An the ste ria (an the ste ria)

pl. [Gr. Ἀνθεστήρια, the feast of flowers, in the month of Avθεστηριών: see A nth ester i on.] In Gr. antiq., the festival of flowers, the third in order of the Attic feasts in honor of Dionysus. The observance lasted for three days, about the middle of the month of A nth ester i on (or toward the 1st of our March), and celebrated the opening of spring and the ripening of the wine of the previous season. The people wore garlands of the brilliant anemones which deck the Attic plain at that season, and certain mystic ceremonies and sacrifices were performed by prieste es in the guise of bacchantes.