thumb|Hetaira|Hetairai at Haloa festival dancing around a giant [[phallus (Oedipus Painter, 480 BC)]] Haloa or Alo (Ἁλῶα) was an Attic festival, celebrated principally at Eleusis, in honour of Demeter (Δήμητρα, η Αλωαίη), protector of the fruits of the earth, of Dionysus, god of the grape and of wine, and Poseidon (Ποσειδώνας ο Φυτάλμιος), god of the seashore vegetation. In Greek, the word hálōs (ἅλως) from which Haloa derives means "threshing-floor" or "garden." While the general consensus is that it was a festival related to threshing—the process of loosening the edible part of cereal grain
thumb|Hetaira|Hetairai at Haloa festival dancing around a giant [[phallus (Oedipus Painter, 480 BC)]] Haloa or Alo (Ἁλῶα) was an Attic festival, celebrated principally at Eleusis, in honour of Demeter (Δήμητρα, η Αλωαίη), protector of the fruits of the earth, of Dionysus, god of the grape and of wine, and Poseidon (Ποσειδώνας ο Φυτάλμιος), god of the seashore vegetation. In Greek, the word hálōs (ἅλως) from which Haloa derives means "threshing-floor" or "garden." While the general consensus is that it was a festival related to threshing—the process of loosening the edible part of cereal grain after harvest—some scholars disagree and argue that it was instead a gardening festival. Haloa focuses mainly on the "first fruits" of the harvest, partly as a grateful acknowledgement for the benefits the husbandmen received, partly as prayer that the next harvest would be plentiful. The festival was also called Thalysia or Syncomesteria.
== The festival == Haloa took place every year, during the month Poseideon (Ποσειδέωνας), after the first harvest was over. The festival took place around the threshing floor (αλώνια) at the same time throughout Attica. All women were expected to attend this event, but men were almost always excluded. Men had a legal and moral expectation to pay for their wives' expenses in these festivities. The strange timing of the harvest festival—mid-winter—is significant as well. The Greeks regarded the festival as sacred to not only Demeter but also to Dionysus. With the inclusion of Dionysus in the festival worship, the date shifted towards the winter as "he possessed himself of the festivals of Demeter, took over her threshing-floor and compelled the anomaly of a winter threshing festival." In many ways, the festival was just as connected, if not more so, with Dionysus than with Demeter. Thus, we see the power and influence of the incoming god and of the importance of wine to Greek cult activity. Practically, Greeks were able to coax out a harvest just early enough to revel with Dionysus.
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