Fornacalia

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The Fornacalia was an

Ancient Roman religious festival celebrated in honor of the goddess Fornax,[1]
a divine personification of the oven (fornax), and was related to the proper baking of bread.

History

The Fornacalia may have been established by Numa Pompillius.[2][3] Ovid wrote that "the oven was made a goddess, Fornax: the farmers, pleased with her, prayed she’d regulate the grain’s heat."[4] It was held in early February on various dates in different curiae,[5][6][7] which in the period of the Roman monarchy and the Roman Republic were the thirty wards of the city of Rome. It was proclaimed every year by the curio maximus,[8][9][10] who was a priest who was the head of the curiae. He announced the different part which each curia (sing. of curiae) had to take in the celebration of the festival; "[n]ow the Curio Maximus, in a set form of words, declares the shifting date of the Fornacalia, the Feast of Ovens, and round the Forum hang many tablets, on which every ward displays its own sign."[11]

Beliefs and traditions

It is believed that every family in the curia brought far (

quirinalia, which was also jokingly nicknamed the 'feast of fools'.[13][14] All the curiae met together on that day for a collective feast. Those who did not know to what curia they belonged were able to participate in its rites; "[f]oolish people don’t know which is their ward, so they hold the feast on the last possible day.[15] This tradition indicates that in later times membership of a curia (singular of curiae) had little significance to most Romans, so much so that some people did not know which curia they belonged to; the curiae included all citizens and that every Roman citizen was deemed to belong to a curia, even if he did not know which it was."[16]

Festival

The festival lasted approximately 13 days. The quirinalia started around the 17th of February and the fornacalia probably started on the

nones or 5th of February.[17] The Fornacalia continued to be celebrated in the time of Lactantius.[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ Varro, On the Latin Language, 6.13
  2. ISBN 978-1-108-08247-1
    .
  3. ISBN 978-1-108-05740-0
    .
  4. ^ Ovid, Fasti, 2.525-6
  5. ^ Note on p. 186 of the Loeb edition of Varro's , On the Latin Language, Vol 1
  6. ISBN 978-1-57607-089-5
    .
  7. ISBN 978-1-139-45087-4
    .
  8. OCLC 1067729413
    .
  9. ProQuest 1306612456
    .
  10. ISBN 978-0-19-954556-8
    .
  11. ^ Ovid, Fasti, 2.527-30
  12. ISBN 978-0-691-20232-7
    .
  13. ISBN 978-1-4051-7935-5
    .
  14. ISBN 978-0-19-938113-5
    .
  15. ^ Ovid, Fasti, 2.531-2
  16. ^ Cornell, The Beginnings of Rome, p. 115
  17. ISBN 978-1-136-75495-1
    .
  18. ^ Smith, W., Wayte, W., Marindin, G. E., (Eds), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890): Fornacalia
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