Roman Summer Solstice Season Celebrations

Vestalia

In Rome, on this day, the vestal virgins officially opened the terrestrial storeroom to the abundance of consumables that came with the season. Likewise they stood guard at the central larder of the traditional Roman house and ceremonially swung open the gates so that women of the house could bring offerings to the temple of Vesta. She is forever guarded by virgins for, as the only unmarried daughter of Saturn, her sacred things are allowed contact only with chaste hands. She is as pure as the eternal flame that burns in her temple. “Vesta is the same as the Earth,” writes the Roman historian, Ovid, “under both of them is a perpetual fire; the earth and the hearth are symbols of the home. Conceive of Vesta as naught but the living flame.”

 

Mater Matuta

Next in the Roman solstice season came the festival to Mater Matuta, another form of the feminine goddess—this time she is the goddess of dawn. To her, married women offer foods cooked in earthenware vessels.

Jupiter Fulger

The feast honoring the sun’s entry into the constellation of Cancer follows. It is dedicated to Jupiter Fulger, hurler of lightning bolts. He represents the highest place or supreme dawn, the bright light than encroaches relentlessly on the darkness at the time of the summer solstice. 

Fortuna

In ancient Rome, a “festival of jollity and drunkenness” was celebrated by the Plebaia slaves in honor of Fortuna, the Roman Goddess who was the personification of good. She was originally a Goddess of blessing and fertility and in that capacity she was especially worshiped by mothers. As the Goddess of Chance, she was consulted about the future at her oracular shrines in Antium and Praeneste (now Anzio and Palestrina).

A favorite subject, the Goddess Fortuna is usually depicted holding a rudder in one hand and a cornucopia, horn of plenty, in the other. The rudder signified that she guides the destiny of the woman that she was the provider of abundance.

Known as Tyche to the Greeks, she was worshiped extensively throughout the Roman Empire and had oracular shrines. The festival involved features water. Events include foot-races and boat-races, and plenty of wine and merry making.

In the Middle Ages, she was depicted as Dame Fortuna who, spinning the wheel of fortune, seemingly at random, would grant goodness to one while she beset others with misfortune. In nearly every culture, the Summer Solstice has been recognized, revered and even feared. The Sun is at its height, but at the same moment begins to decline.