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March
1 was big day in ancient
Rome: it
was New Year and
the
Matronalia, Festival of Juno,
Goddess of Womanhood
...
New
Year
Hestia,
in all dwellings of men and immortals
Yours is the highest honour, the sweet wine offered
First and last at the feast, poured out to you duly.
Never without you can gods or mortals hold banquet.
The
Vestal Virgins
rekindled the sacred
fire of the Temple of Vesta on this day. The Roman
goddess Vesta
(analogous to Hestia
in Greek
mythology) and her sacred fire were considered tightly bound to
the fortunes of the city, and failure to show proper respect for
either was punishable by death. Vesta’s fire could only be
rekindled by a burning glass, or by friction on a piece of wood from
a fruit tree. In
Roman homes, a small cake would be thrown on the fire for Vesta, and
it was considered a good omen if it burnt with a crackle.
 It was a New
Year custom, as with today’s Christmas,
for the Romans to present gifts (strenae) with accompanying
good wishes. The word is connected with the name of a Sabine
tutelary goddess, Strenia. From her precinct beside the Via
Sacra at Rome consecrated branches were carried up to the Capitoline
today. The strenae consisted of branches of bay and palm,
sweetmeats made of honey, and figs or dates, and these were supposed
to bring joy and happiness in the forthcoming year. The
fruits were covered in gold leaf as they are today in Germany –
the word as well as the custom, survives in the French word etrennes.
The pontifex
maximus (head
of the Roman
religion, from where the current Roman Catholic Pontiff,
or Pope, gets his title – read more)
today had the privilege of choosing the priest known as flamen
dialis, from a list of three candidates nominated by the college
of pontificates or pontiffs. Today, also, the old laurel branches
around the doors of the regia (home of the pontifex maximus), rex
sacrorum, the great flamines, the curiae, and the
temple of Vesta were replaced by new branches, bringing to mind the
Christian custom of taking down Christmas trees, holly and other
decorations at Epiphany.
The Salii
(‘leapers’) processed today in honour of the war god Mars,
carrying special shields known as ancilia. They were dressed
up in armour and helmets of ancient design and would then jump, leap
and bound through the streets, beating their ancilia
with their swords, shouting and chanting. Sir James
George Frazer (1854–1941), The
Golden Bough, 1922,
says the leaping was originally meant to show the plants
in the fields on how to grow in the coming Spring. Frazer also tells
us that a Roman custom of expelling the old god Mars
at the beginning of the new year in Spring is identical with the
Slavonic custom of “carrying out Death”. The
festival of Mars lasted from March
1 to 19.
Matronalia
Let us sing now of Hera, the women's
goddess.
she who rules from her throne of gold.
Let us sing now of Hera, child of earth,
daughter of that most ancient of goddesses.
Let us sing now of the queen of gods.
Let us sing now of the most beautiful goddess.
There is no one more beloved than you,
womanly Hera, no one we honor more.
There is no one more revered than you,
queenly Hera, no one more blessed.
Above all others, you are the most honored.
Above all others, you are the most beloved.
Homer; Hymn To Hera
 Juno
was the Roman Mother Goddess, known to the Greeks as Hera,
and her original name to the Romans was Junonius. Juno is a
counterpart of Janus
and the divine watcher over the female sex, so this month is
considered the best time to marry. As Juno Moneta, guardian of
wealth and money, she had a temple on the Capitoline hill in Rome
where the empire’s coins were minted.
Among Juno’s
attributes, she is queen of heaven, approximating Frigg
in the Northern Tradition, and Mary
in the Christian. She is ruler of the high point of year, when there
is maximum light and minimum darkness (the northern Summer
Solstice).
Today, the Matronalia, was sacred to the
goddess in her aspect known as Juno Lucina, protectress of women and
marriage, a later representation of Eileithyia,
Greek goddess of childbirth. Matronalia was celebrated at the temple
called the Aedes
Junonis Lucinae which was built in 375 BCE
in a grove that had been consecrated to the goddess from very early
times. Livy records that the grove (lucus) on the Esquiline Hill is
the origin of the goddess's name. We know from Ovid’s
Fasti
(iii.247)
that the Matronalia was commemorated annually on this day, the day
of the temple’s consecration.
Women and girls
prayed to her and brought offerings where the goddess was
represented veiled, with a flower in her right hand, and an infant
in swaddling clothes in her left. Prayers for prosperity in marriage
were offered.
By
the second century BCE, this aspect of Juno was associated with
childbirth because the name lucina was thought to have come
from the Latin word lux (light); thus, when a child was born
it was said to have been “brought to light”. In this
aspect the goddess was a lunar deity, often paired with Diana and
depicted as holding a torch.
In the worship of Juno Lucina, women had to untie knots and unplait
their hair – sympathetic magic to prevent entanglements in the
delivery of babies. In Roman homes, prayers were offered for
prosperity in marriage, and women waited on the slaves, just as the
men did at the Saturnalia.
The Matronalia
was probably instituted in memory of the peace between the Romans
and the Sabines, which was brought about by means of the Sabine
women. At this festival wives used to receive presents from their
husbands, and at a later time girls from their lovers; mistresses
also were accustomed to feast their female slaves. Because of this
reversal of the established order we find the festival called by Martial
the “Saturnalia
of women”. (Europe continued with such customs in the tradition of
the Lord of
Misrule.)
Today the people
feasted on similla, cakes decorated it with 12 balls of
marzipan around the edges. Cakes with a similar name, simnel cakes,
are associated with Mid-Lent
Sunday (Mothering Sunday) in England from which Mothers’ Day
is derived.
Some sources
refer to this day as the Matralia. However, that festival was on June
11 and associated with the goddess of dawn, Mater
Matuta.
Roman
festivals and notable days in the Book of Days
Deities
of many cultures in the Book of Days
«
Index of articles on
folklore and other topics
What
is the Goddess Calendar?
Origins
and folklore of Mothers' Day
Vestal
Virgins
Roman
festivals and notable days in the Book of Days
Deities
of many cultures in the Book of Days
External
links
The
Shepheardes Calender:
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