AMBARVALIA, in Antiquity, an annual ceremony among the Romans, on the Ides of May, when, in order to procure from the gods a happy harvest, they conducted the victims thrice round the corn-fields in procession before sacrificing them. Ambarealia were either of a private or public nature: the private were performed by the master of a family, and the public by the priests, called fratres arcales, who officiated at the solemnity. The prayer preferred on this occasion, the formula of which we have in Cato, de Re Rustica, cap. cxlii. was called carmen ambareale. At these feasts they sacrificed to Ceres a sow, a sheep, and a bull or heifer; whence they took the name of suecaturilia. The method of celebrating them was, to lead a victim round the fields, while the peasants accompanied it, and one of their number, crowned with oak, hymned forth the praises of Ceres in verses composed for the occasion. The processions and ceremonies of Rogation, or Gang-weep of the Latin Church, bore a great resemblance to the ancient ambarealia. Since the Reformation the perambulation of the parish boundaries has been substituted in their place.