Floralia: The unique Roman festival of flowers
For those who are familiar with Roman mythology would know that they worship Flora as their goddess of flowers, vegetation, and fertility. But not many know that there’s a festival called Floralia, that is dedicated to this goddess and is celebrated from end of April to early May. Curious to know more? Read on.
Floralia: The doing of Julius Caesar
Ancient Roman Catholics introduced the festival Floralia to honour the goddess of flower, Flora and encourage her to bless and protect their harvests and blossoms. This festival also commemorates the cycle of birth, life, and death. This was around 240 BC. However, soon, Rome largely became a centre of pagans who forcefully discontinued the festival around 173 BC, deeming it to be too religious in nature.
But thanks to the historical Roman hero, general and statesman Julius Caesar, the festival was reinstated as ‘Ludi Florales’. He brought it back out of concern for wind, hail, and other damages to the flowers across Rome. In fact, Caesar marked the festival as a holiday when he made the Roman calendar. Caeser had marked the days from 28th April to 3rd May, making it a six-day observance. Many believe that Floralia was the ancient Roman version of the present-day May Day!
Till date, Floralia is celebrated alongside May Day where people gather flowers, don floral wreaths in their hair and perform street plays. Earlier, farm animals like hares and goats were also set free from yearlong captivity near the city centre (Circus Maximus) while humans scattered beans (legumes) to celebrate the season of fertility.
Celebrating Floralia with games and merriment
Remember we said that Caesar had renamed Floralia as “Ludi Florales” (Games of Flora)? Well, it turns out that there’s a reason behind it. Back then, a major aspect of the festival was to play public games which were known as “ludi” in Roman. Interestingly, all these games, such as Apollinares, Ceriales, Ludi Floralia and Megalenses, were known for their scenic and theatrical presentations (“Ludi scaenici”). They were all followed by circus games such as tightrope walking on the final day. What’s more interesting is that these games were funded by public magistrates called ‘aediles’ who often used it as a way to win the votes, approval, and affection of the masses. In addition to the games, Floralia traditions also include performing mimes, dancing to folk music, wrestling contests and entertaining the nobles and royals. Simply put, it was plebian in nature.