LUSTRAL Day (Dies Lustricus), that wherein the lustrations were performed for a child, and its name given; which was usually the ninth day from the birth of a boy, and the eighth from that of a girl. Though others performed the ceremony on the last day of that week wherein the child was born, and others on the fifth day from its birth.
Over this feast-day the goddess Nundina was supposed to preside; the midwives, nurses, and domestics handed the child backwards and forwards, around a fire burning on the altars of the gods, after which they sprinkled it with water; hence this feast had the name of
Lustral. of amphidromia. The old women mixed saliva and dust
Lustration. with the water. The whole ended with a sumptuous
entertainment. The parents received gifts from their
friends on this occasion. If the child was a male, their
door was decked with an olive garland; if a female,
with wool, denoting the work about which women
were to be employed.