The Ancient Greek Celebrations of Artemis and What They Mean To You

As most of you know, the title of my debut novel is Caenus and The Quiver of Artemis. What you may not know is that I LOVE ARTEMIS!!! She's a bold, take-no-prisoners, huntress!! And, I can dig it! Aggressive women are the spice of life. Twin sister of beloved Apollo, and never far from her silver bow and poisoned arrows, she embodies a grab-life-by-the-horns kind of attitude.

So it comes to the ancient Greek months and festivals that celebrate her. Elaphebolian is the ancient Greek month of roughly Mid-February to Mid-March, while Mounykhion stretched from Mid-March to Mid-April. In any case, what we're talking about is Winter's giving way to Spring.

And as with springtime everywhere, festivals abound. In your town, you may attend Spring Fling or Wing Fling... or it might be a Beer Festival or Azalea Festival... My personal favorite is a local tradition called Greek Festival!! Hmmm, I wonder why...? But, I digress.

The festivals in ancient Greece during Elaphebolion and Mounykhion celebrated our dear Artemis, Moon Goddess, Lady of Beasts.  The festivals included processions, holy purifications, sacrifices,  libations, and feasts. Of course, the feasts had some well cooked venison in honor of the deer slayer. Heck yeah! What's not to like about that?

The spring season of Greek Festivals is commencing soon. In my humble opinion, you should look in your area to see if a Greek Festival is coming, and if so GO BUY YOUR TICKETS!! It will be woth it, I promise.