The Lenaia () was an annual Athenian festival with a dramatic competition. It was one of the lesser festivals of Athens and Ionia in ancient Greece. The Lenaia took place in Athens in Gamelion, roughly corresponding to January. The festival was in honour of Dionysus Lenaios. Most of all, the festival appears to be an agrarian one. It was celebrated at a crucial time for propitiating the awakening of nature. Specifically, the grape and wine, symbolised by the god himself, his death and reemergence from the underworld. Though, this was not the time of the grape harvest, but rather when the vines were pruned. Beginning in the second half of the 5th century BC, plays were performed (as they were at the City Dionysia festival later in the year). The audiences for the Lenaia were usually limited to the local population, since travel by sea at that time of year was considered unsafe. Metics, however, were apparently allowed to both participate and act as choregoi. Around 442 BC, new comic contests were officially included in the Lenaia, though plays may have been performed there earlier on an informal basis.