Roman Festivals Calendar 🗓️📜

In some accounts Tellus was honored between 24-26 January with Ceres honored a week later, around 2 February.

See also 30 March.

A preistess of Vesta conducted a rite for the collective Di Parentes of Rome at the tomb of Tarpeia. A second Faunalia Rustica festival was held in the countryside on 5 December.

In private, at family shrines in homes, offerings were made to family ancestors.

In public magistrates did not wear their togas of office, no marriages were performed and temples remained closed until the final day.

According to Roman mythology a Lupercal (female wolf) found Romulus and Remus (twin sons of Mars and priestess Rhea Silvia) on the banks of the River Tiber and suckled them at the Lupercal cave at the foot of Palatine Hill where they later founded Rome on the Palatine in 753 BCE.

Starting at the Lupercal cave two goats, a dog and sacred cakes are sacrificed. The sacrificial blood was smeared over two teams of young nobles (Luperci) wearing only the skins of the sacrificed goats. They ran from the Lupercal around the Palatine striking women on the hands with with strips of sacrificial goatskin to promote fertility. Much revelry was reported. Lupercalia was one of the most important ancient Roman festivals.

Various accounts indicate the dance and feast may have been repeated on the 9th and 23rd March or every day until 24th March. See also 23 March, 29 May and 19 October.

Matronalia was one of the most popular Roman festivals celebrated with gifts being exchanged between friends and family with feasting, gambling, revelry, music and dancing in the streets.

This Roman holiday was celebrated by men and women with dancing, revelry and drinking as many cups of wine as the number of years they pray to live. One of the most important Roman festivals.

Four Agonaliae Roman festivals were held during the year, the other three were held on 9 January, 21 May and 11 December. This Agonalia was held on the day boys came of age, around sixteen years old. Boys would leave their purple childhood toga on the altar at home and wear the toga virilis “toga of manhood” to attend the Agonalia as men.

Later his consort, Libera, was added. Old women, acting as Liber Pater’s priestesses, wearing ivy wreaths, would sacrifice oil and honey cakes to Liber Pater on behalf of attendees.

Liber Pater and Libera represented the respective male and female seed and a large Phallus was paraded around the countryside after which a wreath was placed on it by a virtuous matron at a rustic ceremony.

An earlier separate festival for Bacchus (Dionysus) was incorporated into Liberalia.

An ewe (female lamb) was sacrificed for the lustration (ceremonial washing) of the trumpets and 24 Salii (a priesthood of youthful male patricians, devoted to Mars), wearing archaic Roman war dress beating the sacred shields of Mars, performed ritual dances, and chanting the Carme Saliare in procession through the streets. After the parade the Salii hosted a feast which marked the end of the festival to Mars and start of preparations for the military campaigning season ahead.

A second Tubilustrium was held on 23 May. See also 1st and 9th March.

See also 1 March, 29 May and 19 October.

The pine tree effigy of Attis (felled 22 March) was ceremonially placed in its tomb and “the sacred night” followed.

Megalesia started with the sacrifice of the moretum (dish of herbs) by a Praetor or aedile (magistrate). The Galii (eunuch priests of Cybele) then carried her crowned image through the city to the sound of flutes, tambourines, cymbals and horns. The Galii beat themselves bloody in an ecstatic ritual so strange citizens were not allowed to walk in the procession. Sumptuous feasts were hosted by the city’s aristocrats.

In common with some other rituals one was performed by the state and mirrored in Rome’s curiae. In the public state Fordicidia sacrifice the unborn calf was torn from its mother’s womb, by the attendants of the Virgo Vestalis Maxima (high priestess of Vesta) or Vestal Maxima, and burnt so the fertility of the cattle passes into the earth. The ashes of the burnt calves were kept by the Vestal Virgins, for use in the the Parilia on 21 April.

The Fordicidia, along with many other Republican Roman festivals had disappeared in 354 CE calendar as Christianity spread across the Roman empire.

The 30 curiae “districts” each had their own bonfire and outdoor feasts. At first light in the countryside sheep pens were cleaned and decorated with greenery and wreaths where placed at their entrances. A bonfire was made of olive and pine wood, onto which laurel branches were thrown and if they crackled it was taken as a good omen. Sulfur was also added to the bonfire and the sheep were led through the sulfur-tinged smoke to purify them against disease.

The shepherds then made offerings of millet cakes and milk to Pales followed by a prayer, recited four times while facing east, asking for forgiveness for any unintentional transgressions against Pales and asking protection for his flock from disease and wolves and prosperity for the year ahead. The shepherd would then wash his hands in the morning dew, drink warm milk or wine and leap through the bonfire.

In the city of Rome a public ceremony was conducted by the Rex Sacrorum who added the ashes from the sacrifices of the calves at Fordicalia on 12 April and the blood from the horse sacrificed at the Equus October (October Horse) on 15 October to the bonfire before the leaping of the shepherds starts.

A temple, on the Velian, in honor of Venus Felix and Roma Aeterna, was consecrated in 121 CE (dedicated around 136 CE). The Romaea festival included chariot races in the Circus Maximus.

The origin of the festival predates the founding of Rome and was held into the third century CE and maybe beyond. It was a movable feast, the date decided by the consuls each year on taking up office. At some point in history it took place over 3-4 days in April on the Alban Mount.

Venus was patron of wine intended for human use (vinum spurcum) and wine jars from the previous year’s pressing were opened and sampled by both men and women alike.

Prostitutes (meretrices) and common girls (vulgares puellae) gathered at Venus Erycina’s Colline temple to offer Venus mint, myrtle and rushes concealed in bunches of roses in return for “beauty and popular favor” and to be made “charming and witty”.

The presiding Roman consul offered a libation of milk, sacrificed a pure white heifer that had never been yoked, the flesh was eaten as a sacrament during a communal meal.

In a women-only ritual Bona Dea’s priestess (called the Damniatrix) sacrificed a sow (known as the Damium) to the goddess called Damia (associated with Fauna) at Bona Dea’s temple on Aventine hill decorated with healing herbs and snakes.

Women made offerings of wine (called milk), carried into the temple in honey pots, and adorned the head of the goddess’ statue with vine leaves.

The origin of the festival was lost, even to the Romans, by 1 BCE but they keep up the tradition anyway!

Three3 Vejovis Roman festivals are held each year, the other two are on 1 January and 7 March.

Four Agonaliae Roman festivals were held during the year, the other three were held on 9 January, 17 March and 11 December.

The pontifices (high priests) of Rome, tribuni celerum (cavalry commanders) and army representatives gathered in the open air comitium (assembly).

An ewe (female lamb) was sacrificed for the lustration (ceremonial washing) of the trumpets and 24 Salii (a priesthood of youthful male patricians, devoted to Mars), wearing archaic Roman war dress beating the sacred shields of Mars, performed ritual dances, and chanted the “Carme Saliare” in procession through the streets. After the parade the salii hosted a feast.

The first Tubilustrium was held on 23 March.

Her temple complex, on the coast in the city of Praeneste about 20 miles south-east of Rome, rivaled Delphi. She was worshipped in Praeneste before several temples to Fortuna Primigenia were built in Rome. The largest was dedicated to Fortuna Publica Populi Romani Quiritium Primigenia (First-born Fortuna of the Roman Nation, its People and Citizens) on 25 May 194 BCE.

See also 13 November.

See also 1st and 23rd March and 19 October.

In 17 BCE Augustus transformed the games into the Ludi Saeculares to celebrate the beginning of a new age based on the “saeculum” (longest human lifespan) set to 110 years. A new choral hymn, the Carmen Saeculare, by Horace was commissioned which formed the blueprint for subsequent Ludi Saeculares held during:
47 CE: Claudius changed the length of the saeculum to 100 years so the games coincided with Rome’s 800th birthday.
88 CE: Domitian used Claudius’ 100 saeculum but hold the games 100 years after Augustus.
204 CE: Septimius Severus in AD 204 held the games 2×110 year saecula after Augustus.
248 CE: Philippus (Philip the Arab) used Claudius’ 100 year saeculum to held the games on the 1000th anniversary after the founding of Rome, which was the last recorded Ludi Saeculares.

As prophesied Valesius found an altar buried underground and performed sacrifices over three successive nights, one for each child. These formed the basis for the sacrifices, to both Greek and Roman deities, in the reworked secular games.

• Day 1: Jupiter Optimus Maximus; 2 bulls
• Day 2: Juno Regina; 2 cows
• Day 3: Apollo and Diana; 27 sacrificial cakes (9x three types).

Night-time sacrifices to Greek deities on the Campus Martius:

• Night 1: The Moirai (Fates); 9 female lambs and 9 female goats
• Night 2: Eileithyia: 27 sacrificial cakes (9x three types)
• Night 3: Terra Mater; Pregnant sow.

Only free women in their first marriage were allowed to offer sacrifices of cakes baked in earthenware pots and prayers for the welfare of their nephews and nieces to Mater Matuta.

Symbolically one female slave was admitted into the temple, struck with a blow to the cheek, then driven out of the temple to encourage women to take care of their nephews and nieces rather than leave them in the care of slaves.

Tradition says if it rains on this day it will be a wet summer.

During the 5th century BCE Rome was attacked by Cnaeus Marcius Coriolanus and the married women, including his mother Veturia, wife and two children, came out of Rome and pleaded with him to spare the city which he did and built a temple to Fortuna Muliebris on the spot, which was dedicated on 6th July.

The procession stopped at the Temple of Castor and Pollux in the Forum Romanum then continued to the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the Capitoline Hill. The ceremony lapsed but was revived by Augustus and may also have included a probatio equorum (review of the horses).

The cult of Isis spread across the Roman world during the Hellenistic period after 323 BCE and was popular in Rome from early empire 19-65 CE and endured through to its inclusion in the 354 CE Roman calendar until Christianity took over.

Private observances were made by the head of the household along with public rites at Diana’s temple, founded by Servius Tullius in 6 BCE, on the Aventine Hill. Slaves were allowed to attend Nemoralia festival and could seek asylum in the temple.

Women who believed their prayers to Diana had been answered joined a torchlight procession to Diana’s sacred grove on the northern side of Lake Nemi, near Ariccia, south of Rome in the evening. Earlier Nemoralia included ritual hair washing by women.

At the Circus Maximus the Rex Sacrorum (king of the sacred) made a ceremonial parade lap on a chariot around the Circus Maximus followed by ludi circenses (chariot racing). The chariots were pulled by both horses and mules because both animals were sacred to Consus.

Additionally horses, mules or asses were not worked during Consualia and were adorned with flowers and garlands.

The second Consualia festival to mark the end of the harvest and onset of winter was held on 15 December.

The Mundus was also opened on 5 October and 8 November.

The games opened with a pompa (solemn procession) from the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill to the Circus Maximus. A chariot race with driver and warrior followed. At the end of the chariot race the warrior leaps off and continues running on foot, as if running into battle. There were also horse riding exhibitions.

There was another less elaborate Epulum Jovis held on 13 November during the Ludi Plebeii.

King Tullus Hostilius ordered two altars to be erected. Sacrifices to Juno Sororia, associated with the puberty of girls, and Janus Curiatius, associated with boys reaching manhood, were offered and rites associated with adolescent rites of passage performed. Publius Horatius was then made to pass under the beam with his head covered every year in atonement for his crime.

The festival may have been a political gesture to compensate the plebians, who favored Ceres, over the new patrician cult of Magna Mater. By the time of Augustus the festival had become an annual event. Originally held in Spring.

The other two dates the Mundus was opened were 24 August and 8 November.

The original games were held annually and organized by Capitolini priests to honor Jupiter Capitolinus. The games were anti-Etruscan. Etruscan captives were sold by auction and an old man, wearing a praetexta (child’s toga) and a bulla (amulet) like Etruscan kings was ridiculed.

Over time the original Capitoline games declined and were replaced by Domitian in 86 CE with a Roman version of Greek Olympic style games held every five years with prizes for strength, agility and literary compositions keenly contested by athletes, poets, orators, historians, magicians and comedians with rewards and crowns bestowed by the Emperor himself.

The Plebeian games opened with a procession of priests and magistrates from the Capitoline through the Forum along the via sacra to the Circus Maximus.

The other two dates the Mundus was opened were 24 August and 5 October.

There was another more elaborate Epulum Jovis held on 13 September during the Ludi Romani.

It’s probable that the Tibernalia Roman festival was a result of dedications made to Tiberinus by emperors Diocletian and Maximianus. There’s also a Tiberinalia festival on 8 December.

Seven sacrifices were made in seven different places, one on each hill. Feasts and chariot races were also part of the festivities. During the Republic, horse-drawn carriages were not used on this day.

Like grain storage vaults the altar to Consus was underground, at the Circus Maximus, and only uncovered during Consualia. The Flamen Quirinalis and the Vestal Virgins set up the altar to Consus and other ancient agricultural deities such as Segesta and Tutilina and made offerings of the first fruits of the harvest to the gods before covering the altar.

Above ground the Rex Sacrorum (king of the sacred) made a ceremonial parade lap on a chariot around the Circus Maximus after which chariot races were held. The chariots were pulled by both horses and mules because both animals were sacred to Consus. Horses, mules and asses were not worked during Consualia and were adorned with flowers and garlands. The first Consualia festival to mark the start of the harvest was held on 21st August.

The Compitalia dates were set by various religious and political authorities.

Secret rites were performed by the Vestal Virgins to ensure the fertility of the earth. Ops was a chthonic (underworld) deity so devotees prayed by sitting with their hands on the ground. Ludi circenses (chariot racing) took place in the Circus Maximus with the heads of horses and mules adorned with chaplets (prayer beads) made of flowers. See also the Opiconsivia festival held on 25 August.

The rites were led by the Flamen Quirinus who held funeral rites for Acca Larentia at her tomb.

Saturnalia adopted elements from the earlier Greek Cronia harvest festival and we can see the traditions adopted as part of winter solstice festivals around the world today.

There were three other Sol temples in Rome in the Circus Maximus, Trastevere and on the Quirinal.

In early Roman empire Compitalia took place between 3-5 January. Shrines of the Lares Compitales were set up and altars for blood sacrifices (usually a hen) followed by feasting.

When Augustus reorganized Rome into 265 vici (districts) in 1 BCE and ordered shrines to be erected at all the crossroads between districts the Lares Compitales became associated with the Genius Augusti (origin of the Lares Augusti).

Compitalia was transformed into a three day public urban Roman festival run by the magistri vicoru (district leaders). The ceremony was followed by games and sporting competitions.