Ambarvalia was a Roman agricultural fertility rite, involving animal sacrifices and held on 29 May [1] in honor of Ceres, Bacchus [2] and Dea Dia. [3] However, the exact timing could vary since Ambarvalia was a "fariae conceptivae" - a festival not bound to a fixed date. [4]
Ambarvalia is believed to have taken its name from the words "ambiō" - "I go round" and "arvum" - "field". [2] During the festival, they sacrificed a bull, a sow, and a sheep, which were led in procession thrice around the fields. This sacrifice was called a suovetaurilia in Latin. Ambarvalia can be of two kinds: public and private. The private were solemnized by the masters of families, accompanied by their children and servants, in the villages and farms out of Rome. The public was celebrated within the city's boundaries, in which twelve fratres arvales walked at the head of a procession of citizens who had lands and vineyards in Rome. During the procession, prayers would be made to the goddess. [5] The ambervale carmen was the preferred prayer. [6]
The name "Ambarvalia" appears to be predominantly an urban designation. Roman farmers' almanacs (Menologia rustica) describe this only as segetes lustrantur ("crops are purified"). [3] Scaliger, in his notes on Festus, maintains the ambarvalia to be the same as amburbium. Numerous other communities of the Italian peninsula enacted similar rites with different names. [3]
The Bacchanalia were unofficial, privately funded popular Roman festivals of Bacchus, based on various ecstatic elements of the Greek Dionysia. They were almost certainly associated with Rome's native cult of Liber, and probably arrived in Rome itself around 200 BC. Like all mystery religions of the ancient world, very little is known of their rites. They seem to have been popular and well-organised throughout the central and southern Italian peninsula.
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The suovetaurilia or suovitaurilia was one of the most sacred and traditional rites of Roman religion: the sacrifice of a pig, a sheep and a bull to the deity Mars to bless and purify land.
The Divalia was a Roman festival held on December 21, in honour of the goddess Angerona, whence it is also called Angeronalia. On the day of this festival the pontifices performed sacrifices in the temple of Voluptia, or the goddess of joy and pleasure, who, some say, was the same with Angerona, and supposed to drive away all the sorrow and chagrin of life.
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A procession is an organized body of people walking in a formal or ceremonial manner.
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