Discover the Carmentalia, an ancient Roman festival held in January in honor of the goddess of prophecy and childbirth.

Carmentalia: an ancient Roman festival of birth, prophecy and new beginnings

When we think of ancient Roman festivals, the Saturnalia often come to mind: cheerful celebrations happening in December, with banquets, role reversals and a joyful suspension of everyday rules. But the Roman calendar of festivals was filled with other events dedicated to very specific aspects of life.

Among them were the Carmentalia, held in January in honor of Carmenta, a goddess deeply connected to women and motherhood.

Carmenta was a Roman goddess associated with prophecy, childbirth and the protection of mothers. According to myth, she was the mother of Evander, the Arcadian hero who settled on the hills near the future site of Rome, long before the city was founded.

Gifted with foresight, Carmenta was believed to see both what had already happened and what was yet to come. For this reason, she was invoked under two names:
Postvorta, who looks back to the past, and Antevorta, who looks forward to the future.

The Carmentalia were celebrated on January 11 and 15, a month associated with new beginnings and dedicated to Janus, the god of transitions. Rituals took place at Carmenta’s shrine near the Porta Carmentalis, at the foot of the Capitoline Hill, one of Rome’s most ancient sacred areas.

In Ancient Rome, the Carmentalia were mainly observed by women, especially married women and expectant mothers. In a society where childbirth was one of the most dangerous moments in a woman’s life, women gathered to pray for safe deliveries, healthy children and family prosperity.

The rites were marked by strong ideas of purity. Leather and animal products were forbidden inside the shrine, as symbols of death, incompatible with a goddess devoted to life. There were no blood sacrifices. Instead, offerings were mainly based on simple foods, drinks, hymns and sometimes fava beans, symbols of fertility and abundance.

Though largely forgotten today, the Carmentalia still remind us that ancient Rome was not only about power and conquest, but also a place where fears, hopes, and deeply human concerns were shared by its people, who sought ways to change their fate for the best. 

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