Author Topic: Adapting and Altering Ancient Holidays (Read 1797 times)

Juni · « **on:** September 29, 2013, 01:24:53 pm »

I am far from a reconstructionist, but one thing that's important to me is to celebrate the holidays of the cultures my gods originated in. Of course, these holidays have to be adapted to some level to fit into a modern world.

Do you include ancient holidays in your practice? How significantly do you adapt them from their ancient form(s)? Have you ever changed the entities honored, provided the theme/purpose of the holiday was retained? How comfortable are you using the ancient name for your modern version?

(This was spawned because I'm doing some basic research into Khalkeia (and by basic I mean hitting up Google) which was an Athenian holiday focused on Hephaistos and Athene as the patrons of crafts- bronze smithing, spinning, and weaving in particular. I honor Athene but have no relationship with Hephaistos; I do honor several other goddesses associated with smithing, spinning, and weaving, though. So I'm debating how much change I'm comfortable with for my personal practice.)

Sunshine · « **Reply #1 on:** September 29, 2013, 10:43:22 pm »

Quote from: Juni;123576

Do you include ancient holidays in your practice? How significantly do you adapt them from their ancient form(s)? Have you ever changed the entities honored, provided the theme/purpose of the holiday was retained? How comfortable are you using the ancient name for your modern version?

Like a lot of American Kemetics, this is something I find to be stimulating but very challenging. I'm currently trying to do some good research and soul-searching to make my own adaptive calendar that celebrates the deities and themes important to me in a seasonally appropriate manner for the American South, but that is a long and complicated task.

I'll probably end up using some of the names of important Egyptian holidays (for instance, I'll never give up Wep Ronpet, which I do calculate according to Sirius in my location) while also incorporating local cultural/general pagan holidays and celebrating them in ways that are meaningful for me. There's a lot of adaptation - ritual as well as seasonal - following AE religion as a solo practitioner, but I still feel comfortable using a lot of the same names, if I'm honoring the same things.

That being said, I've never changed the entity a day/festival celebrates, and can't see myself doing so often, with one exception - while the extra Day Upon the Year for leap years is often devoted to Djehuty, Het-haru is very significant to me and my personal practice, and I can see myself at least splitting the day between the two of them. However, I think in the case of someone who, say, honored local deities, or followed a more eclectic path representing more than one pantheon, there's probably no harm in honoring a separate entity so long as it was done respectfully. Though I might change the name there.

My two cents! I'll be very interested to read other responses.

drekfletch · « **Reply #2 on:** October 03, 2013, 04:57:10 pm »

Quote from: Juni;123576

Do you include ancient holidays in your practice? How significantly do you adapt them from their ancient form(s)? Have you ever changed the entities honored, provided the theme/purpose of the holiday was retained? How comfortable are you using the ancient name for your modern version?

(This was spawned because I'm doing some basic research into Khalkeia (and by basic I mean hitting up Google) which was an Athenian holiday focused on Hephaistos and Athene as the patrons of crafts- bronze smithing, spinning, and weaving in particular. I honor Athene but have no relationship with Hephaistos; I do honor several other goddesses associated with smithing, spinning, and weaving, though. So I'm debating how much change I'm comfortable with for my personal practice.)

Given the widespread motifs in the ways people celebrate their gods, based on the spread of the concepts being celebrated, I don't see a problem with basing a new holiday on traditions of an old one. I would not use the old name, however. Based on /= is.

Materialist · « **Reply #3 on:** October 10, 2013, 10:38:13 pm »

Quote from: Juni;123576

Do you include ancient holidays in your practice? How significantly do you adapt them from their ancient form(s)? Have you ever changed the entities honored, provided the theme/purpose of the holiday was retained? How comfortable are you using the ancient name for your modern version?

Answers for your four questions, in order: Duh, it wouldn't be a religion otherwise. Bit of an orthopraxic snob, so, not much. Yes, created syncretic deity Tafustagni who is the witness of the sraddha rites, and Parfabia, who provides the grass for the altar. Don't have any problem at all, since there's not much of a difference.

How about you just invent an Athene holy day for whatever time of the year you do your artsy craftsy stuff?

Jack · « **Reply #4 on:** October 10, 2013, 10:47:12 pm »

Quote from: Materialist;124782

Duh, it wouldn't be a religion otherwise.

I've never seen a definition of 'religion' that requires holidays, actually.

Jack · « **Reply #5 on:** October 10, 2013, 10:49:41 pm »

Quote from: Juni;123576

I am far from a reconstructionist, but one thing that's important to me is to celebrate the holidays of the cultures my gods originated in. Of course, these holidays have to be adapted to some level to fit into a modern world.

Do you include ancient holidays in your practice? How significantly do you adapt them from their ancient form(s)? Have you ever changed the entities honored, provided the theme/purpose of the holiday was retained? How comfortable are you using the ancient name for your modern version?

(This was spawned because I'm doing some basic research into Khalkeia (and by basic I mean hitting up Google) which was an Athenian holiday focused on Hephaistos and Athene as the patrons of crafts- bronze smithing, spinning, and weaving in particular. I honor Athene but have no relationship with Hephaistos; I do honor several other goddesses associated with smithing, spinning, and weaving, though. So I'm debating how much change I'm comfortable with for my personal practice.)

Oh, hey, you might find this thread over on PWoB interesting.

I'm still struggling with how comfortable I am at adapting Latvian holidays, unfortunately, so I don't have much philosophical advice to add.

Sophia C · « **Reply #6 on:** October 11, 2013, 03:42:53 am »

Quote from: Juni;123576

I am far from a reconstructionist, but one thing that's important to me is to celebrate the holidays of the cultures my gods originated in. Of course, these holidays have to be adapted to some level to fit into a modern world.

Do you include ancient holidays in your practice? How significantly do you adapt them from their ancient form(s)? Have you ever changed the entities honored, provided the theme/purpose of the holiday was retained? How comfortable are you using the ancient name for your modern version?

This can be problematic for me as a recon-ish Celt, a) because people make assumptions about how I'm celebrating my holidays which are entirely incorrect, and b) I need to attempt to figure out what they were about without the neopagan layer that's been laid over them. And related to those is the question of whether I'm celebrating them 'authentically' enough at all. Have I corrupted the death-and-ancestors focus of Samhain if I have a very modern pumpkin outside my house? Given how little we know about Gaelic practices, I have to improvise, so I honour deities seasonally (based on myth and UPG) who seem appropriate to the festival. There has to be lots of adaptation, given the lack of information, but I do my best to stick to what we know and only adapt in ways that seem appropriate to that. Sometimes that doesn't work out, though. I've tried honouring Aengus Og as a love god at Bealtaine, and it was fine, but not particularly authentic-feeling.

These dilemmas do make me wonder how acceptable it is for me to call the August festival Lá Lúnasa, for example - am I then claiming to celebrate the ancient holiday, rather than the modern Pagan version, and is that dishonourable? I don't know. Add in my celebrations of the ADF versions of the 'high days', and I get myself all in a tizzy. I think my practices will get ever narrower as a result of my confusion, though.

veggiewolf · « **Reply #7 on:** October 11, 2013, 10:56:49 pm »

Quote from: Juni;123576

...

Do you include ancient holidays in your practice? How significantly do you adapt them from their ancient form(s)? Have you ever changed the entities honored, provided the theme/purpose of the holiday was retained? How comfortable are you using the ancient name for your modern version?
...

Yes, I do. I adapt them to fit modern life, of a sort - parading statues from one temple-city to another just isn't possible for me, so I'll do something like a symbolic journey where I move my own figurines from one shrine to another, or add a boat to my shrine during the duration of a holiday.

I've not changed entities honored, but I have skipped festivals honoring deities I don't worship. For example, I currently don't celebrate any festivals for Asst. That's not to say I won't at some point but they're not meaningful at this point in my practice.

I use the traditional names wherever possible.

Tanbrid · « **Reply #8 on:** December 18, 2013, 10:34:53 am »

Quote from: Juni;123576

Do you include ancient holidays in your practice? How significantly do you adapt them from their ancient form(s)? Have you ever changed the entities honored, provided the theme/purpose of the holiday was retained? How comfortable are you using the ancient name for your modern version?

(This was spawned because I'm doing some basic research into Khalkeia (and by basic I mean hitting up Google) which was an Athenian holiday focused on Hephaistos and Athene as the patrons of crafts- bronze smithing, spinning, and weaving in particular. I honor Athene but have no relationship with Hephaistos; I do honor several other goddesses associated with smithing, spinning, and weaving, though. So I'm debating how much change I'm comfortable with for my personal practice.)

As an *aspiring Hellenic polytheist I find the old calendars pretty much useless & irrelevant. For one, it is way too culturally foreign to me (compared with Germanic & Celtic holidays) in spite of the mythology being more familiar, and the climate here is more like Moscow, so even a British Isles calendar is a bit iffy.
One thing that does help though is that there are some examples of urban festivals not focused on agriculture, which makes me feel more confident about an urban spiritual practice, and I can still get ideas on what seems to fit well culturally while blending it with my own setting. What I'm trying to do, is create rituals for secular American holidays- since there are a lot of classical influences in our civic culture- so many public buildings with Greco-Roman architecture, statues etc. that I feel it ties in well. I started writing a Labor Day/Khalkeia ritual (ADF style) as well as one for Independence Day. One of those long mouldering projects I need to finish.

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Author Topic: Adapting and Altering Ancient Holidays (Read 1797 times)

Juni

Adapting and Altering Ancient Holidays

Sunshine

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drekfletch

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Materialist

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Jack

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Jack

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Sophia C

Adapting and Altering Ancient Holidays

veggiewolf

Adapting and Altering Ancient Holidays

Tanbrid

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