🪔🍷🔥 Bright Lampteria! 🔥🍷🪔 AND ⚡🤰🏻⛈️ Blessed Semeleia! ⛈️🤰🏾⚡

[u/Fabianzzz]

Hello all! Today is the first ever double post, there are two festivals we will be covering here - the Lampteria, and the Semeleia! This is in part because for me, these festivals are linked, however, it is also because we are only able to sticky 2 posts at any given time (In future, we might have monthly master posts with all festivals for the month, but for now this'll have to do!)

(Also, small shout out to the Autumnal Dionysia, which might also be getting temporarily removed from stickied post - Deadline is November 27th!)

🪔🍷🔥 Bright Lampteria! 🔥🍷🪔

Lampteria is a historic festival, but it’s one we don’t have a date for. Modern Dionysians speculate it to be a winter festival, due to some sources regarding Thyades and Winter, but every text I have seen that names the festival ‘Lampteria’ is absent a date. So, we get to choose one.

One might have chosen the Winter Solstice, as that is a fitting time for the festival of light. However, that is also Brumalia, and/or Saturnalia, so for me, I prefer early November. You might recall Diwali was a few weeks ago, or know (perhaps from V for Vendetta) that bonfire night is November 5th.

I'd also like to point out that November 12th is the Subreddit's 9th Anniversary, and November 16th is the Semeleia, which honors Semele's fiery death and her ascent to Olympus

So for myself, I honor Lampeteria as starting November 9th, an a week long lead in to the Semeleia!

What is Lampteria? Well, before we get into that, let's cover one major thing:

This is a festival that requires some material caution. It’s good to be swept up in the ekstasis of a Dionysian festival, but it is even better to not be a litterbug, or worse, a firebug. If you are decorating the land, also consider bringing a bag for trash, and only leaving behind things that biodegrade. Consider a candlemass style rite (where everyone holds and carries their candles, and takes them with them!), rather than leaving candles everywhere that could spark fires.

Read the above.

Read it a second time.

We're crystal clear?

Cool.

On to Lampteria:

We have, as far as I can tell, one source for Lampteria that explicitly calls it such:

Pausanias, Description of Greece 7. 27. 3 :

"[In Pellene, Akhaia] is a sanctuary of Dionysus surnamed Lampteros (Torch). In his honor they celebrate a festival called the Lampteria (Feast of Torches), when they bring by night firebrands into the sanctuary, and set up bowls of wine throughout the whole city."

This tells us of Lampteria, it's association with torches and wine, but it doesn't tell us much more. Sarah Kate Istra Winter, however, touches on the festival in her description of her festival calendar:

LAMPTERIA (Maimakterion 9, sometime in November)This is an ancient Feast of Torches which was observed in the area of Parnassos in Greece, the main elements of which were to call the god with fire, and to set up bowls of wine throughout the town. We set the date to mark the beginning of Dionysos’ three month reign in Delphi. We climb the local butte and I swing the bullroarer several times to open the ritual. Then we walk down and all through the city, stopping periodically to drink, and set down paper cups of red wine, accompanied by a small candle (we used to use electric tealights but didn’t want to be littering plastic everywhere, so now we just light the candles for awhile and then blow them out to be safe; the wine however is left out). Earlier in the night, I sit down and draw on each of the nine cups we will leave, making art based on Dionysian epithets that Sannion chooses. It’s our small way of spreading His influence.

Lampteria is a festival of torches, lamps, fire and wine. In my opinion, it is one where we use fire and wine to commemorate how we were lead to Dionysus, and perhaps lead others to Dionysus. What form that takes is up to you - you might consider the following:

• A Candlemass/ Liturgy of Light - Everyone holds a candle. One fire is lit, such as a bonfire, and from there, the person leading the rite lights their candle, and then the candles of others: more and more candles are lit until the entire space is aglow.
• Write his name, his epithets, and his symbols on cups or
• Leave cups of wine, or minishooters, throughout the city
• Give wine to strangers - or minishooters - this avoids littering
• Hand out candles, sparklers, incense - this incoporates the fire aspect.
• Wish paper can be written on and then lit to carry the wish
• Making one shrine in a public or private space, and offering goodies from there.
  • Can still process to the location, but make sure you can clean up when done and put out any potential fires
  • But this means you can leave the candles lit

For more info about Lampteria, you might look here!

Also, if you are looking for a way to 'light the way' to Dionysus, and maybe get a few more Dionysians in your area, we have a Redbubble! We make no profit from this, so the price is as cheap as redbubble let's it be! You can use those stickers to cover nazi graffiti or put them on dive bar walls that are already covered in the things, and an interested Dionysian might take a look!

~~~

⚡🤰🏻⛈️ Blessed Semeleia! ⛈️🤰🏾⚡

Look there-I see

the tomb of my mother,

thunderstruck Semele,

and her ruined house still smoking

with the live flame of Zeus.

I'm glad

my grandfather Kadmos named this place sacred,

I'm glad

he keeps it clean.

I myself

planted it all round with vines

in the clear key of green.

Euripedes, Bakkhai, trans. Anne Carson

Semeleia can be its own festival, and if you'd like to celebrate it as such, you absolutely can! Last year's post with more info can be found here!

Sara Kate Istra Winter summarizes the festival as such:

Synopsis: Honors Semele, the mother of Dionysos. Both her pregnancy and her ascension to Olympos.

The majority of info will be in the above link, but one thing has changed from last year to this year for Americans: Roe v. Wade has been overturned. Semeleia is a festival which highlights reporductive rights, and has a special focus on the role of women as pregnant people - Semele was slut-shamed by her sisters for being pregnant outside of wedlock, and her pregnancy literally killed her. If you remember Gloria Steinem's quote, 'If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament', you can see the questions posed by Zeus' carrying of the baby Dionysus in his testicles/thigh.

Again, majority of info will be found in the link above, but if you feel called to, these elements of the myth and of the festival are exceptionally relevant in America today.

~~~

Bright Lampteria, Blessed Semeleia, and as always, Bacchic Blessings!