Rural Customs and Festivals

Greece originally, and still in part, a country of peasants, who cling to old customs; Greek mode of living; significance of agriculture in the festivals; a natural calendar; Demeter, the Corn Mother, and her festivals; festival of autumn sowing--the Thesmophoria; festivals of harvest--the Thalysia and the Kalamaia; the preharvest festival--the Thargelia--and the pharmakos; first fruits and their significance; the bucoliasts; the panspermia and the kernos; cultivation of the olive; the gardening festival--the Haloa; the flower festival--the Anthesteria--the blessing of the new wine, and the Athenian All Souls' Day; vintage festivals; Dionysus and the wine; the phallus; the May bough--the eiresione; the boys carry swallows; other forms of the May branch--the thyrsus and the crown; tenacity of rural customs