LOS ANGELES STOICS

Calendar

This calendar marks the L.A. Stoics meetings and any special events the group may host. Also included are Stoic holidays inspired by Ancient Greek and Roman festivals and in commemoration of important figures and ideas.

You can find more information about each Stoic holiday by following the links below:

  • Jan. 5th –Symposia [or, Lenaia] (for love and friendship)
  • Jan. 12th – Zenonia (for Zeno)
  • Feb. 13th – Parentalia (for departed role-models)
  • Mar. 17th – Aurelaria (for Marcus Aurelius)
  • April 12th – Catonalia (for Cato)
  • April 19th – Senecalia (for Seneca)
  • [April 26th – Birth of Marcus and Larry]
  • May 12th – Politeia [or, Bendidia] (for justice)
  • May 16th-June 15th – Sokratia (for Socrates)
    • May 16th – The Trial of Socrates
    • Jun. 8th-14th – The Plea of Crito
    • Jun. 15th – The Death of Socrates
  • [First new moon after summer solstice – Attic New Year]
  • Twelve days after Attic New Year – Kronia (for community)
  • Aug. 12th – Epiktetia [or, Herakleia](for Epictetus)
  • Sept. 5th – Rufalia [or, Ludi Romani] (for Musonius Rufus)
  • Oct. 6th – Kleanthia [or, Agyrmos] (for Cleanthes)
  • Oct. 22nd – Khrysippia [or, Pyanopsia] (for Chrysippus)
  • Nov. 22nd – Becker’s Day (for Lawrence Becker)
  • Dec. 7th – Ciceronalia (for Cicero)
  • Dec. 17th – Saturnalia (for community)

Why are moon cycles marked on the calendar?

You’ll notice that every new moon is marked. This is for three reasons:

  1. It’s nice to maintain a connection with ancient Athenians (like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Diogenes, Zeno, etc.) who used a partially lunar calendar, the Attic Calendar, and started each religious month with the new moon.
  2. It’s helpful to remember that many people still use lunar calendars to mark festivals and religious holidays: Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Mongolians, Turks, Nepali, Thai, Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, Hindu, and also Christians (for Easter and the “moveable feasts”).
  3. It’s important to maintain a connection to nature at every opportunity we can; keeping in mind the phases of the moon reminds us of the orderly — what Stoics deem ‘rational’ — processes of nature of which we are a part.

How are the dates of these Stoic holidays established?

For any holidays inspired by Roman festivals, the given Julian calendar date is used. For holidays inspired by Ancient Greek festivals, the Julian calendar is projected backwards (past the year of its invention in 46 BCE) in order to give a fixed modern date to events recorded in the ancient Attic lunisolar calendar. Justin did this in 2019 with the help of a few sources:

  1. A collection of “Moon Phases Tables” courtesy of Fred Espenak, www.Astropixels.com [who himself calculated the dates of ancient new moons using the procedures described in the book Astronomical Algorithms by Jean Meeus (Willmann-Bell, Inc., Richmond, 1998)].
  2. An extensive table of ancient solstices and equinoxes courtesy of www.beda.cz/~jirkaj/seasons/ [which was also created using the Jean Meeus book along with formulas provided by NASA’s website]
  3. A wonderful book called Greek and Roman Calendars (2013) by Robert Hannah (which was used to write the Wikipedia article on the Ancient Attic Calendar).

With all these sources, anyone can calculate which date in the Julian Calendar corresponds to the date in the Attic Calendar in any particular year. For example, they could find that the date of Socrates’s trial (Thargelion 2) in 399 BCE corresponds to May 16th. If the math doesn’t work out the way it’s presented in the calendar, please reach out to Justin (justin@lastoics.com) –he’d want to know.