Parentalia

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The Parentalia (also das parentales ) were in the Roman calendar as the Nundinum period, the "days of the cult of the dead ", which were dedicated to the deceased parents (parentes) and other family ancestors . The commemorative character of the soul festival is underlined by the fact that it originally took place towards the end of the year. The Parentalia began at noon on February 13 and ended on 21 February . On February 22nd, the “family reconciliation festival ” Caristia followed .

The separated souls ( lares , manes , lemures , larvae ) were an eminently important and multifaceted topic in Roman religiosity ; on the one hand, a feast of the dead like the lemuria had unmistakably apotropaic features, on the other hand the parentalia reinforced the ties with the deceased family members.

The festival ushered in a midday sacrifice of the Vestalis maxima , it ended on the last day with the main celebration, the feralia of February 21. Ovid describes in the Fasti (Book II, 533-570) that to appease the souls of the dead (placandis manibus) small offerings were made on the paths and near the graves (ferre) : wreaths, fruits, grains of salt, wine-soaked bread and violet blossoms, including Prayers were said. The family rites in daylight contrasted with the nocturnal spell of the lemuria , but, according to Ovid, the temples remained closed and there were no weddings. In the Fasti it is also told that neglect of parentalia leads to the revenge of the ghosts who roam the streets and fields as monstrous ghosts at night (perque vias Urbis latosque ululasse per agros deformes animas, volgus inane) .

Ovid further describes a strange, almost witch-like ritual with apotropaic objectives, which was carried out by an old woman called Tacita at the Feralia (Book II, 573-583).

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