#panathanaia

[aceofcupsbiggestfan]

Panathenaia

~ 23-30 Hekatombaion~

Meaning 'All-Athenian', Panathenaia celebrated Athena as the patroness of Athens. It was the premier festival of the year, sparking large celebration. Two versions of this festival took place, Panathenaia ta mirka (Lesser Panathenaia) and Panathenaia ta megala (Greater Panathenaia). Greater Panathenaia took place every four years compared to its annual counterpart. The only difference in festivals was that of scale and performance, with Greater Panathenaia marking the greater festival.

Part of the name sake of the month, Panathenaia based with a hecatomb throughout. Processions took place outside of Acropolis, a means to show the new peplos for Athena's statue. This weaving of the new fabric was held at Plynteria. The traditional blue and yellow would be taken to Athena in a ship. Everybody took part.

Kanephoroi (young women with baskets on their heads containing grain), Diphrophoroi (young girls carrying chairs), Thallophoroi (Old men bearing branches and young men in purple robe, and non-citizens proceeded to Athena's temple. Non-citizens often held cakes and honeycomb while freed slaves and non-Greeks carried oak branches. Daughters of Metics carried water jugs. Representatives of City-States throughout Attica brought armor and cows as offerings. The victors of the games were included in the procession.

The procession walked throughout many Attican cities most notably, Eleusinium, Acropolis and Propylaea where they ended. Sacrifices were completed with prayers. Sacrifices included several epithets of Athena including Athena Hygiaea, Athena Polias and Athena Nike. Each epithet was given something different.

Part of the festival highlighted the Panathenaian Games, similar to its Olympiad counterpart. The games held torch races to determine sacrificial fire, all-night service and meat meals for anyone, all at the city's pocket.

While the early games were for Athenians only, in 566 BCE the games were open to all Greeks. This was part of Panathenaia ta megala. In the annual festival Athenian-Only games persisted, the Greater festival offered the opportunity for others to join.

Later, musical competitions and recitations of Homer were added. The Iliad and Odyssey were popular choices as well as short-length poetry. Foot-racing, pentathlon, wrestling, gymnastics, boxing and pankration were observed in three male "age" categories: older men, younger men and boys. Chariot races were also added along with javelin-throwing from horseback and races for foals and full-grown horses.

Winners of the games were prized olive oil from Athena's sacred olive tree along with money depending of rank of winning.

Traditional Offerings:

Beef

Olives and Olive oil

Water or khernips

Oak branches/leaves

Hymns to Athena

Traditional Acts:

Games, such as running, horse racing and torch racing

Hymns and Offerings to Athena

Reciting or reading poetry, such as Homer

Wearing purple, yellow or blue

feasting with community

Khaire Athena! Happy Panathenaia! 🦉🏅🍃

[d3votional]

GREEK HOLIDAYS

Here is a list of Greek Holidays, updated as often as I can and as I research.

Anthesteria

Lenaia

Dionysia

Thargelia

Arrephoria

Kronia

Aphrodisia

Panathanaia

Herakleia

Genesia

Pyanepsia

Thesmophoria

Khalkeia

Rural Dionysia

Haloa

Elaphebolia

City Dionysia

SOURCE 1, 2, 3,

| GOOGLE CALENDAR |

[hellenicherald]

Athena Ritual & Gladiator fight!     In Minecraft!! LIVE 7/30 at 9am PDT Watch it live on the Hellenic Herald Youtube or Twitch! This event is in honor of Athena, Panathanaia and Noumenia!  Join to become a fighter or help with the server. Links in bio

[ask-aurachnid]

I feel that. I've been pretty bad at celebrating the Hellenic holidays since my dads were vanished. 90% of the time I just light some incense and cover my hair (which I'm technically not required to do, since veiling is a traditionally female thing, but whatever. It just vibes)

Here, have some more info (even though you didn't ask), because I'm trying to get back into honoring my faith. The list below the cut is just the Greek holidays, and totally out of control. I figured also adding on the solstices and the important Roman holidays would just be... far too much.

Since Πυανόψια (Pyanopsia) just passed, maybe I'll post a picture of me in my chiton from a couple years ago.

🏺 Anthesteria, held in Anthesterion (Feb-Mar), is one of the festivals honoring Dionysus. My family made lots of food and drank wine (non-alcoholic for my baby self) to celebrate.

🏺 Lenaia, another Dionysian festival, held in Gamelion (Jan-Feb). In ancient times, it was celebrated with a lot of competition. My dads would just hold a small party and we'd play board games with my honorary aunts and uncles (friends from my dad's time in the Army)

🏺 Dionysia, this one is actually a combination of two related festivals. Rural Dionysia and City Dionysia. Taking place in wildly different parts of the year.

>Rural Dionysia is held for most of the month of Poseidon (Dec-Jan), and like a lot of Hellenic festivals, involves a lot of phallic imagery. Well, when you're the young afab child of two gay men, that can be a little awkward, so we celebrated with movie nights and a few offerings to the god of revelry. A couple years I can remember us doing movie "brackets" to find the best one, since theatrical contests were one of the celebrations in ancient times. >City Dionysia is held through Elaphebolion (Mar-Apr), three months after Rural Dionysia. It's like a harvest festival and an end of winter celebration, and it also usually involves a lot of phallic imagery. Again, we just celebrate with movies and offerings.

🏺 Thargelia, held on the 6th and 7th of Thargelion (May-Jun), it's the celebration of the birth of Artemis and Apollo. This one... Hasn't made much of a comeback, on account of the violent human sacrafices. We just use the month of Thargelion honor the celestial twins.

🏺 Arrephoria aka Hersiphoria, there's no real modern equivalent, since NYC isn't that close to the Athens Acropolis. My family would just pick a day (usually the 3rd) in Skirophorion (Jun-Jul) to do some "spring" cleaning and eat a big meal afterwards.

🏺 Kronia, in Hekatombaion (Jul-Aug) is like a combo of new years and a celebration of the first harvest. My family just wished one another "Io, Kronia."

🏺 Aphrodisia, also in Hekatombaion, is just what it sounds like. A celebration of Aphrodite. My family would celebrate by setting up a small altar for Her and making small offerings.

🏺 Panathanaia, this is a "once every four years" thing. We just watch the Olympics. It's the same for other Panhellenic Games. We lump them all together like the blasphemers we are.

🏺 Herakleia, a festival for Herakles, or as most know him: Hercules. It's held in Metageitnion (Aug-Sept). It hasn't really carried through to modern times. My family would just set up an altar like for Aphrodisia.

🏺 Pyanepsia aka Pyanopsia, held on the 7th of Pyanepsion (Oct-Nov), passed me just recently. The name translates to "bean-stewing" and honors Apollo. Bean stew is one of the sacred offerings made during the holiday. My family would spend all day making the stew for dinner, and we'd share with our neighbors. We'd leave a bowl of it on the altar, as well as an eiresione (a special olive branch).

This year, I just bought a couple cans of Campbell's black bean & vegetable soup to eat and give as an offering. I can't carry an eiresione anymore because it can only be carried by children with two living parents

🏺 Thesmophoria, also held in Pyanepsion, is a holiday I literally am not allowed to celebrate, and the only one I don't veil for. The festival and rituals are strictly limited to adult women. Had I been cis, it would have been my responsibility research and perform those rituals (though hardly anyone chooses to perform the ritual animal sacrifices anymore). The festival honors Demeter and Persephone, and it's basically a huge fertility thing. Both for people and crops.

🏺 Khalkeia aka Chalkeia aka Chalceia, is celebrated on the final day of Pyanepsion. It celebrates Athena and (to a lesser degree) Hephaestus as the patrons of Athens. Like Arrephoria, we can't really celebrate, because there's no Acropolis here. We just make offerings on the altar to both deites.

🏺 Haloa aka Alo, another harvest festival, is held in Poseidon (Dec-Jan), around the Gregorian new years. It honors Demeter and Dionysus, and a lot of the traditions are inherently... less than safe for work, and/or strictly limited to women. Our celebration just included a dinner of "gentle" foods, which means no red meat, and no pomegranates.

🏺 Elaphebolia is observed on the 6th Elaphebolion (Mar-Apr), at least for modern Hellenists. It's when we honor Artemis, usually making special stag-shaped honey and sesame cakes as offerings. Sometimes we would try and get venison to make for dinner.

Those are just the ones that I can name from the top of my head. The ancient Greeks had a lot of festivals. I try an honor a different Θεοί for each specific Gregorian calendar month like mentioned in my first reblog. (Jan.-Hera, Feb.-Poseidon, Mar.-Athena, Apr.-Aphrodite, May.-Apollo, Jun.-Hermes, Jul.-Zeus, Aug.-Demeter, Sept.-Hephaestus, Oct.-Ares, Nov.-Artemis, and Dec.-Hestia)

Some other, less commonly celebrated holidays (in Gregorian chronological order) are Theogamia, Asklepeia, Dioscuria, Heraia, Maimakteria, and Triespron. For me, most of these just involve various offerings, and saying a short prayer. Some have specific hymns/prayers and that is pretty much the only Greek I know.

@ask-aurachnid I’ve probably asked before but what holidays do you celebrate… it is almost the autumn equinox…