Liber ab Solemnitas (The Book of Holidays)^183
Persephone. Participation was only allowed after eight days of abstinence
from sex with men prior to the holiday. The Stenia was the opening
celebration of the Thesmophoria in which women jokingly taunted each
other and symbolically whipped each other with branches, working
themselves into frenzied ecstatic dances.
Pyanepsion 9–14 Thesmophoria—Festival in honor of Demeter which was participated
in by women only. Although one did not need to be married to attend
anything except the opening rites (Stenia), men were still not welcome.
To participate, women had to be abstain from sex with men for nine
days prior to the festival. On the second day of Thesmophoria, the women
shared communal baths in the sea. A modern interpretation might be
swimming in local ponds or even sharing a hot tub. Offerings of fruit and
pork are made feasts of bread and baked goods are exchanged. The rot-
ting food that remains in the temple from the previous offerings at the
Skirophoria are collected and ground into fertilizer for future grain crops,
especially barley. During the Thesmophoria, women remained barefoot
and did not brush their hair or adorn themselves to share Demeter’s
loss. On the final day, they return home and bless their children.
Pyanepsion 14 Full Moon celebration.
Pyanepsion 27 Sacred to all Chthonian deities.
Pyanepsion 28 Sacred to all Chthonian deities.
Pyanepsion 29 Khalkeia—Festival to honor Hephaestus and Athena.
Dark Moon—Sacred to Hecate and all Chthonian deities.Maimakterion—November—October 18—November 16
Maimakterion actually begins on the fifth new moon after Summer SolsticeMaimakterion 1 Noumenia—Celebration of the new moon.
Maimakterion 2 Sacred to Agathos Daimon.
Maimakterion 3 Sacred to the Three Graces and Athena.
Maimakterion 4 Sacred to Aphrodite, Hermes, Hercules, Eros.
Maimakterion 6 Sacred to Artemis.
Maimakterion 7 Sacred to Apollo.
Maimakterion 8 Sacred to Poseidon.
Maimakterion 14 Pompaia—Festival to honor Zeus takes place on the day of the full moon.
Maimakterion 20 Maimakteria—Festival honoring Zeus and asking him for a fair Winter.
Men wore women’s clothing and pretended to be the Horae. Both men
and women covered their faces with see-through fabric as a sign that the
veil between Winter and Summer is thin. Probably the origin of the ex-
pression used at Samhain that the veil between worlds is at the thinnest.r WB Chap 10.p65 183 7/11/2003, 5:54 PM