Sunday, November 22, 2015

30 Days of Devotion to Hekate: Day 11

11. Festivals, days, and times sacred to this deity.

Deipnon - traditionally celebrated on the dark moon of every month from sundown to sundown. Traditionally the day is spent cleaning the home, yourself (both spiritually and physically), offerings include food stuffs (mentioned in several other places), libations of wine or mead, collections from your cleanings, dust etc are all left at the crossroads. You also empty your Kathiskos each Deipnon and begin filling it each Noumenia.

Noumenia - The first day of the lunar month, this is the time to honor the deities of your home/practice which in our case, includes Hekate and ask for blessings for the coming month. This was the second of 3 Hellenic festivals each lunar cycle held in a row (the third being Agathós Daímōn). In the words of Plutarch, Noumenia was THE holiest of days. No other religious festivals are allowed on this day.

Festival of Kourotrophos (κουροτρόφος, child nurturer) the annual festival of Kourotrophos that occurs in August around the time if the full moon (the 15th or 16th of Metagetinion) in honor of the Kourotrophos goddesses. I've found conflicting information on how many times this was done. Many list it as just in August, some in February and August, and another in February  (3 days before the dark moon), June (3 days after the new moon), and August  (3 days after the full moon).

Thesmophoria - a 3 day festival in the Greek month Pyanepsion (October) held to ensure fertile land and good harvest. Only women who were married to citizens were allowed to participate. Women started preparing for the festival nine days before the start of Thesmophoria. During this time, they abstained from sexual intercourse, slept alone and ate garlic to keep the men away.

Day one of the festival, Anodos (which means Uprise), they buried pig carcasses in a large pit and unearthed the carcass buried the year before.

On day two, Nesteia (Fasting), the women fasted, only partaking of pomegranate seeds. Rotten pig flesh and seeds were mixed and left on the alter there. They spent most of the day in silence until sunset, at which point the fast and silence was broken with ritual cakes shaped as female genitalia.

Day three, Kalligeneia (Fair Birth), is spent reflecting the fertility of women. They sang ritual songs, the older women took the offering from the previous day and then they each buried a portion in the fields.

August 13 - Some have referred to this night as Hekate’s Night  (which is November 16) as well. This is a modern construct by those who wish to worship Hekate’s more volatile nature. It began from Nemoralia, the Festival of Torches, the chief Roman festival in honor of the Goddess Diana Nemorensis (Diana of Nemi) who is occasional associated with/as Hekate or in a triple Goddess/triad with Hekate. Worshipers would form a procession bearing torches around the waters of Lake Nemi. Hunting or killing any beast is forbidden on Nemoralia.

October 31st - Samhain - While this sabbat isn't directly tied to Hekate, this is a celebration of the dead and of our Ancestors and many turn towards deity that deal with death, ghosts and the Underworld, of which, Hekate fits this bill (along with several others). Also, being my patroness, I turn to Hekate for many things, worshiping my ancestors and giving thanks to Her on this day being one of them.

November 16th - Hekate’s Night - Hecatesia - a good night to associate with Hekate of the Three ways.

November 30th - Day of Hekate at the Crossroads - use this night to connect with Hekate at the crossroads.

Eleusinian Mysteries - it is said that Hekate is one of the chief goddesses of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The Lesser Mysteries were held annually and contained the Rites of Cleansing. These were held in Anthesterion (March - though the exact time is not fixed). Priests purified the candidates for initiation myesis. The Greater Mysteries were held every 4 years and included a week of special rites.

They took place in Boedromion (the first month of the Attic calendar) and lasted nine days. The first (14th Boedromion) was when they brought the sacred objects from Eleusis to the Eleusinion, a temple at the base of the Acropolis. Day 2, 15 Boedromion, hierophantes (the priests) declared prorrhesis (the start of the rites). Ceremonies began in Athens on 16 Boedromion with celebrants washing themselves in the sea at Phalerom and the sacrifice of a young pig at the Eleusinion on day 4, 17 Boedromion.

On day 6, 19th Boedromion, the procession began at Kerameikos (Athenian cemetery) and the initiates walked to Eleusis along the Sacred Way, swinging branches called bakchoi. At certain points in their walk they shouted obscenities in commemoration of Iambe (the old woman who made Demeter smile as she mourned her daughter). Upon reaching Eleusis, they held a day of fasting in commemoration of Demeter's fasting while searching for her daughter. The fast was broken while drinking a special drink made of barley and pennyroyal called kykeon κυκεών.

Day 7 and 8, 20 and 21st of Boedromion, initiates entered the great hall called Telesterion. This was the most secretive part of the Mysteries and initiates were forbidden from ever speaking of what took place under penalty of death.

Modern theorists conclude that priests were the ones to reveal visions of the holy night, the fire that represented the possibility of life after death and the various sacred objects. Some claim that insufficient and instead say the experiences were caused by a powerful psychoactive ingredient in the kykeon.

Following this was the Pannychis meaning all night, an all night feast or ceremony that was accompanied by dancing and merriment. These took place in the Rharian Field, rumored to be where corn first grew. This night or the following morning a bull was also sacrificed.

On 22 Boedromion the initiates honored the dead by pouring libations. 23 Boedromion the Mysteries ended and everyone returned home.

Her Sacred Fires - Full Moon in May
This is a modern celebration started in 2010 by Torchbearers for The Covenant of Hekate to celebrate the full moon and coincided with the launch of a book (Her Sacred Fires - by Torchbearer Sorita d'Este).

Full Moon - Hekate is usually celebrated during the dark times of the moon but I also feel called to embrace the light of the moon as well.

It will also do to mention that the ancient calendar looks nothing like ours. The first of their month began with the new moon and ended with the dark of the moon. Their days also began at sunset so when you say a festival begins on a certain day, say Deipnon, it really begins that night after sunset  (alternatively, it begins the night before at sunset to the night of at sunset).

Hellenion’s Calendar:

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