{{short description|Roman festival honoring Vesta}} {{about|the Roman festival|the plateau on 4 Vesta|Vestalia Terra}} {{Infobox holiday |holiday_name = Vestalia |type = Religious |longtype = Classical Roman religion |image = Carl Friedrich Deckler Vestalin mit Efeugirlande.jpg |image_size = |caption = Vestal virgin hanging an ivy wreath. |observedby = Romans |date = June 7 – 15 |celebrations = |observances = |relatedto = }} '''Vestalia''' was a Roman religious festival in honor of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth and the burning continuation of the sacred fire of Rome. It was held from 7–15 June, and was reserved as a women's-only event.
Domestic and family life in general were represented by the festival of the goddess of the house and of the spirits of the storechamber — Vesta and the Penates — on ''Vestalia''.<ref>{{harvnb|Mommsen|1894|p=164}}</ref> On the first day of festivities the ''penus Vestae'' (''sanctum sanctorum'' of the temple of Vesta which was usually curtained off) was opened, for the only time during the year, at which women offered sacrifices.<ref name="Marouzeau">{{harvnb|Marouzeau|2006|p=39}}</ref> As long as the curtain remained open, mothers could come, barefoot and disheveled, to leave offerings to the goddess in exchange for a blessing to them and their family.<ref>{{harvnb|Brulé|1987|p=112}}</ref>
The animal consecrated to Vesta, the donkey, was crowned with garlands of flowers and bits of bread on 9 June. Ovid says that donkeys were adorned with necklaces of bread-bits in memory of the myth where Vesta is nearly violated by Priapus. In that myth, it is the untimely bray of a donkey that startles Priapus and causes him to flee. Before that, he says donkeys were honored on 9 June in thanks for the services they provided in the bakeries.<ref>{{harvnb|Littlewood|2006|p=103}}</ref><ref>Ovid, ''Fasti'' VI. 319-48</ref><ref name="RW29">{{harvnb|Fraschetti|2001|p=29}}</ref>
The final day, 15 June, was ''Quando Stercum Delatum Fas'' ["once the dung has been removed, lawcourt business is permitted"]. The ''penus Vestae'' was solemnly closed, the ''Flaminica Dialis'' observed mourning, and the temple was subjected to a purification called ''stercoratio'': the filth was swept from the temple and carried next by the route called ''clivus Capitolinus'' and then into the Tiber.<ref name="Marouzeau"/>
The military ''Feriale Duranum'' of AD 224 records the first day of ''Vestalia'' as ''Vesta {{not a typo|apperit[ur]}}'' and the last day as ''Vesta cluditur''.<ref>{{harvnb|Bowerstock|Brown|Grabar|1999|p=449}}</ref> ==See also== * Roman festivals * Carmentalia * Floralia * Cerealia * Fornacalia * Opiconsivia * Divalia * Furrinalia * Matralia * Lemuria (festival) * Matronalia * Liberalia * Parilia * Rosalia, a festival of roses celebrated throughout the Roman Empire * May Queen
==References== {{reflist}} ===Modern sources=== * {{cite book |last1=Bowerstock |first1=Glenn Warren|first2=Peter |last2=Brown |first3=Oleg |last3=Grabar |title=Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World |publisher=The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-674-51173-5 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/lateantiquitygui00bowe}} * {{cite book |last=Brulé |first=Pierre |title=La Fille d'Athènes : la religion des filles à l'époque classique : mythes, cultes et société |location=Paris |publisher=Belles lettres |year=1987 |language=French |isbn=978-2-25160-363-6}} * {{cite book |last=Fraschetti |first=Augusto |translator-last=Lappin |translator-first=Linda |title=Roman Women |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-226-26093-8 }} * {{cite book |last=Littlewood |first=R. Joy |title=A Commentary on Ovid: Fasti book VI |location=Oxford; New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-19927-134-4}} * {{cite book |last=Marouzeau |first=Jules |title=Revue des études latines |year=2006 |publisher=Société d'Édition Les Belles Lettres |language=fr }} * {{cite book|last=Mommsen |first=Theodor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-EEZAAAAYAAJ |title=The History of Rome |volume=I |year=1894}} {{PD-notice}} * {{cite book |last=Newlands |first=Carole Elizabeth |title=Playing with Time: Ovid and the Fasti, Volume 55 |year=1995 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=0-8014-3080-1}}
{{Roman religion (festival)}}
Category:Ancient Roman festivals Category:June observances Category:Summer festivals Category:Vesta (mythology)