1 CLASSICS 222, some notes to Ogilvie
ROMAN CALENDAR AND RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS

CALENDAR
note that first month of the year was originally March. That's why our twelfth month is called "tenth month" (DECEMber).

Kalends (sacred to Juno) = the first of the month

Nones = the fifth, or in March, May, July and October, the seventh

Ides (sacred to Jupiter) = the thirteenth, or in March, May, July and October, the fifteenth

FESTIVALS
JANUARY (fr. Janus)
1 Consuls take office, sacrifice on Capitol, and set date for Latin Festival.

var. Compitalia [Lararia] shrines at corners of farms hung with woolen dolls for free people, woolen balls for slaves.

in the city, an occasion for politicking among city- block units.

FEBRUARY (perhaps fr. febru, a root meaning "purify")
13-24 Parentalia honoring dead parents as Manes, feeding of their ghosts with ceremonies at their tombs.

15 Lupercalia, in the Lupercal cave on the side of the Palatine. Identity of the god of the Lupercal is uncertain. Two colleges of Luperci (for Romulus and Remus?). They sacrificed odd victims, goats and a dog, feasted, ran through the city almost naked striking those encountered with februa, strips of leather that drove out evil spirits and made barren women fertile. This festival persisted until 494, when Pope Gelasius changed it th the Purification of the Virgin Mary.

MARCH (fr. Mars)
1 Rekindling of the Vestal Fire

14 Horseracing on the Campus Martius

15 First Full Moon. Feast of Anna Perenna. A precursor of the celebration of Easter

1-24 The Salii, carrying the shield that had fallen 2 from heaven and its mates, danced, dined sumptuously, and slept in houses all over the city.

APRIL (fr. Etruscan apru = 2nd, or Latin aperio = open)
4-8 Ludi Megalenses - games in honor of the Magna Mater

21 Parilia, to Pales. Led by the rex sacrorum. People placed on a bonfire in every Curia a mixture of the blood of the October horse and ashes of unborn calves burned the previous week, then jumped over the flames. Festival especially grand because April 21 is also anniversary of the founding of Rome.

28-May 3 Floralia Flora the goddess of the flowering of all plant life. Sibylline books mandated games in her honor in 238 BCE, and these were staged by the aediles in the Circus Maximus.. In the theatres, mimes on the level of striptease shows, A celebration of sex and thus of fertility.

var. The Latin Festival (Feriae Latinae), on the Alban Mount, led by the consuls. Included renewal of treaties among all the Latin states, some of which no longer existed and so required proxies. The tutelary deity was Jupiter Latiaris, the Jupiter who protects all Latium.

MAY (perhaps fr. maius, "greater", so "growth")
Here begins an unlucky time that persists until 15 June.

9, 11, 13 Lemuria Festival of the dead in which hungry ghosts were fed and their evil averted. Householders spat beans and recited formulae in the night.

15 Collection of the rush-puppets. "Off the bridge with the sixty-year-olds".

var. Dea Dia, Ambarvalia and Amburbium

JUNE (fr. Juno)
9-15 Vestalia. On 9th, Temple of Vesta is opened and married women visit. On the 15th, the temple is cleaned and the rubbish thrown into the Tiber.
note: on June 15 ends the unlucky period that began May 1.

24 Fors Fortuna downstream on the Tiber.Festival said to have been founded by Servius Tullius. Even slaves could attend.

JULY, originally QUINCTILIS (fr. Julius Caesar)
6-13 Games of Apollo

AUGUST, originally SEXTILIS (fr. Caesar Augustus)
12 Sacrifice to Hercules at the Ara Maxima. Businessmen dedicate their tithes to Hercules.

13 Festival of Diana on the Aventine founded by Servius Tullius. Originally an attempt to make a religious focus for a federation, like the worship of Artemis at Ephesus. 3 Became an occasion when slaves got the day off.

21 Consualia, to Consus, the storer, who had an underground shrine in the Circus Maximus. This festival was traditionally said to be the occasion for the Rape of the Sabine Women.

SEPTEMBER
5-19 the Roman Games, with procession of images of the gods.

13 Anniversary of dedication of Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus in 507. Feasting before images of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva on couches.

OCTOBER
15 The October Horse. Horse races for Mars, with sacrifice of a winning horse, whose blood was saved for the Parilia.

NOVEMBER
4-17 Plebeian Games, with procession of images of the gods.

13 Feasting before images of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva on couches, as on September 13.

DECEMBER
var. Bona Dea (=Fauna); festival for married women only. Clodius and Caesar's wife.

17ff. Saturnalia!