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*January 12, Festival Sydney
*January 12, Festival Sydney
*January 24 to January 26, [[Sementivae]] (in the country called Paganalia)
*January 24 to January 26, [[Sementivae]] (in the country called Paganalia)
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==Februarius==
==Februarius==

Revision as of 13:15, 26 April 2011

This article is about ancient Roman holidays. For the symphonic poem by Ottorino Respighi, see Feste Romane.

In ancient Roman religion, holidays were celebrated to worship and celebrate a certain god or divine event, and consisted of religious observances and festival traditions, usually with a large feast, and often featuring games (ludi). The most important festivals were the Saturnalia, the Consualia, the Lupercalia and the rites of the Bona Dea. Among the most useful sources for Ancient Roman holidays is Ovid's Fasti, a poem that documents in detail the festivals of January to June at the time of Augustus. Festivals held annually were part of the Roman calendar.

Festivals were also held in ancient Rome in response to particular events, or for a particular purpose such as to assuage or to honour the gods. For example, Livy reports that following the Roman destruction of Alba Longa in the 7th century BC, and the removal of the Alban populace to Rome, it was reported to have rained stones on the Mons Albanus. A Roman deputation was sent to investigate the report, and a further shower of stones was witnessed. The Romans took this to be a sign of the displeasure of the Alban gods, the worship of whom had been abandoned with the evacuation of Alba Longa. Livy goes on to say that the Romans instituted a public festival of nine days, at the instigation either of a 'heavenly voice' heard on the Mons Albanus, or of the haruspices. Livy also says that it became the longstanding practice in Rome that whenever a shower of stones was reported, a festival of nine days would be ordered in response.[1]

By the outset of the nineteenth century and particularly in response to the carnage of the latter years of the French revolution, the term Roman holiday had taken on sinister aspects, implying an event that occasions enjoyment or profit at the expense, or derived from the suffering, of others, as in this passage from Childe Harold's Pilgramage (1812–18) by George Gordon, Lord Byron:

"There were his young barbarians all at play,/There was their Dacian mother—he their sire,/Butchered to make a Roman holiday."[2]

The list of annual Roman festivals that follows below is organized by date. Some of these festivals were instituted in different eras. When possible, the initial date is stated.

Ianuarius

  • January 1, Kalends Ianuarius
  • January 2, Compitalia
  • January 9, the first Agonalia, in honor of the god Janus, after whom the month January is named and to whom the Romans prayed for advice.
  • January 11 and January 15, Carmentalia
  • January 12, Festival Sydney
  • January 24 to January 26, Sementivae (in the country called Paganalia)

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Februarius

Martius

Aprilis

Maius

Iunius

Iulius

Augustus

September

October

November

December

See also

References

  1. ^ Livy, Ab urbe condita, 1:31
  2. ^ "Cruelty". The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase, Saying, and Quotation, 2nd edition. Susan Ratcliffe, ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002,109-110.
  3. ^ Fowler, William Warde (1899). The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic. Google Book Search: MacMillan and Co. p. 240. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

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