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Ioannis Vatatzeia (Greek: Ιωάννης Βατάτζηςά, commonly known as John is Giving Days or JohnnysGiving is an Eastern Orthodox Christian occasion to honor the life, deeds and almsgiving of John III Doukas Vatatzes, canonized as Saint John the Merciful, or St. John the Eleemosynary King, and traditions draw on the Roman holiday Felicitanalia which venerated Felicitas in the 1st Century. Vatatzes is known as “Father of the Romans” and is credited with carefully developing the internal prosperity and economy of his realm, encouraging justice and charity, and with establishing the link between classical Hellenic traditions and modern Greeks.  The Ioannis Vatatzeia is a public holiday in parts of Greece on November 4th, and is commemorated without a dedicated liturgy in most Eastern Orthodox Christian traditions.

Byzantine Period
Within ten years after Vatatzes’ death, the Churches of Magnesia, where he died, and Nymphaeum, where he often resided, commemorated his memory annually with a feast day called Ioannis Vatatzeia, which was modeled after the Felicitanalia, a holiday celebrated by Sulla in the 1st Century.

Hellenic Roots
John Vatatzes in known as “Father of the Romans” because of his linkages between the Empire of Nicaea and the Hellenic traditions of Rome and the Byzantine Empire. He was greatly interested in the collection and copying of manuscripts, and William of Rubruck reports that he owned a copy of the missing books from Ovid’s Fasti (poem). Ruburck was critical of the Hellenic traditions he encountered in the Empire of Nicaea, specifically the feast day for Felicitas favored by John Vatatzes, which Risch suggests would have been the Felicitanalia, practiced by Sulla to venerate Felicitas in the 1st Century with an emphasis on inverting social norms, extolling truth and beauty, reciting profane and satirical verse and wearing ornamented "cenatoria", or dinner robes during the day.

The anonymous “vita” of Vatatzes discusses extensively the social, political and religious philosophy which served as the basis for his Hellenic cultural reforms to unite the identity of his kingdom with the history of the Roman Empire. The virtues of “felicitas” and “philanthropia” were the foundation stones of his program, and the Vatatzeia celebrates the juxtaposition of the sacred and the profane, recognizing the transitory nature of life. This was emphasized by the anonymous biographer of whose text was translated first into eighteenth century Greek by Nikodemos Hagioreites.

Alice Gardiner also recorded similar Vatatzeia customs of Magnesian Greeks as late the early 20th Century, including ornamented robes, charity and the giving of alms, and reciting humorous poems,, suggesting the endurance of Vatatzes’ interpretations of Hellenic heritage in modern day Greek identity.

Renaissance
The Eastern Orthodox Christian church has commemorated John III Doukas Vatatzes on November 4th since the 14th Century, though largely without particular liturgy. However, there are two known akolouthia for him including an 1874 copy of an older Magnesian Menaion for the month of November, which shows that by 16th Century, he was well established as, “the holy glorious equal of the Apostles and emperor John Vatatzes, the new almsgiver in Magnesia.” The relevant hymns in the Menaion are preserved in only one known manuscript in the library of the Leimonos monastery on Lesbos, Greece, and include references to the feast day for the almsgiver John Vatazes as Ioannis Vatazeia, known in regionally as the “John is Giving Days” or “JohnnysGiving.”

Modern Day
Ioannis Vatatzeia has largely fallen out of favor since the early 20th Century, though historical records indicate that a version of JohnnysGiving was practiced in the United States by Greek immigrant communities in Richmond and Fredericksburg, Virginia as late as the 1940s.

Customs
Ioannis Vatatzeia (known in the United States as “John is Giving Days” or “JohnnysGiving”) is a festive holiday in which the celebrants wear ornamented robes and recite humorous verse. Common greetings referred to “felicity”, small cakes were often painted red with the motto, “Hic habitat felicitas,” and some variants involved the use of a ceremonial hammer or “passing grail.”