Day 8. Beliefs - Festivals / Sacred Days
Jul. 23rd, 2011 10:59 am![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
artemismelissaI won't explain how a ritual is done in a festival day, first because my readers probably already know the basic structure of it, second because you can find it at my website (or others, since mine is in Portuguese), third because each festival has some particularities, fourth because beyond the basic people use to vary a lot in their practices; so - specially because of this lack of a rigid recipe - I just want to tell you about how I follow the calendar and how I do when we have a sacred day.
Every year, near the end of the civil year, mostly in November, I prepare the Hellenic calendar to put in our website. The first years I made that, I had to calculate stuff (since we have many types of year, some with an extra day, some with an extra month), but today I don't need it, because we have more sources on web to help me with it.
I consider the fixed days (like Noumenia, Dikhomenia etc), the ancient festivals by hellenic month, some secular days that can be adapted (like Earth day, mother's day, father's day, independence day), modern festivals (like Heliogenna, Herakleia, Prometheia), Hellenion monthly libations, and some modern festivals of other organizations (like Anadikia of Neokoroi, Kyklos Apollon, Philokoria of Cataleos, 12 Days of Dionysos of HellenicGods). Of course I never get to celebrate all of them, but at least I know they're happening and I put my mind in the deity that is being praised that day. This year I started to use my smartphone to remind me of the festivals in a better way.
The festivals I like more to celebrate are the ones of Dionysos, Zeus, Artemis and Athena. If we could put it in a family way, Zeus and Athena are like my parents and Dionysos and Artemis are my godparents. I also like the fact we have many new-years, so I try to (re)start things in Athenian New Year, Laconian New Year and even in Boeotian New Year. Besides being new beginnings, new-years are sort of one of the most civic days, in a sense of polis. I feel more connected to the festivals os "polis" than of "pagus". Even the Dionysiac festivals, I took them more by the matter of a shamanic ecstasy than the matter of vines and vegetation. In the case of Artemis, I focus on being the queen of the amazons and mistress of the animals than her aspect of the woods. And Artemis can be viewed in a shamanic way too - of a wild nature.
I didn't use to celebrate the seasons, mostly because I live near the equator line and because I didn't use to have an income to feel/see it as a crop. But now I'm celebrating the solstices together (in mind and soul) with the Greek group Thyrsos, and I have a nice job to celebrate the money I got with my work.
All my celebrations are being physically alone. My hellenic friends live far from me, and I like to do things alone. I have watched some pagan groups in a public space a couple of times, and I noted that people around got too curious (in a bad sense), some of them were participating there only to take pictures to put in their social-network albuns, and the whole thing seemed as a theater, which I'm not very fond of. (Even if you tell me theater comes from "theaomai" = to behold, look upon, view attentively, contemplate.) It's OK if we gather with good friends to perform rituals, I understand we have to show the new ones how do things properly too, and I would be glad doing all of that, but I still rather celebrate by myself. I'm not being dull, I just mean most of times we do things better when we do them ourselves. And the gods deserve the best of what we have.
Even then, I don't feel really alone. Sometimes we make an appointment of a ritual and we all feel/see/smell the same things the others (miles away) are feeling/seeing/smelling. It happens when we have a strong soul-connection in the gods. It's amazing! I believe, if someday we could transpose this experience to the physical world, it would be great indeed.
~~~
Every year, near the end of the civil year, mostly in November, I prepare the Hellenic calendar to put in our website. The first years I made that, I had to calculate stuff (since we have many types of year, some with an extra day, some with an extra month), but today I don't need it, because we have more sources on web to help me with it.
I consider the fixed days (like Noumenia, Dikhomenia etc), the ancient festivals by hellenic month, some secular days that can be adapted (like Earth day, mother's day, father's day, independence day), modern festivals (like Heliogenna, Herakleia, Prometheia), Hellenion monthly libations, and some modern festivals of other organizations (like Anadikia of Neokoroi, Kyklos Apollon, Philokoria of Cataleos, 12 Days of Dionysos of HellenicGods). Of course I never get to celebrate all of them, but at least I know they're happening and I put my mind in the deity that is being praised that day. This year I started to use my smartphone to remind me of the festivals in a better way.
The festivals I like more to celebrate are the ones of Dionysos, Zeus, Artemis and Athena. If we could put it in a family way, Zeus and Athena are like my parents and Dionysos and Artemis are my godparents. I also like the fact we have many new-years, so I try to (re)start things in Athenian New Year, Laconian New Year and even in Boeotian New Year. Besides being new beginnings, new-years are sort of one of the most civic days, in a sense of polis. I feel more connected to the festivals os "polis" than of "pagus". Even the Dionysiac festivals, I took them more by the matter of a shamanic ecstasy than the matter of vines and vegetation. In the case of Artemis, I focus on being the queen of the amazons and mistress of the animals than her aspect of the woods. And Artemis can be viewed in a shamanic way too - of a wild nature.
I didn't use to celebrate the seasons, mostly because I live near the equator line and because I didn't use to have an income to feel/see it as a crop. But now I'm celebrating the solstices together (in mind and soul) with the Greek group Thyrsos, and I have a nice job to celebrate the money I got with my work.
All my celebrations are being physically alone. My hellenic friends live far from me, and I like to do things alone. I have watched some pagan groups in a public space a couple of times, and I noted that people around got too curious (in a bad sense), some of them were participating there only to take pictures to put in their social-network albuns, and the whole thing seemed as a theater, which I'm not very fond of. (Even if you tell me theater comes from "theaomai" = to behold, look upon, view attentively, contemplate.) It's OK if we gather with good friends to perform rituals, I understand we have to show the new ones how do things properly too, and I would be glad doing all of that, but I still rather celebrate by myself. I'm not being dull, I just mean most of times we do things better when we do them ourselves. And the gods deserve the best of what we have.
Even then, I don't feel really alone. Sometimes we make an appointment of a ritual and we all feel/see/smell the same things the others (miles away) are feeling/seeing/smelling. It happens when we have a strong soul-connection in the gods. It's amazing! I believe, if someday we could transpose this experience to the physical world, it would be great indeed.
~~~
0. 30-day Paganism Meme (Intro)
1. Beliefs - Why Hellenismos?
2. Beliefs - Cosmology
3. Beliefs - Deities
4. Beliefs - Birth, death and rebirth
5. Beliefs - Sacred sexuality
6. Beliefs - Divination, mysticism and stuff like that
7. Beliefs - The power of prayer/reciprocity
9. Environmentalism
10. Patrons - Athena
11. Patrons - Zeus
12. Pantheon - Warrior Gods
13. Pantheon - Dionysos
14. Pantheon - Dioskouroi
15. Pantheon - Every-One Else
16. Nature daimons, Heroes and Ancestors
17. My ways of worship
18. Community
19. Hellenismos and my family/friends
20. Hellenismos and my love life
21. Other paths I've explored
22. Hellenismos and major life events
23. Ethics
24. Personal aesthetics and Hellenismos
25. Favored ritual tools, and why
26. Any "secular" pastimes with religious significance, and why
27. How your faith has helped you in difficult times
28. One misconception about Hellenismos you'd like to clear up
29. The future of Hellenismos
30. Advice for seekers
~~~
