As part of an effort to continue to produce memes and content that are relevant to the happenings at different stages of the year, Society of Epicurus is joining the initiative of the Epicurus page known as An Epicurean Year. According to its proponent, “the purpose here is to create a rotation of Doctrines, Sayings, other topics and issues to help anyone integrate Epicurean Philosophy into their lives through continuous study and practice” within the Gregorian calendar.

I have gone beyond his initial proposal and added a few celebrations. “An Epicurean year begins in February … because Epicurus’ birthday is in “Gamelion”, which corresponds (more or less) to February”.

Epicureans are known to celebrate the 20th of every month as a “feast of reason”, which is why every 20th defaults to a celebration known as eikas, or “twentieth” in honor of the request made in Epicurus’ will.

JANUARY 20th. “A Feast of Brotherhood”. In his final testament, Epicurus requested that his followers “celebrate, as I have been in the habit of doing myself, the day consecrated to my brothers, in the month of Poseideon”–whichi corresponds to December-January.

FEB 6. Aphrodisia: feast of Aphrodite Urania, the patroness of the Gardens, embodiment of pleasure, and Muse of astronomy and cosmology.

FEB 12. Charles R. Darwin birthday. We celebrate him because his intellectual and scientific legacy contributed greatly to replacing inherited superstition with the study of nature.

FEB 16th. Foundation Day of the Society of Friends of Epicurus.

FEB. 20th. The Birth of the Hegemon (our high holiday: Epicurus’ birthday).

MAR. 20th. “A Feast for Happiness!”, as the UN has declared this to be the International Day of Happiness.

MAR 21th. SoFE celebrates Horace Day. The literary Legacy of Horace, a self-proclaimed “pig of Epicurus’ den”, is celebrated as part of World Poetry Day.

APR 13th. Hitchens – Jefferson Day, a secular holiday proposed by a blogger, where humanist books should be exchanged as gifts.

APR. 20th. This usually also falls around Earth Day, so it’s a celebration of this Earth. At SoFE, we also memorialize our friend Jesús Guevara on this day.

JUNE 20th. Midsummer Feast / Pride.

AUGUST 20. A Feast of Wisdom: the Panathinaia, the Festival of Athena, the Goddess of Philosophy is celebrated in Hellenismos around early August.

AUGUST 24. HERCULANEUM DAY. On this date in the year 79 of Common Era, Mount Vesuvius erupted and the library in Herculaneum was covered in volcanic ash. Epicurean scrolls from the Villa of the Pisos (which contained Philodemus of Gadara’s library) have since been recovered and deciphered. On this day, we celebrate the continued existence of our wisdom tradition by studying and discussing the Philodeman scrolls.

SEPTEMBER 20th. Polyaenus Day. In his final will and testament, Epicurus instituted the celebration of a day consecrated to the memory of his friend Polyaenus, one of the founders of Epicureanism, “in the month of Metageitnion–which corresponds to August-September in our calendar. Polyaenus was known for using potent and efficient proverbs that were full of wisdom, and for the clarity and power of his communication in general.

OCTOBER 19. Philodemus’ library was discovered on this date in 1752.

NOVEMBER 20. SoFE joins World Philosophy Day on the third Thursday in November (formally) and on the closest 20th in November (informally).

DEC 20th. HumanLight, the Humanist Solstice celebration which is embraced by the American Humanist Association and others. At SoFE, we celebrate the Promethean values of the Enlightenment on this “Festival of Lights”.

Please visit the original page for An Epicurean Year for more details on the project.