Last month of the year in the classical republican calendar and second in the Julian calendar, it was a month dedicated to the goddess Februa , the mother of Mars and also Februus , the Etruscan ancestor of Pluto, god of the underworld. The month of purification par excellence, the rites in honor of the god known as febraule could be the etymological origin of the name of the month. Sacrifices and offerings were made to the gods to cure oneself in health for the reparations committed during the year in a kind of general confession intended not to stir up the wrath of the native divinities.
In the archaic Roman calendar this month did not exist. It was included in the times of Numa Pompilio. The predominant god of the month was Neptune and it was represented in the Forum calendar as a woman dressed in blue who carried a waterfowl in one of her hands while with the other she held a pitcher that poured a respectable amount of water, representing the important rains that arrived on these dates.
Its short duration compared to the rest of the months has its reason. Julius Caesar, as captivated by Egyptian precision as he was by Cleopatra's charms, decided to reform the old and inaccurate Roman lunar calendar and adapt it to the much more precise solar version of 365 days and 6 hours. The person in charge of carrying out the calculations of that important change was Sosigenes , an Alexandrian astrologer. Being February the last month of the Roman calendar, it was not as long as the rest and it also required the inclusion of a day every four years, between the 24th and 25th of the month, to correct the total calculation. The 24th was the sextus kalendas martii, so this extra day was called bis sextus (origin of our current term leap)
On the second day of the Kalendas, torches were kept burning during the night as an offering to Februa thereby seeking that the god Mars, his son, moved by the offerings of his devotees, would grant them victory on the battlefield. Rome, and the other great cities of the Empire, was a dark city at night, a dangerous place to walk after sunset. This extra lighting allowed the women to go out that day in a procession in honor of Ceres.
From the 5th to the 7th of the month the Anestesias took place, festivities in honor of Dionysus , the Greek god of wine and theater. The first day saw the opening of the first amphorae of wine from the previous year, bottled in October. On the second day, a drinking contest was held that consisted of liquidating in the shortest possible time a container that could hold a congio of wine (only a little more than three liters!) On the third day, a wine-based stew was made and bread that was poured on sacred ground in honor of Hermes, the messenger of the gods, honoring the ground in recognition of the victims of the flood… yes, the flood is common to all civilizations (there is a Sumerian, Mayan, Hebrew, Greek, etc.)
The Ides of Febrarius were dedicated to the deceased. The temples were closed and it was not possible to get married.
On the 15th, the Lupercales took place, the festivities in honor of the god Faun . This festival has its origin in an old legend from the times of Romulus. It seems that the Romans did not have children and went to the Oracle of the goddess Juno, which ruled that "Mothers of Lazio, let a hairy goat impregnate you." In memory of that, the priest sacrificed said animal, with its skin strips were made and with them the whips that the luperci would have to carry were made. These were young boys who ran naked through the Palatine, with their faces stained with the blood of the animal and beating with their whips women who wished to have offspring. They represented the god Pan, grandson of the wolf Lycaon, hence its name (lupus is Latin for wolf)
The Fornacales were held from the 10th to the 17th. It was a celebration in which Fornax was honored. , protector of fires and patron saint of baker. There was no fixed date to locate it within these days, since each Curia could change the day of celebration, but if due to carelessness or forgetfulness it was not celebrated on time and the date was passed, people mocked calling their participants to participate in the stultorum festa, the party of fools, probable origin of the current carnival.
The last days of the month were dedicated to the Feralia and the Carístias, both dedicated to honoring minor divinities related to the deceased. It was the end of the year and this entailed moral recollection.
The 23rd honored Term , the god of boundaries and roads who was represented with a human head on a pillar. A suckling pig was sacrificed and with its blood the cairns and fences that surrounded the properties were watered, asking for the favor of the god so that no one undesirable trespassed them. We still call our municipal boundaries a terminus.
Collaboration of Gabriel Castelló author of Bravery .