Ovid describes sacred offerings (
sacrificia) of flower-garlands, wheat, salt, wine-soaked bread and violets to the "shades of the dead" (
Manes or
Di manes) at family tombs, which were located outside Rome's sacred boundary
(pomerium). These observances were meant to strengthen the mutual obligations and protective ties between the living and the dead and were a lawful duty of the
paterfamilias (head of the family). Parentalia concluded on 21 February in the midnight rites of
Feralia, when the
paterfamilias addressed the malevolent, destructive aspects of his
Manes. Feralia was a placation and exorcism: Ovid thought it a more rustic, primitive and ancient affair than the Parentalia itself. It appears to have functioned as a cleansing ritual for
Caristia on the following day when the family held an informal banquet to celebrate the affectionate bonds between themselves and their benevolent ancestral dead (
Lares). The emphasis on the collective cult for the Manes and early
di parentes implies their afterlife as vague and lacking individuation. In later cults they are vested with personal qualities, and in
Imperial cult, they acquired divine
numen and became
divi, divine entities. From Parentalia to Caristia all temples were closed, marriages were forbidden, and "magistrates appeared without their insignia," an indication that no official business was conducted.
William Warde Fowler describes the Parentalia as "practically a yearly renewal of the rite of burial". Individuals might also be commemorated on their birthday
(dies natalis). Some would be commemorated throughout the year on marked days of the month, such as the
Kalends,
Nones or
Ides, when lamps might be lit at the tomb. The
Lemuria on 9, 11 and 13 May was aimed at appeasing "kinless and hungry" spirits of the dead. ==See also==