Kallynteria and Plynteria | An Ancient Holiday

                                                        𝟓.𝟏𝟔.𝟐𝟓 ↲

                                                                  ︶︶︶

     ❥ 𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞

                       ོ                   ོ                 ོ                ོ

            ོ                       ོ                 ོ

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Welcome! I hope with this post I can educate people on this holiday which I too am learning about! :heart: also, to be clear, it’s 6 days from now!

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What is Kallynteria?

Kallynteria is an ancient festival surrounding the goddess Athena and her temple that took place on the 24th Thargelion. This was a day to essentially tidy the temple and a day to relight her eternal flame, and was often seen as unlucky due to the fact the goddess was seen as unavailable to be reached on this day and the next (we will get to that), thus the city for one day was left unprotected.

It is followed by the second day, plynteria, in honour of Athena Polias (guardian of the city), where they washed her statue. On this day, as far as I understand, other temples of athena were closed, furthering the fact that she was unavailable.

To be perfectly clear, I am no expert or an academic with the perfect credentials, but rather, I am a Hellenic polytheist who wishes to share what they know about this holiday.

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How to celebrate in our modern day?

here are a few ideas that may be of use to you!

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Spring cleaning

Since we lack temples to clean, I suggest cleaning your own space in honour of Athena, keeping her in mind as you sweep away any negativity.

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Altar cleansing/tidying

Your altar may act as a temple, so simply tidy it as the ancients would’ve tidied her temples!

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Honour Athena in other ways

Whilst keeping in mind she would typically be unavailable to be reached, this is a good day to honour her in various ways, such as lighting her candles, doing a devotional act, etc…..

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Why is this festival important to us now, when we lack temples?

A foundation of the practices of the ancients is absolutely critical to practicing and even understanding our religion in our modern day. It’s important to keep holding onto these traditions, lest we desire to lose them to time once again.

We cannot practice without understanding how the ancients used to, it is a basis and foundation as already stated. We must honour the gods in a way they , though, that isn’t to say we cannot modernize; in fact, we have no choice but to do so, that’s why I emphasize that there are other ways to practice nowadays without a temple to tend to. We must adapt rather than leave it all behind.

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thank you so much for reading, and I hope I could make light of this ancient holiday :heartpulse: :sparkles:

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.      ❥ 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐛𝐲𝐞

                       ོ                   ོ                 ོ                ོ

            ོ                       ོ                 ོ

                           ོ                                        

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