52;131538
Have a mini celerbration every day.

 
Now that I think about it, I kinda do lol.

Py23

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Re: Festivals, once and for all
« Reply #4 on: December 06, 2013, 06:33:32 pm »
Quote from: Astani;131536
Well, the calendar is only important if you follow an ancient city's particular set of festivals. If you want a list of months and when festivals are, there are multiple sources.

Hellenion has an Athenian-based calendar here.

The blog Of Thespiae does a pretty good job of explaining the difference between our solar calendar and an ancient lunar calendar. And it has a Boeotian-based calendar here.

As for me, I don't think it's necessary to follow the old calendars. What's the point? There's too many out there and they're really just for keeping track of festivals. Which we can't really celebrate like we want to because we're sparse and that some Hellenic pagans may not follow the same calendar as you.

Honestly, I wish we would utilize the modern calendar and assign fixed festival dates to it that most everyone can follow.

I don't follow any of the Greek calendars since I believe the polis-specific festivals are unnecessary today. Or at the very least, right now. I observe Hecate's Deipnon on the last day of every month, the Noumenia on the first day, and Agathodaimon on the second like the ancient Greeks but I use the modern calendar. These are the days, I believe, to be important in establishing a rhythm to ritual and practice since they are focused on the household.

 
Everything you say makes sense. It realy is difficult to celebrate everything like the ancient times. I just wish we had something permanent and coherent  to counter the Celtic wheel of the year. Even just one big festival for the begining of the year or something, so we can g(r)eek out a bit.

drekfletch

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Re: Festivals, once and for all
« Reply #5 on: December 09, 2013, 01:13:38 am »
Quote from: Py23;131489
What is going on with the calender?

 

Many things are going on with it.  Which is why it's so complicated.  You've got the lunar cycle as the months, with the Dark Moon at the end and the New moon at the start.  You've got the emphasized local focus of the ancients.  Which leads to different calendars in different places.  You've got the non-industrial society that still places a bit of importance on agricultural festivals.

And that's just looking at the ancients.  When you start observing in the modern world you've got new complications.  Our information comes from Greek cities, so you can either start from scratch or adapt/adopt one of the foreign city calendars.  You've got a climate that is very rare outside of the Mediterranean, so those calendars sometimes have flower festivals when you've got two feet of snow, or vice verse.  You've got our limited numbers.  It's nice to do stuff together, which is important in a community oriented religion.  But our communities are often spread over great distances, so the ancient local focus gets set aside sometimes.  And sometimes people choose to stick with the tradition of local focus at the expense of doing what the rest of the world is doing.  You've got the Gregorian civil calendar most of the modern world uses, which makes even calculating a lunar calendar complicated.  

So, yeah.  There's no such thing as a simple list.  There are groups that have made their own decisions regarding what priorities to make when they compiled their calendar.  But there is no singular calendar.

In addition to the two groups mentioned previously, the blog Baring the Aegis has a page for the calendar she uses, which also includes a google calendar if you use that.
http://baringtheaegis.blogspot.com/p/festivals-by-month.html

I'm just glad we don't have to worry about sighting stars before sunrise.
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Louisvillian

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Re: Festivals, once and for all
« Reply #6 on: September 15, 2014, 04:31:12 am »
Quote from: Astani;131536
I observe Hecate's Deipnon on the last day of every month, the Noumenia on the first day, and Agathodaimon on the second like the ancient Greeks but I use the modern calendar.

I agree and I do the same thing. In addition, though, I have my own traditions set out regarding festival days. Some I do port over and adapt, at least the pan-Hellenic festivals. But I've made up some of my own, or at least conceived them as feast days in honour of specific gods and events, based on things in American history. It's about as close as I can get to polis-specific festivals considering I live in a nation-state rather than a city-state. But I feel that it's true to the spirit of Hellenic and Hellenistic religion, which is to celebrate the impact of the gods in our lives and maintain a mutual hospitality between us and the gods.

Basquiat

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Re: Festivals, once and for all
« Reply #7 on: September 18, 2014, 12:35:19 am »
Quote from: Py23;131489
What is going on with the calender? I tried, once, twice, million times.


I tend to follow a simple, overarching calendar whenever I pray or make votive offerings. I'm a proponent of a universally acknowledged and patterned calendar based on the Athenian model. It's certainly a game-changer.

I would recommend following Hellenion for a full and robust exemplar.

OfThespiae

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Re: Festivals, once and for all
« Reply #8 on: November 01, 2014, 08:35:11 pm »
Quote from: Astani;131536
Well, the calendar is only important if you follow an ancient city's particular set of festivals. If you want a list of months and when festivals are, there are multiple sources.

Hellenion has an Athenian-based calendar here.

The blog Of Thespiae does a pretty good job of explaining the difference between our solar calendar and an ancient lunar calendar. And it has a Boeotian-based calendar here.

As for me, I don't think it's necessary to follow the old calendars. What's the point? There's too many out there and they're really just for keeping track of festivals. Which we can't really celebrate like we want to because we're sparse and that some Hellenic pagans may not follow the same calendar as you.

Honestly, I wish we would utilize the modern calendar and assign fixed festival dates to it that most everyone can follow.

I don't follow any of the Greek calendars since I believe the polis-specific festivals are unnecessary today. Or at the very least, right now. I observe Hecate's Deipnon on the last day of every month, the Noumenia on the first day, and Agathodaimon on the second like the ancient Greeks but I use the modern calendar. These are the days, I believe, to be important in establishing a rhythm to ritual and practice since they are focused on the household.

 
I know this thread is older, but i just wanted to pop in to say thanks for the kind words about my calendar project. :-)  (Unfortunately, due to living expenses, including vet bills, I can no longer offer it for free, but it's at a very fair price, considering that it takes me a week to bring up to date every year, and took me nearly a year of research and divinations to compile.)

I don't think I'm doing anything exactly as it was done in ancient times --even traditions that held strong for centuries before Christianity morphed and changed when people moved or a local culture's priorities changed.  But as has been said on Babylon 5:  What is built, endures.  What I know of ancient Boeotioan festivals is a legacy that was left, and i can either keep it alive or let it die, and I choose to do what I can to keep it going.  It's never going to look "just like the ancients did it" except in jeans and Chuck Taylors instead of khitons and sandals, but it can still continue.  The earliest Christmas celebrations didn't look anything like what they do, now, but that neither stops most Christians from celebrating, nor from considering what they do to be a "time-honoured tradition".

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