<P> Because the various towns in Attica held their festivals on different days, it was possible for spectators to visit more than one festival per season . It was also an opportunity for Athenian citizens to travel outside the city if they did not have the opportunity to do so during the rest of the year . This also allowed travelling companies of actors to perform in more than one town during the period of the festival . </P> <P> The comic playwright Aristophanes parodied the Rural Dionysia in his play The Acharnians . </P> <P> The City Dionysia (Dionysia ta en Astei--Διονύσια τὰ ἐν Ἄστει, also known as the Great Dionysia, Dionysia ta Megala--Διονύσια τὰ Μεγάλα) was the urban part of the festival, possibly established during the tyranny of Pisistratus in the 6th century BC . This festival was held probably from the 10th to the 16th of the month Elaphebolion (the lunar month straddling the vernal equinox, i.e., Mar. - Apr in the solar calendar), three months after the rural Dionysia, probably to celebrate the end of winter and the harvesting of the year's crops . According to tradition, the festival was established after Eleutherae, a town on the border between Attica and Boeotia, had chosen to become part of Attica . The Eleuthereans brought a statue of Dionysus to Athens, which was initially rejected by the Athenians . Dionysus then punished the Athenians with a plague affecting the male genitalia, which was cured when the Athenians accepted the cult of Dionysus . This was recalled each year by a procession of citizens carrying phalloi . </P> <P> The urban festival was a relatively recent invention . This ceremony fell under the auspices of the Archons of Athens, rather than the basileus, to whom religious festivals were given when the office of archon was created in the 7th century BC . </P>

Why is there a festival in dionysus honor
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