Greek Festivals
There are a number of festivals that have very little to do with mythology, but which have great religious significance.
The rites or events in the festivals varied widely. Some of these festivals allowed everyone to participate, while others were only for the selected few, such as the priests or priestesses. Some required fasting or remaining chaste, while others enjoyed wine, feasts and sexual activities. Or there might be sacrifices of animals to the gods, or a procession through the streets of the city. Contests and games were sometimes held in honour of the gods, or recitals and music were heard.
I have left out some festivals (eg. Olympic Games, Isthmian Games, etc), but these can be found in the Panhellenic Games, which you can read in the next article.
Daedala (Daidala)
Panathenaea (also Great Panathenaea)
Bacchanalia or Dionysia
Daedala (Daidala)
Dedication: Hera
City: Plataea.
Date: Held every seven years.
The festival was held in honour of Hera, at Plataea, every seven years. The Great Daedala was held every 59 years, all over Boeotia. The festival involved a procession of the wooden bride (daidala) before this image was burned in a sacrificial fire. This was meant to be a festival of reconciliation. The myth surrounding this festival was about when Hera left her husband, because she was fed up with his frequent infidelities. They were reconciled when Zeus pretended that he had a new bride and she discovered that her so-called rival was only a wooden statue of a woman, when she ripped off the veil. See Hera.
Panathenaea (also Great Panathenaea)
Dedication: Athena
City: Athens.
Date: Mid-August.
The Panathenaea was a festival held in Athens in which they sacrificed animals to the goddess Athena, their great patron goddess and protectress. At first, the festival was held annually, but around the mid-5th century a larger festival began to be held every four years, like the Olympic Games. The larger festival was called Great Panathenaea. Its celebration for lasted five days while the smaller festivals held in the other years lasted for only 2 days.
The festival usually began with a procession, with people bringing in sacrificial animals. After the sacrifices, there were recitals of parts of epic poems, but this was later replaced by music contests at the time of the statesman Pericles (fl. mid-5th century BC). Commemoration was also held for those who had fought in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC). There was also a smaller version of the athletic competitions. At night, there was a procession in which the people bore torches as they moved towards the temples on the Acropolis.
Chloia
Dedication: Demeter Chloë
City: Eleusis.
Date: Anthesterion (March)
A spring festival held in honour of Demeter Chloë, around the time that grain begin to sprout.
Scirophoria
Dedication: Demeter and Kore (Persephone)
City: Athens.
Date: 12th of Skirophorion (June/July).
An annual festival held in honour of Demeter and her daughter Kore (Persephone). It was at this time of the year when the threshing was done. Priests and priestesses from the temples of Athena, Poseidon and Helios marched to the place known as the Skiron, under a large, white umbrella. The umbrella symbolised protection of the soil from the sun.
Eleusinia
Dedication: Demeter
City: Eleusis.
Date: Held every two years, probably in the month of Metageitnion (August-September).
A Thanksgiving festival held in honour of Demeter for the new crops. Though, it is held at Eleusis, it may not have anything to do with Eleusinian Mysteries. It was festival was held every two years on the month of Metageitnion, which involved sacrifice to Demeter and athletic contests.
Proerosia
Dedication: Demeter
City: Eleusis.
Date: September
A festival which involved praying for a good harvest, before they began ploughing and sowing.
Thalysia
Dedication: Demeter
City: Cos
Date: Autumn
This festival was held in autumn after harvest on the island of Cos. Basically the festival is that of Thanksgiving.
Thesmophoria
Dedication: Demeter
City: Various parts of Greece.
Date: 12-14 Pyanopsion (October).
An annual three-day festival which was held in honour of Demeter Thesmophoros, observed in various parts of Greece. It was a festival where the rites were carried out by women, and the purpose was to ensure the fertility of the land, so that good crops would be harvested. The women participating in the rituals had to fast and observe their chastity for several days.
The rite was supposed to symbolise the abduction of Kore (Persephone), daughter of Demeter, and the time she had to spend on the surface and in the Underworld. So on the first day, pigs were thrown into a pit or underground chamber. What remains that were left and not eaten by snakes, and before they had time to rot, were then brought back up by the women who had fasted. The pigs' remains were then placed on the altar, in the hope that there would be a good crop that year. The second day involved women fasting in remembrance of the time that Demeter was wandering and mourning over the loss of her daughter. On the third day, the women spent the day giving gifts to children and praying for blessings on their families. They also prayed for good crops. This day was to commemorate Demeter's reunion with her daughter, ending the famine and failed crops.
Haloa
Dedication: Demeter
City: Eleusis, Athens
Date: Poseideon (December)
The festival involved a procession from Athens to Eleusis. Triptolemus was Demeter's first priest, whom she taught how to use the threshing floor.
Thargelia
Dedication: Apollo
City: Athens.
Date: Held on the sixth and seventh days of Thargelion (May-June).
Thargelia was a vegetation festival held annually in Athens, in which a man played the role of a god. This person was used as a scapegoat, as the people would drive him out of the city. Sometimes, this victim was actually sacrificed, particularly during times of famine; the scapegoat was either thrown into the sea or burned alive on a funeral pyre. On the second day of the festival there was a feast and a procession as a mark of thanksgiving.
Daphnephoria
Dedication: Apollo Ismenius or Apollo Chalazius
City: Thebes.
Date: Every nine years.
Daphnephoria was a festival held in honour to Apollo every nine years at Thebes. The festival involved a procession in which one person bore an olive branch with laurel flowers and bronze balls that were tied to a branch. It didn't seem to have anything to do with Daphne, the nymph who had escaped Apollo by transforming into a laurel tree. According to the legend, it was established in honour of Apollo when the Thebans won the victory in a war against the Pelasgians and the Aeolians.
Delia
Dedication: Apollo
City: Delos.
Date: Every 4 or 5 years.
Delia was a festival held in honour of Apollo on the island of Delos, his birthplace. Like the Pythian Games, it involved athletic and music contests, though on a much smaller scale than the Pythian. According to the myth, it was established by the hero Theseus over the victory of slaying the Minotaur in Crete.
Pyanopsia
Dedication: Apollo
City: Athens.
Date: Seventh day of the month of Pyanopsion (October).
The Pyanopsia was held annually on the 7th day of Pyanopsion (October). The rite involved hanging a hodgepodge of pulse and a branch of olive or laurel on the gate of the temple of Apollo. The Athenian hero Theseus was said to have begun this ritual to thank Apollo and commemorate his victory over the monster, the Minotaur.
Bacchanalia or Dionysia
Dedication: Dionysus
City: Various parts of Greece, southern Italy, including Rome.
Date: Dates varied.
A festival held in honour of Dionysus (Bacchus or Liber), the god of wine. The festival was usually celebrated with food and drinking. There were a number of different kinds of festivals, and the best known was the Great Dionysia in which the festival held dramatic performances in the theatre. The Little Dionysia were simple, smaller feasts. Anthesteria, held on the month of Anthesterion (February-March), involved merrymaking and drinking on the second day of the holiday. The Anthesteria was to celebrate the spring and the maturing of wine.
Agrionia
Dedication: Dionysus
City: Orchomenus.
Date: Held annually.
A festival held in honour of Dionysus in Orchomenus. Orchomenus was the city of the mythical king Minyas, in which his daughters were all driven mad, devouring their children. It was a punishment for not believing or worshipping Dionysus as a god. The festival used to involve the priest killing a woman who was a descendant of Minyas.
Aiora
Dedication: Icarius and Erigone
City: Athens
Date: Held at grape harvest.
The Aiora or "Swinging" commemorated the death of Erigone and her father Icarius. Erigone hanged herself when she discovered her father's body. Icarius was a follower of Dionysus, so the wine god punished Athens, causing madness upon young Athenian girls so that they too hanged themselves, until the murderers were punished. Athens instituted the festival during the grape harvest, where girls swung on ropes.
Hyacinthia
Dedication: Hyacinthus
City: Amyclae and Sparta
Date: Three-day festival, held annually.
An annual festival held in honour of the Spartan youth Hyacinthus, son of Amyclae. He was a lover of Apollo, but the god accidentally killed him with a miscast discus. Athletic contests were held to commemorate his death, and the festival lasted for three days each year at his tomb in Amyclae. In Amyclae, he was worshipped as a god. Sparta took over the festival, in which Apollo was also honoured.
Adonia
Dedication: Adonis
Date: Held annually.
A festival held in honour of Adonis, the young hunter whom Aphrodite loved, but who died tragically. Mostly young women celebrated his death and rebirth by planting seeds in shallow soil, growing flowers that grow fast but die young.
Bendidea
Dedication: Bendis
City: Athens
Date: Held annually.
An annual festival dedicated to Bendis in Athens, but it has its origin in Thrace. It involved a night horse-race in which riders carried torches.
By Jimmy Joe
