Parilia

Happy birthday Rome! And to the Queen! Let's celebrate, roman style!

Parillia was a festival in honor of Pales, the god of shepherds. Their was offerings of milk, grain and cakes to the God and it was a festival of protection & fertility. It encompasses both rural and urban celebrations and parts of other rituals.

It originated as a purifying festival, but later was considered the birthday of Rome starting in 753 BCE. The beginnings of this festival are unclear. It is thought to predate the founding of Rome and stem from the early pagan celebrations.

The is some speculation surrounding Pales as well. We don't know if Pales was male or female, whether or not this festival was actually ascribed to Pales as well.

Sources:
http://www.pagancalandar.co.uk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parilia

Blessings,
Petra

Ludi Cerealis

This is from my paganspace blog, just a little bit about the ancient pagan festival of Cerealis that I researched. I found out about this through the Pagan Calander. It's a really fun resource for all the different pagan holidays and festivals that are celebrated, or rightly, were celebrated throughout ancient history. I also linked a few resources at the bottom where I got some more info on the festival. Enjoy!

Today marks the beginning of a rather popular Roman festival in honor of Ceres, Goddess of grain and agriculture, Ludi Cerealis. While the date is often disputed whether it started on the 12th or ended on the 19th or maybe it started on the ides of April, (the 7th), it is commonly referred to as starting on the 12th or sometimes 13th of April. Women in white carrying torches symbolized Ceres' search for her lost daughter, Prosperpine. It was a seven-day long festival where games were held in Ceres' honor at the Circus Maximus. While the public was in mourning though, the games and celebrations were not held.

The end of the festival marked Prosperpine's return to the earth after her stint in the underworld, no blood sacrifices were allowed during the time of the festival, except of a female pig or sow.

Sources:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Cerealia.html
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0063:id=cerialia-cn

Blessings,
Petra