Anthesteria

The Anthesteria was one of the four <a href="/facts/Athenian_festivals/1GnscEDN">Athenian festivals</a> in honor of <a href="/facts/Dionysus/4kBSl2Kp">Dionysus</a>. It was held each year from the 11th to the 13th of the month of <a href="/facts/Anthesterion/oeNA1VNB">Anthesterion</a>, around the time of the January or February <a href="/facts/Full_moon/NRMWFPh2">full moon</a>. The three days of the feast were called Pithoigia, Choës, and Chytroi.
The festival celebrated the beginning of spring, particularly the maturing of the wine stored at the previous vintage, whose <a href="/facts/Pithoi/JWVBSUPd">pithoi</a> (storage-jars) were now ceremoniously opened. During the feast, social order was interrupted or inverted, the slaves being allowed to participate, uniting the household in ancient fashion. The Anthesteria also had aspects of a <a href="/facts/Festival_of_the_dead/UC3GQaqQ">festival of the dead</a>: either the <a href="/facts/Keres_(mythology)/AD0Tdepc">Keres</a> (Κῆρες) or the Carians (Κᾶρες) were entertained, freely roaming the city until they were expelled after the festival. However, the word Keres is often used to refer spirits of evil instead of the dead. A Greek proverb, employed of those who pestered for continued favors, ran "Out of doors, Keres! It is no longer Anthesteria".

Anthesteria open-in-new

Anthesteria