Were People Forced to Participate in Foreign Festivals and Ritual Practices?

Primary: 2 Maccabees 6:1–9 · Related: 1 Maccabees 1:41–50 · Period: Antiochus IV

What the ancient record says

2 Maccabees: an elderly Athenian sent to compel abandonment of ancestral customs; the sanctuary profaned, foreign ritual introduced; people forced into participation connected with foreign celebrations, a monthly celebration tied to the king's birthday with compelled sacrificial eating, and a forced procession connected with Dionysus. The issue is coercion (Yashar'al compelled to participate), not foreigners practicing their own customs.

1 Maccabees independently describes a royal program of conformity and abandoning distinctive customs, different narratives, same picture of coercive conformity.