This evening in Rhodes there was a special parade to celebrate the culmination of a three-day festival, the Anthesteria. This is a celebration based on the ancient Greek festival of the same name to honour Dionysus, the god of wine and vegetation. It was celebrated in most Ionian communities, but most of information about the festival comes from Athens, where it was of particular importance. Anthesteria was held annually for three days (11th-13th) in the month of Anthesterion (February-March). Although its name indicates a Festival of Flowers (‘anthe’), the festival focused primarily on opening the new wine and on placating the spirits of the dead.
This festival in Rhodes has been celebrated in late Spring/early Summer for quite a few years and is marked by several activities, such as trade displays, competitions, open air markets, and for the closing evening a street parade with floats, marching bands, drum majorettes and several schools of dance parading down the esplanade. The theme this years was the environment and several floats were decorated with flowers, and many of the children’s costumes had a flora theme. We attended this but were rather disappointed as it seemed poorly organized and the music selected for the parade was extremely inappropriate and much too loud.
However, the children participating seemed to have a good time and the proud parents were all in attendance and cheering them along. We stayed for a while and then made our way back to the hotel, just in time to prepare for dinner. We went out and found a very nice little restaurant with seafood. After a very full day we went back to the hotel and had a very restful night.
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