{{Short description|Public celebrations featuring a phallus}} [[File:Kanamara-mikoshi2.jpg|right|thumb|Steel and fiberglass phallus ''mikoshi'' (parade floats) (in the foreground and back right, respectively) at Kanamara Matsuri in Kawasaki, Japan. These are two of the three ''matsuri'' carried in the festival.]] '''Phallic processions''' are public celebrations featuring a phallus, a representation of an erect penis.
==Ancient Greece== Called ''phallika'' in ancient Greece, these processions were a common feature of Dionysiac celebrations; they advanced to a cult center, and were characterized by obscenities and verbal abuse.<ref name="Dunkle">[http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/links.html Dunkle, Roger] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070822065038/http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/links.html |date=2007-08-22 }} ''[http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/dunkle/comedy/komos.htm The origins of comedy] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080324082204/http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/dunkle/comedy/komos.htm |date=2008-03-24 }}'' in ''Introduction to Greek and Roman Comedy''</ref> The display of a fetishized phallus was a common feature.<ref>Pickard-Cambridge 1962, 144–62</ref><ref>Reckford 1987, 443–67</ref> In a famous passage in chapter 4 of the ''Poetics'', Aristotle formulated the hypothesis that the earliest forms of comedy originated and evolved from "those who lead off the phallic processions", which were still common in many towns at his time.<ref name="Dunkle"/><ref>''Poetics'', 1449a10-13 quotation: {{quotation|Be that as it may, Tragedy - as also Comedy - was at first mere improvisation. The one originated with the authors of the Dithyramb, the other with those of the phallic songs, which are still in use in many of our cities.}}</ref><ref>Mastromarco, Giuseppe: (1994) ''Introduzione a Aristofane'' (Sesta edizione: Roma-Bari 2004). {{ISBN|88-420-4448-2}} p.3</ref>
==Modern Greece== The city of Tyrnavos holds an annual festival, a traditional phallophoric event on the first days of Lent.<ref>[http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,553070,00.html ''The Annual Phallus Festival in Greece''], Der Spiegel, English edition, Retrieved on 15-12-08</ref>
In August 2000, to promote a production of Aristophanes' ''The Clouds'', a traditional Greek phallic procession was organized, with a {{convert|25|ft|m|sing=on}} long phallus paraded by the cast with the accompaniment of Balkan music; the phallic device was banned by the staff of the Edinburgh Festival. {{Citation needed|date=August 2017}}
==Japan== {{unreferenced|section|date=June 2025}} Similar parades of Shinto origin have long been part of the rich traditions of ''matsuri'' (Japanese festivals). Although the practice is no longer common, a few, such as Kawasaki's Kanamara Matsuri and Komaki's Hōnen Matsuri, continue to this day. Typically, the phallus is placed in a ''mikoshi'', a portable Shinto shrine.
==See also== *Fertility rite *Kukeri *Liberalia (Roman festival)
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==Bibliography== *Richardson, N. J., ''The Homeric Hymn to Demeter''. Oxford, 1974, pp. 214–15 *O’Higgins, Laurie, ''Women and Humor in Classical Greece.'' Cambridge, 2003. p. 57 *For the outrageous practice of "abuse from the wagons" see Fluck, H., ''Skurrile Riten in griechischen Kulten.'' Diss. Freiburg. Endingen, 1931., pp. 34–51 *Pickard-Cambridge, Arthur, Dithyramb, Tragedy, and Comedy. 2nd edition, rev. by T.B.L. Webster. Cambridge, 1962. *Reckford, Kenneth, Aristophanes’ Old-and-New Comedy. Chapel Hill, 1987. pp. 463–65 *[Ralph M. Rosen] (2006) ''[http://repository.upenn.edu/classics_papers/29/ Comic Aischrology and the Urbanization of Agroikia]'', pp. 219–238 *''[http://phoenixandturtle.net/excerptmill/cornford.htm The Problem of Origins] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080330064938/http://phoenixandturtle.net/excerptmill/cornford.htm |date=2008-03-30 }}'' in Cornford, F. M. the Origin of Attic Comedy. Ed. T. H. Gaster. Intro Jeffrey Henderson. Ann Arbor: U of MI P, 1993. *Eric Csapo ''[https://www.jstor.org/stable/1192539 Riding the Phallus for Dionysus: Iconology, Ritual, and Gender-Role De/Construction]'' Phoenix, Vol. 51, No. 3/4 (Autumn–Winter, 1997), pp. 253–295 {{doi|10.2307/1192539}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080324082204/http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/dunkle/comedy/komos.htm The Origins of Comedy] from the Central University of New York *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080217225113/http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/JO-RD.html THE RURAL DIONYSIA] of Apollonius Sophistes *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080331193653/http://www.kingmixers.com/Clouds.html ARISTOPHANES CLOUDS]
Category:Ancient Greek religion Category:Cult of Dionysus Category:Phallic symbols Category:Processions