Ancient Party Animals

The ancient world was a celebratory time that had a high emphasis on honoring pantheons or significant times of the year. For instance, ancient Greece had over 120 festival days each year, meaning a third of our Gregorian calendar was taken off work. Could you imagine only having to work 245 days out of the year?

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1. Lupercalia

This ancient Roman festival was observed every year on February 15th. It was held to promote health and fertility for everyone inside the city.  Lupercalia had its own priesthood, a selection of men between 20 and 40. The Luperci were instructed to slaughter a dog and a male goat, and an offering was made to Lupercus and the she-wolf Lupa.

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2. Opet Festival

This major festival was an important part of ancient Egypt, as it renewed the pharaoh's divine authority, rejuvenated the gods and the land, and celebrated the sacred marriage of the gods Amun and Mut. During this time, statues of the gods were placed on portable shrines and carried from Karnak to Luxor.

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3. Thargelia

This was an ancient Greek festival that honored the twin gods, Apollo and Artemis. It was usually held around late May or early June, and required a purification ritual, thank offerings, a theatrical performance, and something called the pharmakoi. The pharmakoi were two humans. 
“Scapegoats” that were physically abused by the members of the city before being exiled, as a physical representation of purification.

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4. Nadukkal

This ancient practice involved erecting and worshipping Nadukkal, or “hero stones.” This practice was a part of ancient Dravidian culture, which encompassed parts of South and Southeast Asia. Nadukkal’s were often erected to commemorate and deify heroes who died in battle.

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5. Saturnalia

This mid-winter festival was celebrated in ancient Rome to honor the god Saturn. This festival often includes gift-giving, feasting, reversals of social hierarchies, gambling, and home decoration. It’s no surprise that this Roman festival is considered the ancient precursor to Christmas.

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6. The Galaxia

This obscure ancient Greek festival was most often held at Olympia. The festival was usually associated with the vernal equinox and was likely used to honor Kronos and Rhea, the titan deities who birthed the first six Olympian gods.

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7. Beltane

This ancient Gaelic festival is usually held on May 1st, at the halfway point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. Beltane was widely celebrated in Ireland and is closely associated with Irish mythology. Certain folks still celebrate Beltane today, especially modern pagans, but it does not have the grandiose celebration it once had.

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8. Zagmuk

This New Year's celebration stems from ancient Mesopotamia, and usually falls in March or April. Zagmuk consisted of a 12-day feast, where observers would celebrate Marduk, the patron deity of Babylon. Most often, a reenactment of the great battle would take place, usually with the king playing Marduk.

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9. Madana-Trayodashi

This ancient festival originated in Kashmir, a northern region of India. This festival was known as a festival of love, where sexual union was seen as a door to divinity. The festival usually happened around March or April, and was said to worship the Hindu god of love, desire, pleasure, and beauty, Kamadeva.

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10. Dożynki

This ancient Slavic harvest festival traditionally fell in or around the autumnal equinox and was closely associated with pagan worshippers of plants, trees, and agriculture. While we don’t have a lot of documentation of pre-Christian times, common themes of Dożynki included a wreath and setting aside the first batch of grain for next year’s sowing.

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11. Mayan Bloodletting Rituals

More of a ritualized practice than a festival, bloodletting was common with Mayan communities. It was seen as a crucial element of the sociocultural and political structure, as new rulers would pierce themselves to legitimize their lineage. Depending on what you were bloodletting for, folks would draw blood from the genitals, tongue, or other soft parts of the body.

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12. Thesmophoria

This ancient Greek festival was held in honor of Demeter and Persephone, usually around late autumn. The festival was widely celebrated across Greece, but was restricted to adult women, as men were forbidden to see or hear the rituals performed. Thesmophoria was a three-day ceremony which consisted of pig sacrifice, fasting, and praying for fertility.

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13. Vestalia

This ancient Roman festival honored the virgin goddess Vesta, and was also a women-only event. The festival was held during a week in June, and involved opening the temple of Vesta for sacrifices, and the honoring of a donkey - Vesta’s sacred animal.

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14. Samhain

This Gaelic festival is celebrated on November 1st as the signified end of the harvest season. It’s situated halfway between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice. This time of year usually included offerings of food and drink to pagan gods, mumming and guising, and divination.

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15. Wepet-Renpet

This ancient Egyptian festival was considered the Egyptian new year, and usually took place in or around the summer solstice. Wepet-Renpet was looked forward to and widely celebrated, as it signified the annual flooding of the river Nile. When the Nile flooded, it irrigated the farmland, allowing crops to grow.

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16. Arrhephoria

This ancient Greek festival honored the goddess Athena. It involved choosing two young girls to live for the year as arrhephoroi, tending to the sacred olive tree, and weaving a new robe for the goddess. During the festival, the girls were given two items to carry on their heads through an underground passage, leaving behind what they brought and taking something else in their place. Nobody was allowed to know what these items were.

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17. Feast Of The Ass

Feast Of The Ass was a medieval Christian feast that was observed around the midway point in January. It celebrated the flight into Egypt, but may also be a later adaptation of the pagan feast Cervulus. In all its celebrations, a donkey was included as a physical representation of donkey-related stories in the bible.

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18. Bacchanalia

These unofficial Roman festivals celebrated the god Braccus. It disregarded age and social class, and featured frenzied, intoxicated, sexually explosive parties. The cult of Bracchanalia was not widely accepted in ancient Rome, so festival-goers required their own funding.

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19. Ashvamedha

This annual tradition was a part of the Vedic religion in ancient India. It involved releasing the king’s warriors into the countryside, accompanied by a horse, where others could challenge the king’s authority. If the warriors could keep the horse alive for a year, it would be sacrificed, and the king would be declared the undisputed sovereign.

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20. Festival Of Drunkenness

This ancient Egyptian festival was performed during the first month of the Egyptian new year and was based on a myth that human beings were saved from extinction thanks to alcohol. Participants would engage in a night of heavy drinking, dancing, and other intimate encounters to honor the Eye of Ra and the goddess Sekhmet.

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