The Fornacalia was an
Ancient Roman
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–50 ...
religious festival celebrated in honor of the goddess ''
Fornax
Fornax () is a constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere, partly ringed by the celestial river Eridanus. Its name is Latin for furnace. It was named by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1756. Fornax is one of the 88 modern ...
'', 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.
Ovid
Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the th ...
wrote that "the oven was made a goddess, Fornax: the farmers, pleased with her, prayed she’d regulate the grain’s heat." It was held in early February on various dates in different ''
curiae
Curia (Latin plural curiae) in ancient Rome referred to one of the original groupings of the citizenry, eventually numbering 30, and later every Roman citizen was presumed to belong to one. While they originally likely had wider powers, they came ...
'', 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'', 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; "
w 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."
Beliefs and traditions
It is believed that every family in the curia brought ''far'' (
spelt, a kind of grain), to be toasted in the meeting hall and sacrificed to ensure that bread in the household ovens wouldn’t be burnt in the following year. The last day of this festival was the ''
quirinalia'', which was also jokingly nicknamed the 'feast of fools'. 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; "
olish people don’t know which is their ward, so they hold the feast on the last possible day. 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."
Festival
The festival lasted approximately 13 days. The ''quirinalia'' started around the 17th of February and the ''fornacalia'' probably started on the ''
nones Nones may refer to:
* ''Nones'' (Auden), a 1951 book of poems by W. H. Auden
* ''Nones'' (Berio), a 1954 orchestral composition by Luciano Berio
*Nones (calendar), or ''Nonae'', days of the Roman Calendar
*None (liturgy)
Nones (), also known as N ...
'' or 5th of February. The ''Fornacalia'' continued to be celebrated in the time of
Lactantius.
[Smith, W., Wayte, W., Marindin, G. E., (Eds), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890): Fornacalia]
See also
*
Roman festivals
Festivals in ancient Rome were a very important part in Roman religious life during both the Republican and Imperial eras, and one of the primary features of the Roman calendar. ''Feriae'' ("holidays" in the sense of "holy days"; singula ...
References
{{Roman religion (festival)
Ancient Roman festivals