Twelve Days of Dionysus

Twelve Days of Dionysus

ΔΩΔΕΚΑ ΗΜΕΡΕΣ ΔΙΟΝΥΣΟΥ

Γενέθλια του Διονύσου

The Twelve Days of  Dionysus

The Twelve Days is one of the great festivals of Ællinismόs (Hellenismos; Gr. Ἑλληνισμός), the ancient Greek religion. The commencement of this holiday is December 25th and the festivities continue on for eleven more days, according to Greek tradition. It is the called the Yænǽthlia (Genethlia; Gr. Γενέθλια), i.e. the birthday, of Ælefthæréfs Diónysos (Gr. Ἐλευθερεύς Διόνυσος), Dionysus the Liberator. 

The Ancient Greek Roots of "Christmas"

Why is this such a great festival in our religion, one of the most important and sublime? It is because this festival marks the fulfillment of the providence of our father Zefs who is the highest (Ὕπατος) of all the Gods, and who, when he created a new generation of beings, foresaw that we would be trapped in anxiety, and to alleviate our sufferings he conceived a son who, with his Mysteries, would free us from an endless circle of rebirths (κύκλος γενέσεως); all of this can be found in the Orphic Rhapsodic Theogony (See The Sixth King), the story of the origin of the Gods.

The legitimacy of the festival

The Twelve-Days-celebration is mostly unknown outside of Greece, but this author was told that "just as birds fly and dogs bark, all Greeks know that Christmas is Dionysus' birthday," and these same Greeks insist that the observance of the festival extends back to ancient times. Nonetheless, the authenticity of this date has been challenged, and this author has searched for some passage from antiquity to confirm it. While there are many websites that claim that Christmas is actually Dionysus' birthday, most offer little in the way of citations; nonetheless, there is significant evidence which may be found in the note below.

Naturally, it is immediately evident that not only does the birthday fall on the Christian holiday, but the multi-day observance follows exactly the twelve days of Christmas, but it is not that we are abducting the Christian holiday...exactly the reverse:

"The superstitions and customs connected by the modern folk with the Twelve Days are undoubtedly an inheritance from ancestors who celebrated the Brumalia and other pagan festivals at the same season of the year. These ancient festivals, though Roman in name, probably differed very little in the manner of their observance from certain old Greek festivals, chief among which was some festival of Dionysus. This is rendered probable both by the date of these festivals and by the manner of their celebration. For the worship of Dionysus was practically confined to the wintertime, at Delphi his cult superseded that of Apollo during the three winter months; and at Athens the four festivals of Dionysus fell within about the same period --- the rural Dionysia at the end of November or beginning of December, the Lenaea about a month later, the Anthesteria at the end of January, and the Great Dionysia at the end of February. As for the manner of conducting the Latin-named festivals, Asterios' description of the Kalándae in the fifth century plainly attests the Dionysiac character of the orgies, and Balsamon, in the twelfth, was so convinced, from what he himself witnessed, of their Bacchanalian origin, that he actually proposed to derive the name Brumalia from Βροῦμος (by which he meant Βρόμιος) a surname of Dionysus.

The mumming then, which is still customary in some parts of Greece during the Twelve Days, is a survival apparently of festivals in honour of Dionysus. Further the mummers dress themselves up to resemble Callicantzari (ed. see below). But the worship of Dionysus presented a similar scene; 'those who made processions in honour of Dionysus,' says Ulpian, 'used to dress themselves up for that purpose to resemble his companions, some in the guise of Satyrs, others as Bacchae, and others as Sileni.' The mummers therefore of the present day have, it appears inherited the custom of dressing up from the ancient worshippers of Dionysus and are their modern representatives; and from this it follows that the Callicantzari whom the modern mummers strive to resemble are to be identified with those motley companions of Dionysus whom his worshippers imitated of old." 

The Twelve Days celebration honors the Olympian Gods as well as Dionysus

The Twelve Days of Dionysus is a great celebration of Vákkhos (Bacchus; Gr. Βἀκχος) in which the Olympian Gods are honored on successive days in the order of the Natural Laws over which they have dominion:

Dec. 25 - Æstía THE BIRTHDAY OF DIÓNYSOS

Dec. 26 - Áris

Dec. 27 - Ártæmis

Dec. 28 - Íphaistos

Dec. 29 - Íra

Dec. 30 - Poseidóhn

Dec. 31 - Athiná

Jan. 1 - Aphrodíti

Jan. 2 - Apóllohn

Jan. 3 - Ærmís

Jan. 4 - Zefs

Jan. 5 - Dimítir

The Hellenic religious day begins not at midnight, but at dusk of the day before, so you may do ritual at sunset on the 24th of December, and in a like manner for each of the days. 

To honor Dionysus we recite his great hymns

All of the Orphic hymns to Dionysus may be recited on each day of the festivities, or just those you like; it is your personal choice. The most important hymn, however, is number 30 (XXIX To Bacchus in some versions of the Thomas Taylor translation), and it should be recited in addition to any of the others. The hymn 46.To Liknítis (Gr. Λικνίτης) is also particularly relevant as it refers to Diónysos of the líknon (Gr. λίκνον), i.e., the cradle. Kradiaios (Gr. Κραδιαῖος) Dionysus is the infant Vákkhos (Gr. Βἀκϰος), taken from the thigh of Zefs (Zeus; Gr. Ζεύς) and given to the Goddess Ípta (also Ippa; Gr. Ἵπτα) to be taken to Mount Ídi (Ida; Gr. Ίδη) in a winnowing basket (the líknon) with a snake wound around it, placed upon her head.  Therefore, hymn 49 to Ípta is another good choice. Ípta went up the mountain to the Mother of the Gods, where baby Vákkhos was guarded by the Kourítæs (Couretes; Gr. Κουρῆτες).  Ípta is called the nurse of Dionysus, as it states in her hymn.

If you use the Thomas Taylor translation of the hymns, the version we prefer, the numbering in the older editions are off by one increment; this problem has been corrected in the Prometheus Trust publication entitled Hymns and Initiations. Because so many people have the older numbering, we are providing those numbers designated as OTN, i.e. "old Taylor numbering," along with Taylor's titles for the hymns.

Next follows a list of all the Orphic hymns which relate, in one way or another, to Dionysus.  

29. PÆRSÆPHÓNI  [Gr. Περσεφόνη]  (OTN ["old Taylor numbering"]: XXVIII.  To Proserpine)

30. DIÓNYSOS  [Gr. Διόνυσος]  (OTN: XXIX. Bacchus) This is the most important of the hymns to the God. Please visit the following link for help understanding the hymn as well as the Greek text and a very helpful transliteration: The Orphic Hymn (30) to Diónysos.

42. MÍSA  [Gr. Μίσα]  (OTN: XLI. To Mises)

44. SÆMǼLI  [Gr. Σεμέλη] (OTN: XLIII. To Semele)

45. DIÓNYSOS VASSARǼOHS [Gr. Διόνυσος Βασσαρέως]  (OTN: XLIV. Dionysius Bassareus Triennalis)

46. LIKNÍTIS  [Gr. Λικνίτης] (OTN: XLV. Liknitus Bacchus)

47. PÆRIKIÓNIOS [Gr. Περικῑόνιος] (OTN: XLVI. Bacchus Pericionius)

48. SAVÁZIOS  [Gr. Σαβάζιος] (OTN: XLVII.Sabasius)

49. ÍPTA  Gr. [Ἵπτα]  (OTN: XLVIII. To Ippa)

50. LYSÍOS-LINAIOS  [Gr. Λυσίος Ληναίος] (OTN: XLIX. To Lysius Lenæus)

52. TRIETIRIKOS  [Gr. Τριετηρικος?]  (OTN: LI. To Trietericus )

53. AMPHIÆTOUS  [Gr. Ἀμφιετοῦς] (OTN:  LII. To Amphietus Bacchus )

54. SEILINÓS, SÁTYROS, VÁKKHAI  [Gr. Σειληνός, Σάτυρος, Βάκχαι]  (OTN: LIII. To Silenus, Satyrus, and the Priestesses of Bacchus)

74. LEFKOTHǼA  [Gr. Λευκοθέα] (OTN: LXXIII. To Leucothea)

75. PALAIMOHN  [Gr. Παλαίμων] (OTN: LXXIV.  o Palæmon)

A BRUMAL SEASON OF FESTIVITY: 

There is a folk tradition in Greece called the Twelve Days of Christmas. These holidays correspond exactly with the Twelve Days of Diónysos, which are concealed or covered by the Christian holidays, so say the Greeks who practice the ancient religion. The Kallikántzari (Callicantzari; Gr. Καλλικάντζαροι) are mischievous creatures similar to the Irish faeries, gnomes, goblins, and elves. They become terribly excited during these holidays and cause all kinds of trouble until they are "polluted" by the Orthodox priests with holy water on the last of the Twelve Days, only for them to rise again next year at Christmas. There is a suspicion that the Kallikántzari are none other than our blessed Gods, "Lilliputianized" to diminish their importance, and that, perhaps, they become exuberant at the birth of mighty Diónysos and of his joyous celebrations every year, or perhaps they represent obscured memories of the train of revelers of Diónysos from the great festivals which took place in winter.

"Quick, begone! we must begone,

Here comes the pot-bellied priest,

With his censer in his hand

And his sprinkling-vessel too;

He has purified the streams

And he has polluted us!"  

"Many attempts have been made to account for the Kallikantzari. Perhaps the most plausible explanation of the outward form, at least, of the uncanny creatures, is the theory connecting them with the masquerades that formed part of the winter festival of Dionysus and are still to be found in Greece at Christmastide." 

The Romans celebrated the Dies Solis Invicti Nati, "the birthday of the Unconquered Sun" on December 25th for the same reason as the Iliouyænna (Heliogenna; Gr. Ηλιούγεννα). It is on or around the 25th that one can perceive the first lengthening of the daylight hours, hence the "birthday."

  

Brumalia:

The Romans celebrated a feast of Diónysos, instituted by Romulus, called variously the Brumae, the Brumalia, or the Hiemalia.  It was also practiced in Greece as a foreign festival during the period of the (Roman) empire. There is confusion regarding the dates of Brumalia, some saying that it was celebrated twice a year, vix. on the 12th of the calends of March, and on the calends of September. Others say that the Brumalia was celebrated on the winter solstice or the 25th of December. 

Iliouyænna (Heliogenna; Gr. Ηλιούγεννα :    

The Iliouyænna, the Birth of the Sun, is a traditional holiday celebrated in December commencing just following the beginning of the month of Capricorn, the Winter Solstice, December 21.

More Roman Winter Festivities:  

During this same season, the Romans celebrated the birthday of Mithras and also the feast of Saturnalia, in honor of Saturn.  The Saturnalia was a very popular holiday with much feasting, gift-giving, and merriment. There was a custom of holding a banquet whereby the slaves were served by their masters, a custom which has been preserved in the military of some countries with the officers serving their troops at Christmas.

The Sabine tutelary Goddess Strenia (Salus) was honored in ancient Rome on January 1. The people exchanged various gifts (strenae) of  figs, dates, honey, branches of laurel and palm, and other things, in hope of a year of joy and happiness. The fruits were gilded. 

"MALVOLIO: I say, this house is as dark as ignorance, though

ignorance were as dark as hell; and I say, there

was never man thus abused. I am no more mad than you

are: make the trial of it in any constant question.

FESTE: What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wild fowl?

MALVOLIO: That the soul of our grandam might haply inhabit a bird.

FESTE: What thinkest thou of his opinion?

MALVOLIO: I think nobly of the soul, and no way approve his opinion.

FESTE: Fare thee well. Remain thou still in darkness:

thou shalt hold the opinion of Pythagoras ere I will

allow of thy wits, and fear to kill a woodcock, lest

thou dispossess the soul of thy grandam. Fare thee well." 

The Ancient Greek Roots of "Christmas"

Christmas is the most important, and perhaps the most treasured, celebration of Christianity filled with joy and love. Every country celebrates with different customs that have deep roots within history and tradition. We can find a variety of similarities in the commemoration of the birth of Christ and Dionysus between ancient and contemporary Greece. If we look at the ancient Greek history and the traditions within, we will see that some of our customs have their roots in ancient Greece.

In December, the Ancient Greeks celebrated the birth of Dionysus, calling him “Savior” and divine “infant.” According to Greek mythology, his mother was a mortal woman, Semele, and his father was Zeus, the king of the Gods. The priest of Dionysus held a pastoral staff as did the Good Shepherd. On December 30, ancient Greeks commemorated his rebirth.

Bust of Dionysus

The most well-known custom throughout the Christian world are the Christmas carols that have roots deriving from ancient Greece. Specifically, Homer — during his stay on the island of Samos, along with a group of children — composed the carols. In ancient Greece, carols symbolized joy, wealth and peace, and the children sang the carols only in the homes of the rich. Children would go from house to house, holding an olive or a laurel branch adorned with wool (a symbol of health and beauty) and different kinds of fruits. The children brought the olive branch to their homes and hung it on the doors where it remained for the rest of the year.

Read about the Twelve Days of Dionysus

As with Jesus, December 25th and January 6th are both traditional birth dates in the Dionysian myth and simply represent the period of the winter solstice. Indeed, the winter-solstice date of the Greek sun and wine god Dionysus was originally recognized in early January but was eventually placed on December 25th, as related by ancient Latin writer Macrobius (c. 400 AD/CE). Regardless, the effect is the same: The winter sun god is born around this time, when the shortest day of the year begins to become longer.

"Macrobius transfers this feast to the day of the winter solstice, December 25."

The ancient Church father Epiphanius (4th cent. ) discussed the birth of the god Aion, son of the Greek goddess Persephone or Kore ("Maiden"), at the time of the winter solstice. In this regard, Christian theologian Rev. Dr. Hugh Rahner (139-140) remarks:

We know that Aion was at this time beginning to be regarded as identical with Helios and Helios with Dionysus...because [according to Macrobius] Dionysus was the symbol of the sun... He is made to appear small at the time of the winter solstice, when upon a certain day the Egyptians take him out of the crypt, because on this the shortest day of the year it is as though he were a little child.... Macrobius transfers [this feast] to the day of the winter solstice, December 25.

Dionysus is thus equivalent to Aion and was also said to have been born of Persephone, the virgin maiden. Esteemed mythologist Joseph Campbell (MI, 34) confirms this "celebration of the birth of the year-god Aion to the virgin Goddess Kore," the latter of whom he calls "a Hellenized transformation of Isis," the Egyptian mother goddess who was likewise called the "Great Virgin" in inscriptions predating the Christian era by centuries.

Birth of Dionysus

Dionysus was a descendant of Zeus and mortal woman Semele. He is actually the only god of mortal mother and his birth was unique as well. It all started when Hera disguised in Semele`s maid and gave her advice to make Zeus swear an oath to answer a single question.bacchus and nymphs of Nysa It was all a plot to kill Semele because Hera suspected her having a relationship with Zeus. And when Zeus came and swore that he would answer any question, Semele asked him to reveal his true identity. Zeus had no choice but to answer and when he shifted to his true nature, the room, they were in, was overwhelmed with lightnings and killed pregnant Semele. 

Attic Red Figure Krater by The Altamura Painter,ca 460 B.C., National Archaeological Museum of Ferrara

Dionysus stands on the lap of Zeus after being birthed from his father's thigh. Zeus is seated on a stool with a deer-skin drape and holds a thyrsos (pine-cone tipped staff)--the usual attribute of his son. The infant holds a wine cup (krater) in one hand and a vine in the other. Aphrodite stands to the left with two blooming flowers. On the right Eileithyia, goddess of childbirth, raises her hand as midwife of the birth.

The king of the gods then immediately sent for his loyal servant Hermes to help with saving the child. Hermes stitched the child into the thigh of Zeus who helped him grow a bit more before releasing him. When Dionysus was born, he was, like many other illegitimate infants, harassed by Hera and her minions. Those who helped Dionysus had to be moving him constantly to keep his whereabouts a secret. And it was Hermes once again who finally found him a safe shelter with a group of mountain nymphs, away from the eyes of many. 

Dionysus spent his childhood with these nymphs and invented the process of growing grapes and making wine. However, his childhood did not last long because Hera found out about his location and he was forced to move again. His path guided him around the world.

Virgin Birth

According to the most common tradition, Dionysus was the son of the god Zeus and the mortal woman Semele. In the Cretan version of the same story, which the pre-Christian Greek historian Diodorus Siculus follows, Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Persephone, the daughter of Demeter also called Kore, who is styled a "virgin goddess."

In the common myth about the birth of Dionysus/Bacchus, Semele is mysteriously impregnated by one of Zeus's bolts of lightning--an obvi­ous miraculous/virgin conception.

Concerning Dionysus's epithet "twice begotten," in the third century Church father Minucius Felix (Commodius, XII) remarked to his Pagan audience:

Ye yourselves say that Father Liber was assuredly twice begotten. First of all he was born in India of Proserphine [Persephone] and Jupiter [Zeus]... Again, restored from his death, in another womb Semele conceived him again of Jupiter... (Roberts, IV, 205)

"The virgin conceived the ever-dying, ever-living god of bread and wine, Dionysus."

In another account, Jupiter/Zeus gives Dionysus's torn-up heart in a drink to Semele, who becomes pregnant with the "twice born" god this way, again a miraculous or "virgin" birth. Indeed, Joseph Campbell explicitly calls Semele a "virgin":

While the maiden goddess sat there, peacefully weaving a mantle on which there was to be a representation of the universe, her mother contrived that Zeus should learn of her presence; he approached her in the form of an immense snake. And the virgin conceived the ever-dying, ever-living god of bread and wine, Dionysus, who was born and nurtured in that cave, torn to death as a babe and resurrected... (Campbell, MG, 4.27)

Semele immolated by the sky-god father-figure Zeus, who takes the divine child Bacchus (Bernard Salomon, Metamorphose figurée, 1557)

This same direct appellation is used by Cambridge professor and anthropologist Sir Dr. Edmund Ronald Leach:

Dionysus, son of Zeus, is born of a mortal virgin, Semele, who later became immortalized through the inter­vention of her divine son; Jesus, son of God, is born of a mortal virgin, Mary… such stories can be dupli­cated over and over again. (Hugh-Jones, 108)

Using the scholarly Greek term parthenos, meaning "virgin," in The Cult of the Divine Birth in Ancient Greece (95) Dr. Marguerite Rigoglioso concludes: "Semele was also likely a holy parthenos by virtue of the fact that she gave birth to Dionysus via her union with Zeus (Hesiod, Theogony 940)."

These learned individuals had reason to consider Dionysus's mother a virgin, as, again, he was also said to have been born of Persephone/Kore, whom, once more from Epiphanius, was herself deemed a "virgin," or parthenos. In this regard, professor emeritus of Classics at the University of Pennsylvania Dr. Donald White (183) says, "As a title 'Parthenos' was appropriate to both Demeter and Persephone..."

Persephone and Hades; Attic red-figured kylix, c. 440-430 BC.; Vulci, Italy (Photo: Marie-Lan Nguyen)The fact that Persephone is associated with parthenogenesis, the scholarly term for "virgin birth," lends credence to the notion that Dionysus was virgin-born. As related further by Rigoglioso in Virgin Mother Goddesses of Antiquity (111):

Persephone's connection with the parthenogenetic pomegranate is attested in text and iconography. In speaking directly about the Eleusinian Mysteries, Clement of Alexandria (Exhortation to the Greeks 2:16) informs us that the pomegranate tree was believed to have sprung from the drops of the blood of Dionysus…

Although Dionysus is depicted as being the product of a "rape" by Zeus, the story is little different from the impregnation of the Virgin Mary by Yahweh without her consent, especially in consideration of the identification of Dionysus's very blood with parthenogenesis. In this regard, Rigoglioso also states, "I contend that Persephone's eating of the pomegranate was the magical action that instigated her ability to conceive parthenogenetically."

Also, in the museum in Naples has been kept an ancient marble urn showing the birth/nativity of Dionysus, with two groups of three figures on either side of the god Mercury, who is holding the divine baby, and a female figure who is receiving him.

This depiction resembles the gospel story of "wise men" or dignitaries, traditionally held to number three, approaching Joseph, the divine child and Mary.

The Christmas tree

The Christmas tree symbolizes the eternity of life, because it is aging and it loses therefore the youth of. The tree but Christmas not located, I for one, as xenikin habit as reputedly generally, but partly as an ancient a Greek . It encompasses remains of famous "Iresioni" and "iketirias" of the ancient Greeks, and even the ancient Athenians. 

They were not the true Iketiria branch olive, from which Ekrem fleece wool, and brought him who wanted to beg him God in a group, for apallagin the site by Dinah Whose evil, eg disease, swine fever, cholera or identical. For the most, however, the evastaze Iketirian man, who wanted to put forward of under the protection god and top authority to conduct at revelations against powerful people or princes. " ("Legacy of the Ancient World", newspaper "Ethnos", 31 Dekem.1937) 

The Christmas tree first appeared in Germany at the end of the 16th, but until the early 19th century it was widely prevalent - placed only in churches. The tree as a Christian symbol, symbolizes happiness hidden to man the birth of Christ. Gradually the tree began to fill with various useful mainly edible shoes and later clothes and other everyday items (which was the ancient Greek temples) symbolizing the offer of Divine Gift. In modern Greece the custom introduced by the Bavarians with the decoration in the palaces of Othon in 1833. 

After the Second World War the tree with colorful balls came in all Greek houses. Of course large impressive and mythological event "Agiovasili" with sleigh who drive the flying reindeer. Neither this as you understand, could not be taken from Ancient Greece. As mentioned before, the month of December, the Greeks celebrated Dionysus and Apollo-Sun luminophores pretending to be on the flying chariot, to share the light. 

The chariot was sleigh, horses were reindeer and the "gift" of light was handing out to people ... became literally "gift splitting". Finally, the cutting of the New Year cake evolved from ancient Greek custom of festive bread, which the ancient Greeks offered to the gods in large rural festivals like thalysia and Thesmophoria.

Santa Claus

Santa Claus, who travels around the world on Christmas Eve delivering gifts in a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer, is another impressive similarity. A similar tradition also existed during the celebration of Dionysus in ancient Greece who resembled light. Then, the chariot transformed into a sleigh and horses transformed into reindeer.

New Year’s cake

The New Year’s cake is also the evolution of an ancient Greek custom. Our ancestors used to offer Gods the “festive bread” during the rural festivals, like the Thalysia or the Thesmophoria.