Dionysos and I have never established an extensive ritual rapport (I am way more of an Apollon groupie), but I had a great time celebrating the Anthesteria last year. As soon as January rolled around, I started thinking about the rituals and what I wanted to do for each one. Last year, the Anthesteria happened from 6 – 9 February; this year, it is from 25 – 28 February. (Thank you, Poseideon II!)
I have reusable fake flowers for Pithoigia, when everything will be decorated with flowers, along with plans to go about six doors down to the local liquor store and buy some cheap ice wine to share with Dionysos. Having tried ice wine at a tasting this summer (wine is an integral part of Upstate NY’s culture), I would like to enjoy it again — but as a warning, it is like drinking grape-flavored sugar. I chose to use fake flowers this year because, at this time of year, Upstate NY is a snow globe.
This year, the Anthesteria will have a particularly raw emotional significance because it has been over one year since my grandfather died. He was in his mid-nineties, and I had just started questioning him about growing up during Prohibition and the Depression, serving in World War II, and everything else. He remembered the Dust Bowl; looking out his New York window, he saw a haze of dust in the west. The death was even more awful because his failure to recuperate from hip surgery was caused by the doctor giving him the wrong kind of anesthesia.
While much of the West now honors the dead during Halloween, Memorial Day, or All Souls’ Day, I have been looking forward to honoring my grandfather and the other dead in my family on Khytroi — especially now that I can make pulse. As I don’t have easy access to my ancestors’ graves, I will make other arrangements with both the pulse on Khytroi and the libations on Khoës. It may also be a good time to read the World War II letters.
Of course, before the Anthesteria, we have the Theogamia (the sacred marriage of Zeus and Hera), the Deipnon, and the basic rituals to the Gods during and after the Noumenia.
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