TRUTHS!

That is what I plan to do on this Blog, to teach the TRUTH to all my (Jews and Gentiles) to all my sisters and children, like a MOTHER would teach her Child/Children. I have researched and studied for the truth, using the 1611 King James Bible, Apocrypha, Strong’s Expanded Concordance and multiple of Historical Books. Also, I’ve studied the Greek and Hebrew languages and writings and I believe that I’ve found the TRUTH, which has been hidden from our forefathers. “Even though you may receive your foundation from a group, camp, or organization, with all due respect, there is no group, camp, or organization that anyone can join, everyone must seek and decipher the truth on their own.” I hope my findings will help those who are sincerely searching for the truth. All Praises to the Most High Ahayah Asher Ahayah Bahasham Yashaya Wa Qadash Rawach! Shami Yasharahla Ahayah Ahlahayah Nawa Ahayah Achaad! Hear O Israel The Most High Our Power is One Most High! QAM YASHARAHLA!

Holy by Matt Gilman

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Carnival Once a Year - A Caribbean BACCHANAL Festival - What is the Origin of BACCHANAL?

Ahayah Yashiya's Blog

CARNIVAL COMES once a year - a time for merriment and fun, dancing, drinking, singing and women. How did this festival start in the first place?


Bacchanal is a feast to Bacchus (Dionysus). It is named for the Roman god of wine.
Self-Portrait as  Bacchus, 1593-94

Word Origin & History

Bacchanalia


"drunken revelry," 1630s, from the name of the Roman festival held in honor of Bacchus, from L. neut. pl. of bacchanalis. A participant is a Bacchant (1690s), fem. Bacchante, from French. Bacchanalian (adj., 1620s)
 
 rubens-bacchanal
 
The Bacchanalia were Roman festivals of Bacchus, the Greco-Roman god of wine, freedom, intoxication and ecstasy. They were based on the Greek Dionysia and the Dionysian mysteries, and probably arrived in Rome c. 200 BC via the Greek colonies in southern Italy, and from Etruria, Rome's northern neighbour. Like all mystery cults, the Bacchanalia were held in strict privacy, and initiates were bound to secrecy; what little is known of the cult and its rites derives from Greek and Roman literature, plays, statuary and paintings.
 

Terminology

Bacchus and Dionysus are interchangeable names of the same deity. Bakchos was his common Greek name and his followers were called Bacchoi. The Roman adaptation was Bacchus. Dionysus also derived from Greek was a term for “son of Zeus.” The Cult of Dionysus and the rites of his mysteries were practiced in both public festivals and in more secretive bacchanals.
 


His later Bacchus is exotic, Japanese-looking, white, soft and effeminate. His Self-Portrait is unclean, sickly perhaps indicative of the influence wine had in his personal life contributing to his propensity for getting into trouble.
 
 
Bacchanalia Iconography


Besides his unusual retinue, Bacchus had special attributes and symbols.


bacchus-ariadne Bacchanal

The Dithyramb was poetry in choral song and dance praising Dionysus and essential in the ritual. Maenads sang and danced and satyrs played musical instruments (tambourine, pipes, clappers) thereby enhancing the intoxication of the wine. Loud music provided passion in the reverie and created the spirit of wild abandon.

 

The thyrsos was the iconic fertility symbol of the Cult of Dionysus heralding the Bacchic celebration. It was carried by either Bacchus or Maenads. The thyrsos was a staff tipped with a pine cone and sometimes wrapped in ivy or grape leaves.

Goats were Dionysus’ sacrificial animal. They are present in most bacchanal scenes usually being restrained by the horns or ridden by satyr-putti trying to protect the tender grape leaves from being eaten. Roman poet, Virgil said, “Beware of the rough-toothed goat.” Goat skins were used to hold wine.

Snakes sometimes in Bacchic celebrations were possibly from Minoan tradition as symbols of rebirth and rejuvenation because snakes shed their skins. In ancient periods in this context they were not symbols of evil.

Masks relevant to Greek theater were important attributes of Dionysus.

Leopard skins were worn by Dionysus and he traveled by chariot pulled by lions. Wild cats with their capricious behavior symbolized Dionysus’ irrational wild nature. Hunt animals as dogs referred to the story of Dionysus driving lions from Mt. Nysa.

History of the Cult of Dionysus and Bacchanal

The origin of the Cult of Dionysus is unknown. Fertility worship was prevalent in early Bronze Age Mediterranean area. Scholars postulate that some Bacchic elements may have their source in cultures of Asia Minor (Phrygian, Lydian) and in the Minoan civilization of Crete. It has been substantiated that by 1250 BCE, Dionysus was accepted as a god and rituals were part of Mycenaean religion.

 
Bacchanalia Celebration in Greco- Roman World – “Wine, Women and Song”
 


Bacchanal

The actual ritual practice of the bacchanal in the Greco-Roman world varied by region and cannot be described with singular complete certainty because the mysteries were not written down and were known only to the Bacchoi. However some Bacchic characteristics were known and universal. It was celebrated at night, outside in a wooded location lit by torches and led by Bacchantes (priestesses) and Bacchants (priests).

The thyrsos (reed and pine cone) was carried by the celebrants. Women were essential members of the Bacchoi in the role of Maenads or Bacchantes. Sometimes they practiced animal sacrifice but it is doubtful Maenads tore animals apart in wild frenzy. Music was another necessary element of the rite and it was used in the dithyramb praises of Dionysus in song and dance. Loud rhythmic sounds intensified the euphoria.

Wine liberally drunk gave Bacchoi the exultant power of feeling divine. Wine meant that the god was not only outside them, but when consumed he was within them too. Sexual involvement may have been a component of the activity but it was not a necessary inclusion in the ceremony. The reverie of “wine, women and song” was important because it represented Dionysus’ wild spiritual release and freedom. The Bacchanal was practiced by people of all social classes, but it was especially popular with the disadvantaged because it didn’t require expensive votives, women could participate and worshippers did not need a temple.

Zürich_-_Seefeldquai_-_A__Meyer_Bacchanlia_IMG_1923


The Bacchanalia, or Dionysia, were initially attended only by women, and later men were permitted to join. What started as a celebration three days each year later became a weekly, or even prolonged event.

Women abandoned their families and took to the hills to perform their festive rites. They danced to flute and drum, dressed in skins and leaves. While under the god's inspiration, they were believed to possess occult powers. There was a wild orgiastic meal where there was free use of wine to produce ecstasy, and animals were ripped apart with bare hands and devoured by the participants through their supernatural powers supplied by the god. The celebrations had such a bad reputation for orgies that by 186 BCE, they were outlawed in Rome, but they were still practiced in secret for over 700 more years. To this day, the word 'bacchanal' is still used to describe a drunken orgy.

Nicolas_Poussin_-_Bacchanal_before_a_Statue_of_Pan_
 
 
 Modern Day Bacchanal



Theology of Bacchanalia

Worship in the Bacchanal had obvious pleasurable orgy-like aspects, but it was the Cult’s theology that made Dionysus such an important god in ancient societies. Dionysus, a fertility deity, was life and rebirth. He was the vine painfully and severely pruned, left as bare stock to emerge alive again in joyful resurrection. He had rescued his mother from death. He was assurance that death didn’t end all. He was the expectation that the soul lived on forever. A poignant reference to this was in a letter written by the Greek writer, Plutarch, 80 CE, to his wife after news of the death of his little daughter:
 
Church 'saving' festivals
 
The Catholic Church, in its early days, was busy converting pagan festivals into Christian observances. Christmas and Easter are two popular examples. The Church, in observing the Lenten season, opted for abstinence from meat, to remember the lean times that our Lord experienced in the wilderness.

The festival which was celebrated before Lent was the Carnival. The word carnival can be traced back to its medieval origins. Carnem lavare or carnele varium both meant to take away or remove meat. It was a time to have a final fling before the lean times, when no fun or partying would be allowed. In the Catholic regions of Europe, the clergy demanded a strict break with pre-Christian ideas and practices, but the customary ceremonies and symbols were adapted with a Christianized reinterpretation.

Lovis_Corinth_Heimkehrende_Bacchanten_1898
 
Modern Day Bacchanal
  
Carnival takes all
 
Bacchanalia had always been the most popular festival practiced by the peasants and it was incorporated into the pre-Lenten carnival. The noise and music were originally to drive harmful spirits away, the masks in the masquerade were to transform the bearers into supernatural beings, ceremonial fire and various individual abstentions were to ensure the success of magic acts. All of these elements were carried over into the carnival, along with the drunken orgies for which Bacchanalia was infamous.

Sarcophagus_with_Scenes_of_Bacchus_
 
Carnival has always been a standard celebration in Roman Catholic countries, but how did it take the Caribbean? Once the University of the West Indies (UWI) opened in 1948, the crossover of cultures began. Some of our small-island neighbours introduced us to carnival.

 Titian_Andrians Bacchanal

First, there was UWI Carnival, which was later followed by Orange Carnival, Oakridge Carnival, Caribbean Carnival, Bacchanal and among many others.
 
Modern Day Bacchanal
 

Trini Dictionary
 
Bacchanal - party atmosphere; arguments, confusion e.g. "If dey find out, it will be rel bacchanal."

Bac·cha·na·li·a

/ˌbækhttp://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/dictionary/graphics/luna/thinsp.pngəˈneɪhttp://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/dictionary/graphics/luna/thinsp.pnglihttp://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/dictionary/graphics/luna/thinsp.pngə, -ˈneɪlhttp://static.sfdict.com/dictstatic/dictionary/graphics/luna/thinsp.png/ Show Spelled [bak-uh-ney-lee-uh, -neyl-yuh]

Noun, plural Bac·cha·na·li·a, Bac·cha·na·li·as.

1. (Sometimes used with a plural verb) a festival in honor of Bacchus.

2. a drunken feast; orgy.



Bacchus  (ˈbækəs)
 
n

(in ancient Greece and Rome) a god of wine and giver of ecstasy, identified with Dionysus

 

[C15: from Latin, from Greek Bakkhos ; related to Latin bāca  small round fruit, berry]


or·gy
noun \ˈȯr-jē\
: a wild party and especially one in which many people have sex together
: something that is done too much and in a wild way
 
Full Definition of ORGY

1: secret ceremonial rites held in honor of an ancient Greek or Roman deity and usually characterized by ecstatic singing and dancing

2
a :  drunken revelry

b :  a sexual encounter involving many people; also :  an excessive sexual indulgence

3:  excessive indulgence in something especially to satisfy an inordinate appetite or craving <an orgy of destruction> a national orgy of thrill seeking and risk taking.

 

Galatians 5:19-21

King James Version (KJV)
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.



A MESSAGE TO ALL CARIBBEAN/WEST INDIANS, As Children of the Most High Ahayah, we have to STOP celebrating these PAGAN FESTIVALS.
 
Carnival is foreign to our birth countries, our culture and our faith.
 
We MUST NOT support it.
 
 

 

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