Festivals
A quest to define the Graeco-Roman festival
[edit] I. Festival, ritual and the calendar
Jon D. Mikalson writes (in OCD, ’festivals’): “Greek festivals were religious rituals recurring, usually every year, two years, or four years, at fixed time in the calendar. ... Festival proper (heortai) should be distinguished from annual sacrifices (thysiai), however large, and the many other rituals that together form the religious calendar.”
[edit] 1. Is a festival always cyclic?
No, Both the Roman Triumph (in which a Roman general returned to the city after a victorious campaign), characterized by a grand procession, the amassing of the public, music, singing and sacrifice,as well as the public funerals of important persons, in which processions, gladiatorial games, performances and public banquets took place are examples of non-cyclic festivals.-- Danielle.Maynard 12:25, March 12, 2006 (EST)
For argument’s sake, wouldn't a Roman triumph even be considered cyclical? Irregular but cyclical because people would believe that another one would occur. I think the question should be "Is does a festival always occur in a regular cycle?". When I think of cyclic, I think of something that simply will recur and the recurrence gives the society a sense of security and structure. If one was a "truly good" Roman citizen, one would always believe that Rome was going to conquer the enemy, and thus, there would always be another Roman triumph in the future. The same for works for funerals. Everyone will die one day or another, so a person in a society where funerals were celebrated with games and festivities would always know that the next festival was sometime in the near future. --Margaret.Clark 08:35, March 22, 2006 (EST)
[edit] 2. a. Does a festival have to be fixed in a calendar?
Not necessarily. For example, we read about the Imperial Circumcision Festival of 1582 - which is the kind of festival that can obviously only be celebrated when a young prince comes of age. And while this is a somewhat calendric event, it so happens that in thisparticular case the Sultan had delayed the Festival until the boy was sixteen; perhaps not planning on having a circumcision festival at all. Yet when his country fell into a time of political and social crisis, the Sultan decided to throw a grand festival on a massive scale to distract his populace. Therefore, festivals are not always necessarily bound to the calendar, but can be celebrated when chosen, perhaps in response to hard times, to reinforce the power of a ruler, or to foster community or national spirit.--Brittany.Hudak 16:10, March 14, 2006 (EST)
[edit] b. Are religious celebrations occurring infrequently or rarely (every saeculum to be counted as festivals?
No, infrequency of recurrence should not exclude certain religious celebrations from being considered festivals. It is the repetition of these religious celebrations (the fact that they occur more than once) and the requisite elements that accompany them - processions, religious rituals, feasting, gift offerings, etc. - that speak to the nature of festivals and define them as such. --Lori.Wienke 19:19, March 15, 2006 (EST)
[edit] 3. a. Are Greek Festivals the “festival proper” (heortai), or should other religious rituals included in a known calendar be regarded as a festival?
Well, personally, I feel that only Greek festivals are true festials. However, many others would disagree with me. The term festival should be defined and applied to activites according to an accepted standard set by the society in which the festival is being celebrated. Take contemporary Cleveland as an example. We don't tend to celebrate anything for longer than one or two days at the most (those of you who are Catholic and religiously celebrate lent are at least one exception). Christmas is celebrated for one day, two if you include Christmas Eve. My point is that since our lives are so busy in contemporary America, we don't have the time to spend seven days worshipping our patron goddess as they did in Athens. For that matter, the structures of our government and religions are ideally separate, so we wouldn't be able to have a religio-political festival like the Panathenaia even if we wanted to. --Margaret.Clark 08:46, March 22, 2006 (EST)--Margaret.Clark 16:35, April 19, 2006 (EDT)
[edit] b. Are the Roman festivals only those included as feriae in the calendars of Rome?
No, Roman festivals were divided into two types, Feriae and Ludi. The former was an actual holiday, which could be further divided into publicly ordained and funded and privately conceived, and was defined by magistrates and priests as a date during which "religious rites were performed, civil lawsuits and quarrels avoided, and all men...could tak a period of rest" (Scullard p. 39). The latter was recorded in calendar documentation but was actually a form of "public game" with more entertaining and secular purposes, such as chariot races in the circus maximus, plays by popular authors such as Terence, and other pre-Gladiator public spectacles. Furthermore,not all Feriae were themselves planned on the Roman calendar: Emergency meetings or unexpected victories also counted as versions of this form of festival, and were not recorded in calendars in advance. Hope this helps! --Amber.Stitt 15:22, March 11, 2006 (EST)
[edit] 4. Does a festival always include an animal sacrifice?
Although many festivals that we have discussed in class do include animal sacrifice, the practice is not necessary to every festival. Take for instance consecration of the Buddha Image (Journal of Asian Studies 26:23-36). This festival did not require a ritual sacrifice to the image of the Buddha in order to activate it or to appease the deity. Many festivals required the sacrifice of animals for the deity being worshipped. However, just as many festivals required a sacrifice simply to contribute to the feast that could occur before, after, or during a festival.--Margaret.Clark 16:28, March 14, 2006 (EST)
[edit] 5. Does a festival always include a common feast?
All of the festivals I have read about have included specific foods or drinks, if not a feast. For example, the Veneralia honoring Venus involves women drinking the same potion Venus drank on her wedding night - pounded poppy with milk and honey. I did not find mention of an actual feast associated with this festival, but the potion plays a pivotal role. -Tami Miller
If I may ask, why would almost all festivals include a meal? As in the question direclty above, the meat was usually availble from the animal sacrifice, but why did people engage in eating during a festival?--Margaret.Clark 10:44, March 22, 2006 (EST)
[edit] 6. Does a festival always include a procession of some sort?
I have been thinking about this question quite a bit lately as many of the Greek festivals that I studied include some kind of procession as part of the festival (Panathenaia, Dionysia, Eleusinia, etc.). I believe that the procession is important because by processing the people who are worshipping are demostrating their collective devotion to the god or goddess. Another reason to have a procession would be to provide a spectacle for those people not involved in the procession. As we have found in almost every article we have read for this course, the procession is important to make even outsiders feel that they are a part of the festivals. I cannot think of an example of an example of a festival without a procession, and I don't think that they are a necessary part of a fesitval; but I invite someone to offer an example! --Margaret.Clark 10:57, March 22, 2006 (EST)
To go along with Maggie's comment, the procession served as a way for the crowds consent to and communicate with those performing the ceremony. For example, the Panathenaia procession includes the crowd who express their enjoyment in the performance. --Rachel.Duszynski 12:43, March 30, 2006 (EST)
[edit] II. Festival and the state
[edit] 7. Is a festival always a (city-)state phenomenon? Or do we include local religious rituals – say in Greek demes and komai, in Roman towns and municipia?
[edit] 8. Is a festival always ’arranged’ by official members of the community (magistrates, community priests, state officials), or do we have example of festivals connected to private cults with private, non governmental leadership?
[edit] 9. Shall we include rituals and celebrations connected to the ruler cult in Hellenistic and Roman imperial times as festivals?
[edit] III. Festival and location
[edit] 10. Is a festival always bound to a strict location (altar, temple, physical place) or can it be celebrated in various locations?
(This is a question I pondered at the beginning of this semester. I'll do my best to answer it). No, not all festivals are bound to strict locations. Although we have read about festivals that took place at grand complexes or specific buildings--ie., the Saqqara complex and Persepolis-- there are other festivals that occurred simultaneously on local levels rather than in one specific place. In some cases, this format closely fits with our modern concept of "holiday" in which the festival itself might be of regional, national or international significance, but celebrated locally. Most common ancient examples of this would be the New Years Festival. Although some cultures held a centralized festival for the occasion, the Egyptians held New Year Festivals at both the temples of Edfu and Denderah (more than one location for the same festival). Aside from this type of "holiday" festival, the Assyrian marzeah ritual took place in both temples and royal palaces. It seems that most peoples we have studied, however, celebrated festivals in the same types of spaces. For example, consecrating the Buddhist image (as explained by R. Gombrich in his article) involved different locations--ie. newly consecrated temples or new images of the Buddha--but these festivals requested similar private and private and public areas to perform rituals that were important for the festival as a whole. The private space included where the craftsman would paint the eyes of the Buddhist image, while the public space involved chanting monks, drummers, dancers and gift bearers. --Christina.Larson 08:20, March 15, 2006 (EST)
[edit] 11. Is a festival always bound to a sacred/traditional programme and/or certain cult objects, or can some festivals be celebrated in different terms from time to time according to the wishes of the celebrant?
[edit] IV. Festival and the people
[edit] 12. Is a festival always public, or should secret rituals and mysteries be included?
The Festival of Mithras, held on December 25th, can be considered a festival held within a cult not available to the wider public. Mithra, an old Indo-Iranian sun-god, was transformed by the Romans in the 1st century AD into Mithras, a god of mysteries. Mithras was the central deity of this mystery religion in which one had to be initiated. Women were exclueded and the secrets of the cult were only revealed to initiates. --Dana.Cowen 16:26, March 14, 2006 (EST)
[edit] 13. Can a festival be open solely to a distinguished social group: e.g. citizen proper (male)?
Absolutely. Recall, as one instance, Richard T. Barnett's account of Assurbanipal's Feast, which is said to mimic the Marzeah festival familiar to Phoenecians, Punics, Israelites, and Jews from the 14th Century BCE to the 3rd Century CE, in which the rab, or chief, reclines in leadership of a group of elite males during a feast celebrating the victory and fertility of the leader. Marzeah is said to closely relate to the Greek thiasos, a cofraternal festival in which privileged men carry out cult practices in the form of a feast, gaeining wealth from their participation in the form of land and property. Finally, other Near Eastern comparisons to this Greek festival come to mind, in which portions of an otherwise public festival are restricted to the most elite of participants, such as Prince Mehmed's actual circumcision in the festival of 1582, or the portion of the Egyptian Rite of Opening the mouth carried out in the lowest and holiest of temples by the highest of priests. -- Amber.Stitt 15:43, March 11, 2006 (EST)
[edit] 14. Is the festival always open to the (male) citizens or do we include the religious rituals performed and attended solely by women, slaves or free non-citizens? (do you have examples of religious rituals performed solely by and for non-citizens?)
The ancient Aporreta festival was performed by women in honor of Demeter at sanctuaries in Peiraeus and Athens. It was a secret ritual that involved the use of 'vulgar' language, according to written sources (See Allaire Brumfield, "Aporreta: Verbal and Ritual Obscenity in the Cults of Ancient Women"). Also, in Arcadia, Demeter Mysia was honored with a seven day festival which included performances by women. These included mockery and vulgar abuse and were performed secretly in the temple. The purpose of this was to cause laughter and arouse the deity of fertility-to revive agriculture. Pilgrimage took place at the great festival of Zeus (The Olympic Games), celebrated at Olympia. This was the occasion for a truce between all Greek states. It began in the eighth century BC and was celebrated every four years. --Rachel.Duszynski 13:59, March 14, 2006 (EST)
The Thesmophoria, was an exclusively women's festival, celebrated throughout Greece, but open only to citizen wives. The Kronia was a holiday especially for slaves, wherein they were freed for the day and dined with their masters; still, despite this obvious slant in focus and participation towards the slave’s advantage, in principle their masters participated as well. Metics in Athens; however, might be authorized to establish cults for their own divinities, such as the cult of Isis instituted by Egyptian metics; (and besides possible converts ?)the rites and rituals associated with it would be performed solely by and for non-citizens.--Danielle.Maynard 09:49, March 21, 2006 (EST)
[edit] V. Sacred and secular
[edit] 15. Are there examples of festivals you would label as purely religious; that make little or no “secular” sense to a community?
[edit] 16. Are there examples of festivals you would label as purely secular; that in your view would not have had any truly religious meaning to anybody?
[edit] VI. Categorisations
[edit] 17. Obviously, festivals can be grouped or categorised in several ways. If you were to present and distinguish types of festivals, what criteria would you find most appropriate/useful to sort festivals.
a. range/size – local, city, confederation, all-inclusive (pan-Hellenic, Roman)
b. nature of the ritual – agonistic, fertility rituals, parades, type of sacrifice, transformation etc.
c. religious setting – agricultural, commemorative, initiation, cleansing ...
d. recipient of worship – deity, city, ruler, phenomenon ...
e. social order – participants, status, gender, state of celebration
f. age/origin – archaic/pre-urban, classical/urban, Hellenistic/imperial
g. stick to Greek/Roman terms – heortai, eranos, panegyris, agon / festa; feriae: fasti, conceptivae, imperativae, nundinae
h. other criteria:
--Margaret.Clark 09:24, March 9, 2006 (EST)
Case Referrers
Other Sites
- Home page of Dana Cowen at PopulusLog CASE Edition (1 referral)
- Home page of Lori Wienke at PopulusLog CASE Edition (2 referral)
- Home page of Lori Wienke at PopulusLog CASE Edition (1 referral)
- Home page of Amber Stitt at PopulusLog CASE Edition (1 referral)
- Home page of Brittany Hudak at PopulusLog CASE Edition (1 referral)
- http://start.case.edu/ (8 referral)