"
At Athens the first eight days of every month were marked
by specified demonstrations of the citizens' piety toward the deities of the
city-state's official cults. The third day of each month, for example, was
celebrated as Athena's birthday and the sixth as that of Artemis, the god-
dess of wild animals, who was also the special patroness of the Athenian
Council of Five Hundred. Artemis's brother, Apollo, was honored on the
following day. Athens boasted of having the largest number of religious
festivals in all of Greece, with nearly half the days of the year featuring
one, some large and some small. Not everyone attended all the festivals,
and hired laborers' contracts stated how many days off they received to
attend religious ceremonies. Major occasions such as the Panathenaic festi-
val, whose procession probably was portrayed on the Parthenon frieze, at-
tracted large crowds of women and men. The Panathenaic festival honored
Athena not only with sacrifices and parades but also with contests in music,
dancing, poetry, and athletics. Valuable prizes were awarded to the winners.
Some religious rituals were for women only; one famous women-only gath-
ering was the three-day festival for married women in honor of the goddess
Demeter, the protector of agriculture and life-giving fertility.
"

Text from 
	Ancient Greece - From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times
	(Thomas R. Martin, 2nd edition, p. 162)