Parentalia

{{Short description|Roman feast of familias}} In ancient Rome, the '''Parentalia''' ({{IPA|la|parɛnˈtaːlɪ.a}}) or '''''dies parentales''''' ({{IPA|la|ˈdɪ.eːs parɛnˈtaːleːs|}}, "ancestral days") was a nine-day festival held in honour of family ancestors, beginning on 13 February.<ref>Mary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, ''Religions of Rome: A History'' (Cambridge University Press, 1998), p. 50; Stefan Weinstock, ''Divus Julius'' (Oxford, 1971), pp. 291-6.</ref>

Although the Parentalia was a holiday on the Roman religious calendar, its observances were mainly domestic and familial.<ref>Beard ''et al.'', ''Religions of Rome'', p. 50.</ref> The importance of the family to the Roman state, however, was expressed by public ceremonies on the opening day, the Ides of February, when a Vestal conducted a rite for the collective ''di parentes'' of Rome at the tomb of Tarpeia.<ref>William Warde Fowler, ''The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic'' (London, 1908), p. 306 (1899 Internet Archive [https://archive.org/stream/romanfestivalsof00fowluoft edition available]).</ref>

==Overview== Ovid describes sacred offerings (''sacrificia'') of flower-garlands, wheat, salt, wine-soaked bread and violets to the "shades of the dead" (''Manes'' or ''Di manes'') at family tombs, which were located outside Rome's sacred boundary ''(pomerium)''. These observances were meant to strengthen the mutual obligations and protective ties between the living and the dead and were a lawful duty of the ''paterfamilias'' (head of the family).<ref>Ovid, ''Fasti'', 2.537-539. Ibid 2.534 for ''manes''; W. Warde Fowler, ''The Roman festivals of the period of the Republic'', p. 306, cites Festus' ''di manes'' as a placatory euphemism: some Manes were to be feared.</ref> Parentalia concluded on 21 February in the midnight rites of Feralia, when the ''paterfamilias'' addressed the malevolent, destructive aspects of his ''Manes''.

Feralia was a placation and exorcism: Ovid thought it a more rustic, primitive and ancient affair than the Parentalia itself. It appears to have functioned as a cleansing ritual for Caristia on the following day when the family held an informal banquet to celebrate the affectionate bonds between themselves and their benevolent ancestral dead (''Lares'').<ref>Ovid, ''Fasti'', 2.677. Fowler, ''Roman Festivals,'' p. 309, has ritualistically clothed statues of the ''Lares'' at this "sacred meal."</ref> The emphasis on the collective cult for the Manes and early ''di parentes'' implies their afterlife as vague and lacking individuation. In later cults they are vested with personal qualities, and in Imperial cult, they acquired divine ''numen'' and became ''divi'', divine entities.<ref>Duncan Fishwick, ''The Imperial Cult in the Latin West: Studies in the Ruler Cult of the Western Provinces of the Roman Empire'', vol 1, 1991, 1, 51.</ref>

From Parentalia to Caristia all temples were closed, marriages were forbidden, and "magistrates appeared without their insignia," an indication that no official business was conducted. William Warde Fowler describes the Parentalia as "practically a yearly renewal of the rite of burial".<ref>Fowler, ''Roman Festivals'', p. 308.</ref>

Individuals might also be commemorated on their birthday ''(dies natalis)''. Some would be commemorated throughout the year on marked days of the month, such as the Kalends, Nones or Ides, when lamps might be lit at the tomb.<ref>J.M.C. Toynbee, ''Death and Burial in the Roman World'' (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1971, 1996), pp.61–64.</ref> The Lemuria on 9, 11 and 13 May was aimed at appeasing "kinless and hungry" spirits of the dead.<ref>Toynbee, "Death and Burial in the Roman World," p. 64.</ref>

==See also== * Chinese ancestor veneration * ''Jesa'', ancestral rites of Korea * Qingming Festival * Roman funerary practices * Veneration of the dead * Day of the Dead

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * {{cite journal |last1=Dolansky |first1=Fanny |title=Honouring the Family Dead on the Parentalia: Ceremony, Spectacle, and Memory |journal=Phoenix |date=2011 |volume=65 |issue=1/2 |pages=125–157 |doi=10.1353/phx.2011.0017 |jstor=10.7834/phoenix.65.1-2.0125 |s2cid=194674747 }} * {{cite journal |last1=Naber |first1=S. A. |title=Parentalia |journal=Mnemosyne |date=1874 |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=223–240 |jstor=4424202 }} * {{cite book |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.4735 |chapter=Parentalia |title=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics |date=2016 |last1=Phillips |first1=C. Robert |isbn=978-0-19-938113-5 }} * {{cite journal |last1=Bennett |first1=J.A. |title=A study of ''Parentalia'', with two unpublished letters of Sir Christopher Wren |journal=Annals of Science |date=June 1973 |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=129–147 |doi=10.1080/00033797300200071 |pmid=11615535 }} * {{cite book |doi=10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah17325 |chapter=Parentalia |title=The Encyclopedia of Ancient History |date=2012 |last1=Dolansky |first1=Fanny |isbn=978-1-4051-7935-5 }}

Category:Ancient Roman festivals Category:Death in ancient Rome Category:Observances honoring the dead Category:Religion and death Category:February observances