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Compitalia

(early January)

This post is also available in: Polish (polski)

The procession during the holiday Compitalia.

Compitalia it was a Roman festival during which every farmer in the countryside built a small chapel with an altar on the border of his fields. There he would assemble a plough and wooden dolls, one for each person in the house. The next day, there was a cleansing sacrifice for the coming year.

In the city, the president of every insulae sacrificed a hen on the altar erected at each crossing. The holiday usually lasted three days. It was celebrated differently in the countryside than in the city.

Sources
  • Jaczynowska Maria, Religie świata rzymskiego, Warszawa 1987
  • Zieliński Tadeusz, Religia Rzeczypospolitej Rzymskiej