Festival of Floralia, or Floral Games, (April 28- May 3), ancient Rome

In the Northern Hemisphere, Spring is well underway, the days are getting warmer, the flowers are blooming, and the birds and bees are active. The ancient Romans knew how to celebrate it.

The Floralia was a six-day festival for the goddess Flora, deity of flowers and youthful pleasures, whose cult was said to have been introduced by Numa. Flora was also the goddess of Spring, especially associated with vines, olives, fruit trees and honey-bearing plants. A temple was built for her at the Circus Maxima between the Aventine and the Palatine hills, and a shrine at the Quirinal at which corn stalks were offered.

It was a festival of sexual fun and liberty and marked by the consumption of oceans of grog. Beans and other seeds were planted, representing fecundity. Originally a movable feast controlled by the condition of the crops and flowers, it’s believed to have been instituted in 238 BCE. Games were instituted in honour of Flora at that time, but were soon discontinued before being restored in 173 BCE as a six-day festival (April 28-May 3), after storms had destroyed crops and vines.
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