Liberalia

In

The feast celebrated the maturation of young boys to manhood. Roman boys, usually at age 15 or 16, would remove the bulla praetexta, a hollow charm of gold or leather, which parents placed about the necks of children to ward off evil spirits. At the Liberalia ceremony the young men might place the bulla on an altar (with a lock of hair or the stubble of a first shave placed inside) and dedicate it to the Lares, the gods of the household and family. Mothers often retrieved the discarded bulla and kept it out of superstition. If the son ever achieved a public triumph, the mother could display the bulla to ward off any evil that might be wished upon the son by envious people. The young men discarded the toga praetexta, which was probably derived from Etruscan dress and was decorated with a broad purple border and worn with the bulla by boys and girls. The boys donned the clothing of adulthood, the pure white toga virilis, or "man's toga". The garment identified him as a citizen of Rome, and thus an eligible voter. ^{[citation needed]}

The celebration was meant to honor Liber Pater, an ancient god of fertility and wine (like Bacchus, the Roman version of the Greek god Dionysus). Liber Pater was also a vegetation god, responsible for protecting seed. Again like Dionysus, he had female priestesses, but Liber's were older women known as Sacerdos Liberi. Wearing wreaths of ivy, they made special cakes, or libia, of oil and honey which passing devotees would have them sacrifice on their behalf. Over time this feast evolved and included the goddess Libera, and the feast divided so that Liber governed the male seed and Libera the female. Ovid in his almanac entry for the festival identifies Libera as the celestial manifestation of Ariadne.^[2]

The ceremony was a "country" or rustic ceremony. The processional featured a large phallus which the devotees carried throughout the countryside to bring the blessing of fertility to the land and the people and protect the crops from evil. At the end of the procession, a virtuous and respected matron placed a wreath upon the phallus.^{[citation needed]}

The Procession of the

While Liberalia is a relatively unknown event in modern times, references to Liberalia and the Roman goddess Libera are still found in astrology.^[citation needed]

References