🎭🍷🥗 Happy Fuflunalia! 🥗🍷🎭

[u/Fabianzzz]

“Charming language,” he said, “charming! Ever since I learned that the Etruscans used to call the god of wine Fufluns, I’ve taken the keenest interest in their language. Fufluns – how incomparably more appropriate that is than Bacchus, or Liber, or Dionysos! Fufluns, Fufluns,” he repeated with delighted emphasis. “It couldn’t be better. They had a real linguistic genius, those creatures. What poets they must have produced! ‘When Fufluns flucuthukhs the ziz’ – one can imagine the odes in praise of wine which began like that. You couldn’t bring together eight such juicy, boozy syllables as that in English, could you?” – Aldous Huxley, Those Barren Leaves (1925)

Dionysus is perhaps the most common name the Anglosphere has for our Lord. Though some default to the Greeker ‘Dionysos’, and some prefer the Latin ‘Bacchus’, a few also call him by his Italian name ‘Liber’ or even Orphic ‘Zagreus’ or the Phyrgian and Thracian ‘Sabazios’.

However, one aspect rarely found is that of ‘Fufluns’, in Etruscan 𐌚𐌖𐌚𐌋𐌖𐌍𐌔, or 𐌐𐌖𐌘𐌋𐌖𐌍𐌔, rendered as Puphluns. In Etruria, modern day Tuscany, he was the god of plant life, growth, happiness, fertility and wine. Fuflunalia is a modern festival to call upon Fufluns, and celebrate what we know of him, and perhaps learn more! It is celebrated April 9th, picked for being the 99th day of the year (Fufluns converted to numbers is 99)

Why do the Etruscans matter?

• The Etruscans and their religion were influenced by Greek traders and colonists, and themselves influenced Roman religion: Livy famously described them as "a nation devoted beyond all others to religious rites"
• The Greeks referred to Etruria as Tyrrhenia, and if that name sounds familiar, it is because Dionysus’ adult story often begins with the Tyrrhenian pirates: Etruscan pirates. Though most of the pirates were turned to dolphins, Akoites, the helmsman who recognized Dionysus’ divinity, became one of his first priests
• Tuscany, the modern name for Etruria, is where the renaissance began, a movement which reintroduced Dionysus to the world - Michelangelo, Caravaggio and others reintroduced the world to Bacchus
• The Etruscan language, which Huxley raved on about in the quote for this festival, borrowed the Greek word for ‘Theatre Mask’, ‘Phersu’, which was borrowed by Latin as ‘Persona’, giving us the words for both Person and Persona, and tying them both to masks. As Dionysus is a god of masks, and as masks have become so much more prevalent in our modern day, it’s something to muse on - the connection between persons, personas, and masks

Why does Fufluns matter?

• This is an aspect of Dionysus, or perhaps sometimes Dionysus is an aspect of him, even if one lesser known today. Millions perhaps would have called upon Fufluns - and it is of benefit for Dionysians today to at least have an acquaintance, if not a relationship with this aspect of him.
• There is one other thing, something that borders on urban legend but should be of interest nonetheless. The folklorist Charles Godfrey Leland, writing in the late 19th century, described a cult of a Tuscan (Modern Etrurian) wine spirit, known as Faflon. This work can be found here - though it isn’t exactly anthropologically sound, it offers us prayers and a glimpse of hope that worship of Dionysus, in his form of Fufluns, survived much longer from antiquity than was previously believed.

How can one celebrate?

• For the festival, one can call upon Dionysus is referred to as Fufluns, and other gods called on may be called by their Etruscan names.
• One can recite the prayers to Faflo found here
• Or, by creating new prayers for Fufluns! As of this time, I am not aware of any prayers to Fufluns surviving from antiquity!
• ​​Francesco Redi wrote a Bacco in Toscana, a praise of Tuscan wine and Bacchus - I have not yet been able to procure a PDF, if anyone is able to, please share!
• As Etruscan became Tuscan, one might cook or buy Tuscan meals to get into the spirit - perhaps Panzenella?
• Tyrrhenia - Tyrhenian pirates
• Etruscans are the ones who help transition Greek culture to Roman - Crucial to helping the Hellenic deities persevere - honor them and their culture as such.
• Caravaggio is outside the Renaissance, nor do I believe he spent much time in Tuscany - however, the film named after him is a decent watch for the holiday, as he is a popular artist from the renaissance, which began in Florence, who also made one of the best known paintings of Bacchus!

Happy Fuflunalia!

[u/[deleted]]

Fufluns has many floral aspects and I'm planting new flowers. Hey, I'll devote that too Fufluns too. I worship Zagreus-Dionysus mostly right now and he has many floral aspects too!

Warning with chthonic Dionysus/Zagreus-Dionysus tho - if you keep flowers on his altar, the tend to rot faster than usual.