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Liberalia

The Liberalia (March 17) is the festival of the ancient god Liber Pater and his consort Libera. The Romans celebrated Liberalia with sacrifices, processions, ribald and gauche songs, and masks which were hung on trees.[citation needed]

Herm of Dionysus, used in the temple of liber pater in the forum, 1st century AD.

This feast celebrates the maturation of young boys to manhood. Roman boys, usually at age 14, would remove the bulla praetexta, a hollow charm of gold or leather, which parents placed about the necks of children to ward off evil spirits. At the Liberalia ceremony the young men might place the bulla on an altar (with a lock of hair or the stubble of his first shave placed inside) and dedicate it to the Lares, who were gods of the household and family. Mothers often retrieved the discarded bulla praetexta and kept it out of superstition. If the son ever achieved a public triumph, the mother could display the bulla to ward off any evil that might be wished upon the son by envious people. The young men discarded the toga praetexta, which was probably derived from Etruscan dress and was decorated with a broad purple border and worn with the bulla, by boys and girls. The boys donned the clothing of adulthood, the pure white toga virilis, or "man's gown" (Ovid referred to the pure white toga for this festival as Toga Libera). After their private ceremony, family and friends would accompany the young men to the Capitoline and Forum for the purpose of making sacrifices to the gods. Afterwards they would visit the records office where they would officially be registered as full Roman citizens.

The celebration on March 17 was meant to honor Liber Pater (translating to: The Free Father) , an ancient god of fertility and wine (like Bacchus, the Roman version of the Greek god Dionysus). Although, there is evidence to suggest that Liber Pater was an Italian deity that had predated the Roman Republic and was eventually more a kin to Bacchus with years of Greek ideas and rites. Liber Pater is also a vegetation god, responsible for protecting seed. Liber, again like Dionysus, had female priests although Liber's priests were older women. Wearing wreaths of ivy, the priestesses made special cakes, or libia, of oil and honey which passing devotees would have them sacrifice on their behalf. The priestesses would make the sacrifices on a portable Altair. Over time this feast evolved and included the goddess Libera, Liber Pater's consort, and the feast divided so that Liber governed the male seed and Libera the female. Ovid in his almanac entry for the festival identifies Libera as the celestial manifestation of Ariadne.

It was significant for the event to take place on March 17th, but in some cases such as for Nero whom it is suggested that his ceremony would have taken place earlier in the year as he was already consul by March 4th of that year. As well, He was only thirteen and three months old by such time.

This ancient Italian ceremony was a "country" or rustic ceremony. The processional featured a large phallus or Phallic symbols which the devotees carried on small carts throughout the countryside and later to the city, this was to bring the blessing of fertility to the land and the people. The procession and the phallus were meant also to protect the crops from evil. At the end of the procession, a virtuous and respected matron placed a wreath upon the phallus.

While Liberalia is a relatively unknown event in modern times, references to Liberalia and the Roman goddess Libera are still found today online and in astrology.

Argei

Related to the celebration of the Liberalia is the Procession of the Argei, celebrated on March 16 and 17. The Argei were 27 sacred shrines created by the Numina (very powerful ancient gods who are divine beings without form or face) and found throughout the regions of Rome. However, modern scholars have not discovered their meaning or use. In the argei celebration, 30 figures also called Argei were fashioned from rushes into shapes resembling men; later in the year they were tossed into the river(s). The origin of this celebration is not certain, but many scholars feel that it may have been a ritualistic offering meant to appease and praise the Numa and that the 30 argei probably represented the thirty elder Roman curiae, or possibly represented the 30 Latin townships. Other ancient scholars wrote that the use of the bull-rush icons was meant to deter celebrants from human sacrifice, which was done to honor Saturn. Some historical documents indicate that the argei (the sacred places) took their names from the chieftains who came with Hercules, the Argive, to Rome and then occupied the Capitoline (Saturnian) Hill. There is no way at present to verify this information, but it does coincide with the belief that Rome was founded by the Pelasgians and the name Argos is linked to that group.