FERALIA, in Antiquity, a festival observed by the
1 In a letter to Mr Dancombe, Lord Orrery says, "His reward was a trifle, an arrant trifle. He has even told me that he thought Pope feared him more than he loved him. He had no opinion of Pope's heart; and declared him, in the words of Bishop Atterbury, "Mens curva in corpore curvo."
Ferdinand Romans on the 21st of February (Ovid says the 17th), in honour of the manes of their deceased friends and relations. Varro derives the word from inferi, or from fero, on account of a repast carried to the sepulchres of such as had that day the last offices rendered to them. Festus derives it from ferio, on account of the victims sacrificed. Vossius again derives it from the epithet fera, cruel, frequently applied to death. Macrobius (Saturnalia, lib. i., cap. 13) refers the origin of the ceremony to Numa Pompilius. Ovid, in his Fasti, goes back for its institution as far as the time of Æneas. He adds, that on the same day a sacrifice was performed to the goddess Muta, or Dumb; and that the persons who officiated were an old woman and a number of attendant young girls.
During the continuance of this festival, which lasted eleven days, presents were made at the graves of the deceased, marriages were forbidden, and the temples of the gods were shut. Whilst the ceremonies continued, it was imagined that the ghosts suffered no punishments in hell, but that their tormentors allowed them to wander round their tombs, and to feast upon the meats which their surviving friends had prepared for them. During the ferialia public feasts were sometimes given to the people at the tombs of the rich and great, by their heirs or particular friends.