Early Roman Religious Calendar

Every day in the Roman calendar has a certain markattached to it, viz. the letters F, C, N, N', NP, EN, Q.R.C.F.,Q.St.D.F., or FP. All of these have a religious significance,positive or negative.
  1. F (Fastus) - Fast Days, a serious, spiritually reflective day most auspicious for judgements and finalizing contracts.
  2. C  (Comitiallis) - Committee Days, a good normal business day for people to meet for secular reasons. The total number of F and C days days was 239 out of 365.
  3. N (Nefastus)  - Purification Days, this was a day of purification while remembering some state disaster or death of a famous person. The annual purification season was Feb. 1-14.
  4. N' (Ne'u) - Latin author's including Varro did not know what this sign meant (Latin does not have the ayin letter). This indicates that the Julian calendar faithfully copied earlier calendars when not adding in the new days. In this case, the word  is a Druid Akkadian word meaning "emotional affects." It is a day when the emotion/motion powers were especially powerful either from the night sky or the people of the community.
  5. EN (Enu) Another sign unknown to Latin authors and another Druid Akkadian word meaning "reassignments." All the eight were days coming before some festival, or before the Ides (full moon). This was a time of preparation for the arrival of the emotion/motion powers.
  6. Q.R.C. (Quando Rex Comitiavit) "When the king calls the committee's") This only occurs on March 24.
  7. FP (?) This is only found in three calendars. Latin authors did not know what it meant and it does not seem to be Akkadian.

Calendar Phrases


  1. Additamenta Ex Fastis - Additions to the Fasts
  2. Additamenta Ex Scriptoribus - Additions from the Laws
  3. Fasti Antiquissimi - The Most Ancient Fasts
  4. Feriae - Feast, festival
  5. Ludi - Games (as in fun and game, not Olympics)
  6. Mensis - Month
  7. Nones - first quarter moon, religious festivals can safely start after this event
  8. Ides - full moon occurring 8 days after the first quarter.
  9. Kalend - new moon, All the Kalends were sacred to Juno, god of the dark new moon

Beginnings of the Modern Calendar

(January 29, 2024) The earliest time keeping of the Romans was for the purpose of knowing when to plant crops. Hence it was based on the lunar calendar between the Spring equinox and the Winter solstice. Because 12 Luner cycles equaling 354 days are shorter then the 365 plus days of the solar cycles, time keeping during the winter was ignored. Nature based agricultural festivals were then based on this time keeping scheme.

Calendars really began with efforts to merge the lunar cycles with the solar cycle. The calendar which the world uses today is based upon the Roman calendar introduced during the time of Julius Caesar which is a reform of earlier less accurate versions. It is called the Julian calendar and it took effect in the Roman empire on January 1, 45 BCE by a decree from Julius Caesar.  

The Julian calendar has two types of years: a normal year of 365 days and a leap year of 366 days which occurs every 4th year.  giving an average year that is 365.25 days long. That is more than the actual solar year value of approximately 365.2422 days which means the Julian calendar gains one day every 129 years. In other words, the Julian calendar gains 3.1 days every 400 years. 

The Romans preserved the shell of the lunar system by labeling the key phases of the moon within the new months. These are:

The Roman week or nundinal period was eight days which is indicated in all the calendars by the letters A to H. The Nundinae were market days, on which the farmers came into Rome. Whether these should be considered as feast days (feriae) was a disputed question even in antiquity.

January became the first month of the year around turn of the millennium as Rome became an empire. The rationale for the transition from March to January is give by the Roman poet Ovid (43 BCE to 18 CE)  (Fasti, ii 47 foll.)

In Latin

  1. Sed tamen antiqui ne nescius ordinis erres,
  2. Primus ut est iani mensis et ante fuit.
  3. Qui sequitur ianum, veteris fuit ultimus anni,
  4. Tu quoque sacrorum Termine finis eras.
  5. Primus enim iani mensis, quia ianua prima est

In English

  1. But nevertheless, the ancients were not ignorant of order,
  2. The first is (now) Janus' month (January) as it was before
  3. That which is (now) behind Janus (February) was the end of the old year
  4. You can declare the end follows the beginning
  5. First now is Janus' month because the first is a gate (Janus)

The deity Janus was the deity of transitions who was often thought of as a gate or door. Hence this property of being transitional was thought more appropriate throughout the empire for representing the start of the year.

References


Fowler, W. Warde (1899) The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic - An Introduction to the Study of the Romans. MacMillan and Co, Limited. London, New York. Online at: https://archive.org/details/romanfestivalsof00fowluoft/romanfestivalsof00fowluoft/page/74/mode/2up
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar

Ancient Rome around 600 BCE. The Lapis Niger and adjacent shrine were located in the central valley which was the entrance to the Palatine hill. This valley later became the forum.

From: https://algargosarte.blogspot.com/2015/09/el-lapis-niger-y-la-cloaca-maxima.html

Month of March (Month of Storms)

(February 1, 2024) Akkadian MuR  meaning" Rainstorms/Storms" as an epithet for conflict

Martial Patriotic Events

Equinox Events

Reference for all Roman Months

Calendar Months from: Fowler, W. Warde (1899) The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic - An Introduction to the Study of the Romans. MacMillan and Co, Limited. London, New York. Online at: https://archive.org/details/romanfestivalsof00fowluoft/romanfestivalsof00fowluoft/page/74/mode/2up

Month of April (Month of Life-Powers)

(February 1, 2024) Akkadian A.PaR.L meaning "Those.Forces.Not-having" or "Those not having forces" as a description of non-motion powers, that is, the life powers.

Fertility Events

Spring Events


First, new life is brought into the pen by decorating it with green branches. At the first sign of daylight, the farmer would purify the sheep by sweeping the pen and then constructing two or more bonfires of straw, olive branches, laurel, and sulfur. The farmer and sheep would then pass though the fires.Next offerings of millet, cakes, and milk were then presented before Pales. After these, the farmer would wet his hands with dew, face the east, and repeat a prayer four times. Such prayers requested Pales’s assistance in freeing the shepherd and the flock from evils brought about by accidental wrongdoings. The final portion of the rural festival made use of the beverage burranica (a combination of milk and sapa (boiled wine). After consumption of this beverage, the shepherd would leap through the fire three times, bringing an end to the ceremony.

Pales was a deity of shepherds, flocks and livestock. The primary Roman hill, the Palatine hill, was named for him. Akkadian Palu means "ruler" which includes ruling over animals. This is an epithet for the Druid  hermaphrodite emotion/motion power deity Thu.  Minerva is another epithet the Romans used for Thu which means "supporter of the shepherds" (Akkadian MN.RW) where "shepherds" can also mean "magic crafters."  

Urban areas not having sheep or other livestock abstracted Parilia into a celebration of a person's birth city calling the event "natalis urbis" (city of birth).

Instead of incorporating livestock into the fire ritual they added bones to the fires. These community bone fires became the word "bonfire." In the center of Rome on the Palatine hill the ashes of the calves from Fordica were used instead of bones.

Month of May (Month of Ghosts)

(February 1, 2024) Akkadian M.Y ("Fertility-Fluids.Not Affected by" or "Not being affected by fertility-fluids" as an epithet for those not physically alive by being connected to the life network)

Unexpected Death Events

May in Italy seems to have been a month of erratic unpredictable weather. This characteristic was applied to the unpredictability of death.

Month of June (Month of the Moon-Eyed)

(February 1, 2024) Akkadian IN ("Moon-Eyed-Ones" which is an epithet for astrological magic crafters who attempt to affect fate)

Events Which Are Affected By Fortune/Fate

Fifth Month -July (Month of the Wheat Harvest)

(February 1, 2024) The was soon to be renamed July after Julius Caesar. Harvests begin. The wheat harvest in Italy occurs between late June and early July.

Events Seeking a Good Wheat Harvest

Harvest Celebrations 

(Lucaria is equivalent to the August 1 Lammas Celebration in Northern Europe)

Sixth Month (August, Month of the Fruit Harvest)

(February 1, 2024) The was eventually renamed August after Augustus Caesar. This was the month in which the summer fruits and vegetables were harvested.

Events Involving the Fruit and Vegetable Harvest and Their Transport

Seventh Month - September (Month of Thanksgiving and Fun)

(February 1, 2024) 

Events of Thanksgiving and Fun

Eighth Month - October (Month of Return)

(February 2, 2024) This month is the end of the warring season so it deals with putting away the weapons of war.

Events of 

Ninth Month - November (Month for Tying Up Loose Ends)

(February 2, 2024)

Tenth Month - December (Month for Preserving the Life Powers Through the Winter)

(February 2, 2024)

Month of January (Janus' Month or Transition Month)

(February 3, 2024) January and February were not a part of the original calendar but were added sometime in early Roman history

Month of February (Month of Planting/Seeding of Both People and Plants)

(February 3, 2024) January and February were not a part of the original calendar but were added sometime in early Roman history