The Athenian Festival Calendar

These are the months of the Athenian year, with the approximate modern equivalent. The Athenian day began just after sunset and ended at sunset on the following day, which on average is about six hours ahead of when the modern day begins. The month began on the day of the New Moon. The New Moon dates listed here are based on Universal Time as listed on American calendars. The actual visual observance of a New Moon in Athens could easily be off by several days from the dates listed here. The reconstruction listed here is based on days beginning at midnight and could be off by a day from other modern reconstructions that use days beginning at sunset.

Poseideon    Begins December 9, 2007

Gamelion    Begins January 8, 2008

Anthesterion    Begins February 7, 2008

Elaphebolian    Begins March 7, 2008

Munichion    Begins April 6, 2008

Thargelion    Begins May 5, 2008

Skirophorion    Begins June 3, 2008

Hecatombaion    Begins July 3, 2008  This is the first month of the Athenian year.

Metageitnion    Begins August 1, 2008

Boedromion    Begins August 30, 2008

Pyanepsion    Begins September 29, 2008

Maimakterion    Begins October 28, 2008

Poseideon II    Begins November 27, 2008

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Commentary

Every Greek community had its own calendar of festivals and holy days. In Athens there was a schedule of state sponsored festivals, but the various demes or local districts also had their own festival days and days of religious observance. A deme festival day did not usually coincide with a state festival day and might only be a local neighborhood event. At one time there were 139 demes in and around Athens, each with a potentially different sacred calendar. The list provided here includes state festival days, some of the festival days observed by the demes or other local groups, and days on which it was customary to make offerings to the Gods. The dates assigned to some of the holy days are probable rather than certain, due to the fragmentary and incomplete nature of the surviving evidence. Even the dates for the great festival of the Panathenaia are not known with absolute certainty, and are still a cause for scholarly debate. Some festivals that were important in early times declined into insignificance by the Classical era, and new festivals were added from time to time.

A religious festival or holy day was not a holiday in the modern sense. Such a day might be an occasion for general festivities, or it might be a day of solemn religious observance, or it might be both. A sacred day might be marked by private religious observances by individuals, families, or small groups rather than being a community event. Other festival days involved both countryside and city in large scale celebrations. Some festival days had an importance that extended beyond Athens. The dedication of the seventh day of each month to Apollo seems to have been observed throughout the Greek world. Governmental assemblies and councils did not usually meet on state festival days.

The Athenians used a lunar calendar, based on the cycles of the moon, rather than a solar calendar. The Athenian year began on the day of the New Moon following the summer solstice. Every following month began on the following New Moon. A month could have 29 or 30 days, depending on when the next New Moon was visible. A month of 30 days was called full, and a month of 29 days was called hollow. The month always ended on the thirtieth day. If a month had only 29 days, the twenty ninth day would be eliminated from the count of days, so that the month would still end on the thirtieth day. The festival and civic calendar did not always match the lunar calendar. Extra days were sometimes inserted in a month in order to meet special circumstances. Twelve months of alternating 30 and 29 day periods do not equal a solar year. In theory, the years consisted of alternating 354 and 384 day periods, plus or minus a day. In a long year of 384 days a thirteenth month would be inserted in the calendar. The extra month was usually a second month of Poseideon. The practice of adding or subtracting intercalary days meant that additional days might have to be added to, or deleted from, the calendar in order to bring the lunar calendar into alignment with the solar year. The Athenians also used a prytany calendar, named after the prytaneis, groups of citizens chosen by lot to serve in the city administration. Every group of prytaneis would serve for one tenth of the year, and government documents would be dated by the day and number of the prytany during which they were issued. This was the calendar system used in ancient Athens. Other Greek cities used similar lunar based calendars, but with different names for the months, different festival days dedicated to different deities, and a different day for the beginning of the year. Individual days were not named and there was no week as such. In Athens, the month was sometimes divided into three 10 day periods. The last 10 days of the month might be counted in reverse, as in a modern countdown ; 10, 9, 8, 7, etc.

New Year's Day was not a festival day for the Greeks. Rather, it was the first day of every month that was important. The first day of the month was the Noumenia, New Moon Day, the Festival Day of the New Moon. In Athens this was a day for markets, banquets, athletic events at the palaestra, and offerings at the temples. It was customary for offerings to be made to Hekate on the last day of the month. Last day offerings to Hekate appear to have been a private custom, rather than an official city festival.

Certain deities had festival days every month. Some of these days were regarded as the birthdays of the Gods, even though they were celebrated monthly rather than annually. These are the monthly festivals observed in Athens:

Day 2    To Agathos Daimon

Day 3    Birthday of Athena

Day 4    To Herakles, Hermes, Aphrodite, and Eros

Day 6    Birthday of Artemis

Day 7    Birthday of Apollo

Day 8    To Poseidon and Theseus

There are several annual festivals for which there is little or no surviving evidence as to the date on which they were celebrated: the Prometheia to Prometheus, the Hephaisteia to Hephaestus, a festival to Pan, a festival to Kastor and Polydeuces, the Eplikleidia probably to Demeter, the Galaxia to Ge, and the Theoinia and Iobaccheia, both probably to Dionysos.

Sources

The Sacred and Civil Calendar of the Athenian Year, by Jon D. Mikalson, Princeton University Press 1975

Festivals of the Athenians, by H. W. Parke, Cornell University Press 1977

The Oxford Classical Dictionary, ed. by S. Hornblower and A. Spawforth, Oxford University Press 1996

Sacred Calendars    Greek Deities    Religion    General Index   

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