Latin students are eagerly awaiting February’s Ancient-Rome inspired festival! While originally scheduled for the 18th on account of the snowy weather, the celebration has been rescheduled for the 23rd.
This month’s festival is the Fornicalia! And no, it’s not what it sounds like…
The Fornicalia was established as an annual festival by Roman King Numa Pompilius, who named it the “Feast of Ovens”. The celebration honored Fornax, the divine embodiment of the oven, in hopes of bringing good fortune upon bread baking — specifically for temperature regulation to avoid burning loaves.
The festival lasted nine days, beginning in early February. Its date was announced by the Curio Maximus, a chief priest who oversaw the Curiae, ancient civic divisions of the Roman people based on the city’s earliest organization. Each Curia had a designated day to take part in the festival. During the festivities, ovens were decorated with garlands and tablets, and a special grain called far is ceremoniously toasted and made into bread as an offering to Fornax.
The festival concluded with the Quirinalia, which honored the deified form of Romulus, one of the city’s founders. In the context of the Fornacalia, this day was often called the Stultorum Feriae, or the festival of fools, because it provided an opportunity for those who did not know which curia they belonged to to participate in the communal feast.
All in all, this festival is a celebration of community, tradition, and well… bread! We are looking forward to this month’s feast!
