Anthesteria

The Anthesteria is an Ancient Greek festival of spring celebrated over 3 days the month of Asterion, corresponding to early February. It is a festival of Dionysos's return from the underworld, along with the bringing up the Pithoi (wine vessels) of the new wine which represents Him. At Anthesteria the souls of the dead (those who are between lives) also join us, and it is a time of healing past wounds, not just from this life but from past lives, and purifying the soul and gaining strength for our future progress. The festival is characterised by lots of flowers (representing the purity of the soul, and the spring), drinking wine, the sacred marriage of a priestess- queen to Dionysos (representing both the marriage of the kingdom to the God, and the marriage of the soul to the God), the procession of a ship (representing the progress of the soul, and Poseidon, who rules the natural law of progress as well as the Middle Sky where souls dwell between incarnations according to Orphic philosophy).