Paganalia

A movable feast honoring Tellus and Ceres was held in January when the rural community finished sowing seeds for the winter crop.

The Paganalia may be the same festival as the Sementivae. (The name Paganalia comes from pagus, a Latin word for a rural district or township. The name Sementivae comes from sementis, a Latin word for sowing or plowing.) Although Varro distinguishes between the two, some authorities think that they are the same festival. One notion is that city dwellers called it by one name and rural folk by the other. Either way, it appears to have been a festival for the protection of the seed that had been sown. It was held on two days in January a week apart. On the first day, a pregnant sow was sacrificed to Tellus, the mother earth. On the second day, spelt cakes were offered to Ceres, the goddess of agriculture. (Ovid explains that Ceres gives the seed its vital power, and Tellus gives it a place to grow.) All the minor deities who presided over the several operations of tillage were also invoked to be propitious: Vervactor, the god of breaking up fallow land; Reparator, of renewing its powers; Obarator, of plowing; Occator, of harrowing; Imporcitor, of drawing furrows; Insitor, of grafting; Sarritor, of hoeing; Subruncinator, of weeding; Messor, of harvesting; Convector, of gathering in; Conditor, of storing up; Promitor, of bringing out for use.

In the country, the sacrifices were offered on individual village hearths. In addition, little swinging figures or masks representing the faces of Liber, Bacchus, or other deities connected with the cultivation of the soil were hung from the trees and vines. These oscilla, typically made of ordinary materials such as wax, wood, and earthenware, were likely a form of lustration by purifying with air. Then the plow was put away until spring, and the cattle rested in their stalls.

In Rome, the sacrifices were made in the temple of Tellus Mater, which was situated on the Esquiline and dated from 268 BC. Although she had no special priest, Tellus was honoured in the Fordicidia and Sementivae festivals, both of which centered on fertility and good crops.

Here are a few resources for additional information about the Paganalia and/or the Feriae Sementivae.

An entry in Smith's A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities explains the division of the country people into various pagi.

An entry inWikipedia distinguishes the sowing festival in the city (Sementivae) from that in the country (Paganalia).

A website about various midwinter festivals provides information about the Sementivae, or Paganalia, which spills over into February.

A pagan website called Nova Roma contains a thorough discussion of the Paganalia and its development in the countryside as one of the feriae conceptivae.

A translation of Ovid's Fasti, Book I, has an entry for the Sementivae and/or Paganalia (January 24).

An entry in Platner's A Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome provides information about the temple of Tellus on the Esquiline.

An entry in Online Encyclopedia provides information about the oscilla and their connection with festivals and religious ceremonies.

Some of the preceding information comes from Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic, written by H. H. Scullard and published in 1981 by Cornell University Press (Ithaca, New York).