The 'Day of the Pots'

On the third day of the Anthesteria, the 'day of the pots', a meal was made and offered to Hermes of the Underworld, on behalf of the dead. This was a day when the spirits of the dead roamed around the earth. People smeared their doorways with pitch, a black, tar-like substance, to stop the ghosts from entering their house. When the day was over, the householder would go around his house saying 'Get out goblins, the Anthesteria is over!'.