Cerealia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cerealia
Observed by	Ancient Romans
Type	Pagan, Historical
Date	April 12
Celebrations	Games of Ceres

Spring , by Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1894), oil on canvas,179.2 x 80.3 cm, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. It depicts the Cerealia in a Roman street. One of Tadema's most famous and popular works, it took him four years to complete. The models for many of the participants and spectators were Tadema's friends and members of his family ^[1]

Cerealia was a 7-day festival celebrated in ancient Rome in honor of the goddess Ceres. The exact dates of the April festival are uncertain: it may have started on April 12 and ended on April 19 (Or it may have started on the Ides of April, i.e. April 13, or even on April 7.)

In Rome, this was the primary festival of Ceres and was accompanied by the Ludi Ceriales or "Games of Ceres" in the Circus Maximus. Ovid's description (Fasti iv.494) mentions that Ceres/Demeter's search for her lost daughter Proserpina was represented by women clothed in white, running about with lighted torches.