chelidonia

CHELIDON´IA(χελιδόνια), a custom observed in the island of Rhodes, in the month of Boëdromion, the time when the swallows returned. During that season boys, called χελιδονισταί, went from house to house collecting little gifts, ostensibly for the returning swallows (χελιδονίζειν), and singing a song which is still extant. (Athen. 8. p. 360; compare Ilgen, Opusc. Phil. 1. p. 164, and Eustath. ad Odyss. xxi. sub fin.) It is said to have been introduced by Cleobulus of Lindus, at a period when the town was in great distress. The chelidonia, which have sometimes been called a festival, seem to have been nothing but a peculiar mode of begging, which on the occasion of the return of the swallows was carried on by boys in the manner stated above. Many analogies may still be observed in various countries at the various seasons of the year.

(χελιδόνια). In the island of Rhodes, when the swallows returned (i. e. in the month Boëdromion), boys, called χελιδονισταί, went from house to house asking gifts, professedly for the swallows, and singing a song that has been preserved in Athenaeus (viii. 360). The practice (χελιδόνια) was said to have been introduced by Cleobulus of Lindus at a time when the town was in great distress.