In ancient Greece, the Daedala (Greek Δάιδαλα) was a festival celebrating the goddess Hera

Hera

Hera was the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon of Greek mythology and religion. Her chief function was as the goddess of women and marriage. Her counterpart in the religion of ancient Rome was Juno. The cow and the peacock were sacred to her...

 celebrated among the Boeotia

Boeotia

Boeotia, also spelled Beotia and Bœotia , is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. It was also a region of ancient Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, the second largest city being Thebes.-Geography:...

ns, particularly the Plataeans. The festival is described by Pausanias

Pausanias (geographer)

Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the times of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece , a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from firsthand observations, and is a crucial link between classical...

 (ix.3.§1 ff) and also by Plutarch

Plutarch

Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...

.

According to legend, Hera was mad at Zeus

Zeus

In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...

 and went off into another country, refusing to be reconciled. Advised by Cithaeron, the wise governor of Plataeae, Zeus announced that he was to be re-married. A statue was made from an oak tree, adorned as a bride and led in a bridal procession. Hera arrives to forestall the re-marriage and, shredding the oak-bride's clothes, realized the ruse; appreciating his cleverness, Hera was reconciled to Zeus.

According to Pausanias, there was a "lesser Daedala" festival celebrated every seven years or so only by the Plataeans, and a "greater Daedala" festival celebrated by all Boeotia

Boeotia

Boeotia, also spelled Beotia and Bœotia , is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. It was also a region of ancient Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, the second largest city being Thebes.-Geography:...

ns every sixty years.

The adorned oak statues are sometimes also called "daedala" (Greek δάιδαλα or δαιδάλεια, "things pertaining to the Daedala") or "Daedalic sculpture".

Other usages

The term "daedala" can also be taken as the feminine version of "Daedalus

Daedalus

In Greek mythology, Daedalus was a skillful craftsman and artisan.-Family:...

", the famed inventor. In this sense, Lucretius

Lucretius

Titus Lucretius Carus was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is an epic philosophical poem laying out the beliefs of Epicureanism, De rerum natura, translated into English as On the Nature of Things or "On the Nature of the Universe".Virtually no details have come down concerning...

speaks of Natura daedala rerum, "Nature, the inventor of all things".