Note that the sources listed sometimes give conflicting dates, I used my own judgement in assessing conflicting sources.
Please be aware that the Athenian calendar just happens to be the only Hellenic one with enough details to reconstruct in detail. Each city had its own calendar (similarly constructed) with their own month names and festivals. Even within Attica, smaller towns had their own festival cycles which were not apparently linked to the Athenian cycle. For instance, we have a list of many sacrifices from the Attic deme of Erchia which are included below. There is one example though of specific worship at Marathon on the eve of the Athenian festival of Skira. (Given that Hellenic days begin at sunset, I have no clue yet if this use of the word "eve" refers to the sunset start of the day of the festival itself, or the day before.)
For Hellenic Reconstructionists, consider this calendar as a suggested template. In the true autonomous spirit of the ancient practices, do feel free to establish you own unique local cycle of festivals and sacrifices, Even when Athenians left Athens to found new colonies, the colonists did not recreate the Athenian festivals -- they began new ones appropriate to their new community and reflected that community's unique relationship with the deities. Some festivals were held in several different places, but not on or even necessarily near the same date or month.
Also note that the calculated calendar on this website is based on the actual phase of the moon, with each month beginning on the day the new crescent moon should be visible. Historically, this is when each month theoretically began. The Archon was responsible for inserting a 13th month occasionally, and for adding or subtracting days from the months. Allegedly, this system was meant to keep the calendar somewhat in synch with the moon. In practice, the Archons made adjustments for other pragmatic and political purposes in a very haphazard manner, and it would have been quite rare for the historical calendar to actually be in synch with the moon. Hence the Athenians distinguished between "Noumenia" the first day of the calendar month, and "Noumenia kata Selene" the first day of the actual crescent moon.
It is important to note that there is an apparent fallacy about Athenian calendar that is frequently repeated in many sources: that it is based on alternating full and hollow months of 30 and 29 days. I believe this error traces back to one sloppy footnote and it has been perpetuated ever since.
In B.D. Merrit's The Athenian Year, 1961, he gave a footnote: "Geminus, VIII, 52... One shall note here the implication that the Athenians of the fifth century, in their festival calendar, were quite accustomed to ordering their months by the simple process of alternation." Geminus was an astronomer writing in 70 BCE. The passage referenced above does not mention Athens or the Athenian calendar, but he does refer to Meton, an Athenian astronomer c. 432, and his Metonic cycle of alternating months developed as a means of correlating the lunar and solar years. Every source I have read confirms that Athens did not adopt the Metonic cycle. Meton even came in for a fair amount of ridicule in Aristophane's The Clouds.
Athens tracked 3 different calendars, the Prytany Calendar which divided the year into ten parts during which each tribe rotated chairing the Assembly, the Festival Calendar by which actual dates for sacrifices, etc. were scheduled and was very loosely related to the actual phases of the moon, and the actual lunar cycle known as Kata Selenes, or Kata Theon (according to Selene, or to the Gods). Kata Selenes produces a very irregular pattern of 29 and 30 day months. Any attempt to follow a regular pattern of 29 and 30 days will quickly fall out of synch with the moon. I have not found any historical reference directly linking the Metonic cylce to the Athenian calendar.
--Maureen
| 12 | Kronia | Festival in honor of Kronos |
| 16, 15-16 | Sunoikia | Festival in honor of community of Attica and
Athene Every two years, the two-day celebration is held. Not sure which years. |
| (21?-)23-30 | Panathanaia | Festival main celebration on the 28 in
honor of Athene The greater held in the third year of each Olympiad The lesser held annually for fewer days |
| ? | Herakleia | In honor of Herakles at Kunosarges gymnaisium outside Athens |
| 15-18 | Eleusinia games | (4 days between 13-20, probably 15-18) held on 4th year of every Olympiad, and on a lesser scale on the 2nd year. |
| 16 | Sacrifice to Kourotrophos, Hecate & Artemis at Erchia | |
| 19 | Sacrifice to The Heroines at Attic deme of Erchia | |
| 20 | Sacrifice to Hera Thelchina at Erchia | |
| 25 | Sacrifice to Zeus Epoptes at Erchia |
| 2 | Niketeria | festival in honor of Nike |
| {3 | Plataia | this date is listed in Zaidman & Pantel, but no confirmation in Burkert, its also a place in Boeotia that hosts the Great Daedala festival every 60 years} |
| 4 | In honor of Basile in Erchia | |
| 5 | Genesios | public festival for the dead in honor of Ge |
| 5 | Sacrifice to Epops at Erchia | |
| 6 | Festival in honor of Artemis Agrotera | |
| 12 | Democratia | festival in honor of Democracy |
| 15?17, 19-21 | Eleusinian Greater Mysteries | in honor of Demeter |
| 17 or 18 | Epidauria | in honor of Asclepius |
| 27 | Sacrifice to the Nymphs, Achelous, Alochus, Hermes & Gaia at Erchia | |
| 27 | Sacrifice to Athene at Atic deme of Teithras |
| Variable | Apatouria | paternity festival; each phratry set their own dates within the month |
| 1st day: | Dorpia | (the eve of a festival) phratry members feast together |
| 2nd day: | Anarrhusis | (2nd day of a fest), sacrifice to Zeus Phratrios & Athene Phratria |
| 3rd day: | Koureotis | young boys admitted to their father's phratry |
| 6? | Proerosia | festival preliminary to the plowing in honor of Demeter |
| 7 | Puanopsia | festival in honor of Apollon |
| 8 | Theseia | festival in honor of Theseus |
| 8? | Oskhophoria | festival of the vintage |
| 9 | Stenia | women's festival in honor of Demeter and Persephone |
| 11?13 | Thesmophoria | festival in honor of Demeter |
| 14 | Sacrifice to The Heroines at Erchia | |
| 30 | Khalkeia | festival in honor of Athena and Hephaestus. The loom is set up for weaving the Panathenaian peplos |
| ? | Pompaia | festival in honor of Zeus and Hermes |
| ? | Rustic or Lesser Dionusia | in honor of Dionusos |
| 5 | Plerosia | festival at Attic deme of Myrrhinus |
| 16 | Sacrifice to Zeus Horios at Erchia | |
| 26 | Haloa | fertility festival in honor of Dionusos and Demeter |
(not sure if major festivals done in first or second Poseideon when the extra month is inserted.)
(a fashionable month for weddings)
| 8 | Sacrifice to Apollon Apotropaius, Apollon Nymphegetes, & the Nymphs at Erchia | |
| 9 | Sacrifice to Athene at Erchia | |
| 12?15 | Lenaia | festival in honor of Dionusos in the Attic deme of Limnai |
| 27 | Theogamia | celebrating the sacred marriage of Zeus and Hera |
| 27 | Sacrifice to Kourotrophos, Hera, Zeus Teleius & Poseidon at Erchia |
| 2 | Sacrifice to Dionusos at Erchia | |
| 11?13 | Anthesteria | in honor of Dionusos |
| 1st day | Pithoigia, | opening of vats |
| 2nd day | Khoes, | drinking, celebration of marriage of Dionusos represented by the Arkhon Basileus and his wife the Basilinna |
| 3rd day | Khutroi | day of cooking pots, mixed vegetables offered to Hermes Psukhopompos; spirits of the dead roam free |
| 20?26? | Lesser Mysteries | in preparation for the Eleusinian Mysteries, at deme of Agrae in Athens |
| 23 | Diasia | festival in honor of Zeus Meilichios |
| 8 | Asklepia | in honor of Asklepios |
| 10?17 (?14?) | Greater Dionusia | in honor of Dionusos; The City or the Great Dionusia |
| 17 | Pandia | festival in honor of Zeus |
| 6 | Delphinia | in honor of Apollo |
| 16 | Mounukhia | festival in honor of Artemis |
| 19 | Olumpeia | festival in honor of Olumpian Zeus |
| 20 | Sacrifice to Leucaspis at Erchia | |
| 21 | Sacrifice to Tritopatores at Erchia |
| 4 | Sacrifice to Leto, Pythian Apollon, Zeus, Hermes & Dioskuri at Erchia | |
| 6?7 | Thargelia | festival in honor of Apollon |
| 1st day | Purification, driving out of the pharmakoi (scapegoats) | |
| 2nd day | Offering of the thargelos, mixed vegetables | |
| 16 | Sacrifice to Zeus Epakrios at Erchia | |
| 19 | Bendideia | festival in honor of Bendis |
| 19 | Sacrifice to Menedeius at Erchia | |
| 25? | Kallunteria | spring cleaning of the Temple of Athene (sometime between 20-25) |
| 25 | Plunteria | festival of washing (a dangerous day because Athene is preoccupied) |
| 3 | Arrephoria | festival in honor of Athene; or, Arretophoria |
| 3 | Sacrifice to Kourotrophos, Athene Polias, Aglaurus, Zeus Polieus, Poseidon & possibly Pandrosos at Erchia | |
| 12 | Skira | festival in honor of Athene, Poseidon, Apollon & Demeter; the Tritopatores were worshipped at Marathon on the eve of this festival |
| 14 | Bouphonia | festival in honor of Zeus Poleius; also, Dipolieia |
Ancient Athenian Calendars On Stone; W. Kendrick Pritchett; U.Cal. Press, 1963.
Chronology of the Ancient World, 2nd Edition; E.J. Bickerman; Cornell University Press, 1982.
Festivals of the Athenians; H.W. Parke; Cornell University Press, 1994.
Greek Religion; Walter Burkert; Harvard University Press, 1985.
Handbook to Life in Ancient Greece; Lesley Adkins & Roy A. Adkins; Oxford University Press, 1997.
Religion in the Ancient Greek City; Louise Bruit Zaidman & Pauline Schmitt Pantel; Cambridge University Press, 1992.