The annual Festival of Ishtar is celebrated by many Wiccans in honor of the Assyrian-Babylonian goddess of love, fertility, and battle. As a Triple Goddess, Ishtar represents birth, death, and rebirth.
On this day, an annual masquerade ritual is held by the Bobo people of Africa to restore the balance of Nature and to ward off evil spirits. Special prayers and offerings are made to the gods of rain and the gods of the harvest.