The Roman pantheon is, like the Greek one, vast. Its not as if they were in danger of running out of gods to name months after. Why stop after June and simply count the rest of the way to December? Surely September could have been dedicated to Ceres or some other harvest related god? Was there not an appropriate harvest festival that could have been September's namesake?
It's my understanding that the Lupercalia isn't a Christian festival, but it was still happening into the 400's and 500's. What other celebrations, holidays, and commemorations would have also survived after the conversion to Christianism?
I had asked a question regarding the Personal Ordinariate in /r/AskAPriest but only my question regarding the term "Anglo-Catholicism" was answered.
How did former Pope Benedict XVI and former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams work together for the benefit of the Personal Ordinariate itself?
How is the liturgy different and what is "borrowed" if I can use that word from the BCP?
What about the influence of the "Oxford Movement" / St. John Henry Newman on the PO as a whole?
This last question is unrelated but are their PO churches and/or Cathedrals with an all male boys choir similar to The Choir Of Kings College Cambridge?
I was reading up on the festivals of Hilaria and Megalesia and could not figure out whether it was celebrated only in the city of Rome where the temple to Magna Mater was located or if it was celebrated throughout the empire (or at least in cities of Italia).
So my question is this:
Were such festivals celebrated only in Rome? Or only in the cities that featured a temple dedicated to the said god? Or were they celebrated all over the empire?
How did this pass by without a mention?!
Hilaria - the fertility goddess and the origin of the April Fools!
Hilaria was a Roman festival celebrated on March 25 on the occasion of the spring equinox and worship of the Phrygian goddess of fertility, fertility, spring and defensive cities.
March 25 was an extremely positive day because of the joyful days of the resurrection celebration of the vegetation god Attis – companion [of ]Cybele.
That day, joy was born about the nascent nature, masquerades, games, games took place in the streets and there was generally a very cheerful mood.
In addition, on this day, the Romans were also to make fun of friends and family – hence probably the current custom of making jokes on April 1
SOURCE: https://imperiumromanum.pl/en/roman-religion/roman-feasts/hilaria/
https://preview.redd.it/oxztacg6edr61.jpg?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=09848569310125f8cc9f129907ead4167d6cd8c0
The 9th, 11th & 13th May were the dates the Romans reserved for performing rites to exorcise the evil and fearful ghosts, the Lemures from their homes - Lemuria was the name given to the festival.
During Lemuria, the head of the household would get up at midnight and walk around barefoot throwing black beans over their shoulder, telling the spirits to be gone. Then the whole household would bang pots and pans to drive the spirits out.
The household would clash bronze pots while repeating, "Ghosts of my fathers and ancestors, be gone!" nine times.
We often forget that Paranormal Phenomena are not something new but they are thousands of years old and preoccupied people that lived in every major civilization.
As you can see, this was a "feast of exorcism" intended to drive away evil spirits that lived in the Roman domus.
I know that they would consume wine on their festivals but what else?
Apparently the Fordicidia was a festival of fertility, held two days after the Ides of April, that pertained to farming and animal husbandry. It involved the sacrifice of a pregnant cow to Tellus, the ancient Roman goddess of the Earth, in proximity to the festival of Ceres (Cerealia) on April 19th of the Julian calendar.
I'm doing some research into roman colonization. I know that they allowed conquered territories to keep their own customs, money, and local government as long as Roman leadership was acknowledged. Because many native populations were polytheistic as well, it would have been easy for them to integrate roman culture right? If that's true, did natives ever celebrate roman holidays? Sort of how we celebrate christmas as the birth of jesus even though it's a pagan holiday. Are there comparisons? Thanks!
