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Februarius, fully Mensis Februarius ("month of Februa"), was the shortest month of the Roman calendar from which the Julian calendar and Gregorian month of February derived. It was eventually placed second in order, preceded by Ianuarius ("month of Janus", January) and followed by Martius ("month of Mars", March). In the oldest Roman calendar, which the Romans believed to have been instituted by their legendary founder Romulus, March was the first month, and the calendar year had only ten months in all. Ianuarius and Februarius were supposed to have been added by Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, originally at the end of the year. It is unclear when the Romans reset the course of the year so that January and February came first.
Februarius was the only month in the pre-Julian calendar to have an even number of days, numbering 28.Forsythe, Time in Roman Religion, p. 14. This was mathematically necessary to permit the year itself to have an odd number of days.Macrobius. Saturnalia, Vol. I. Ancient sources derived Februarius from februum, a thing used for ritual purification. Most of the observances in this month concerned the dead or closure, reflecting the month's original position at the end of the year. The Parentalia was a nine-day festival honoring the ancestors and propitiating the dead, while the Terminalia was a set of rituals pertaining to boundary stones that was probably also felt to reinforce the boundary of the year.Forsythe, Time in Roman Religion, pp. 14, 17.
The agricultural writer Columella says that meadows and grain fields are "purged" (purguntur), probably both in the practical sense of clearing away old debris and by means of ritual. The duties of February thus suggest the close bond between agriculture and religion in Roman culture. According to the farmers' almanacs, the tutelary deity of the month was Neptune.H.H. Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic (Cornell University Press, 1981), p. 69.
February had one and possibly two (feriae conceptivae). The Amburbium ("City Circuit") was a purification of the whole city with no fixed date, but seems to have been held in February.Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic, p. 82. The Fornacalia ("Oven Festival") was celebrated by the thirty ancient divisions of the Roman people known as curiae. Each curia celebrated a festival separately under its own leader (curio) on various days following the Nones. These dates were established and publicized by the curio maximus, the chief curio. Anyone who missed the Fornacalia celebrated by his own curia, or who didn't know his curia, could attend a public festival which was always held as the concluding ceremony on February 17.Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic, p. 73. The Fornacalia overlapped with the festival of the ancestral dead that dominated the month, and on its last day coincided with the Quirinalia, a day also known as the Feast of Fools (feriae stultorum). Februarius was thus such a religiously complex month that during the Julian reform of the calendar, when days were added to some months, it was left as it had been, even though it was the shortest month.Jörg Rüpke, The Roman Calendar from Numa to Constantine: Time, History, and the Fasti, translated by David M.B. Richardson (Blackwell, 2011, originally published 1995 in German), pp. 73–74, 112–113.
Each day was marked with a letter to denote its status under religious law. In the month of February:
By the late 2nd century AD, extant calendars no longer show days marked with these letters, probably in part as a result of calendar reforms undertaken by Marcus Aurelius.Michele Renee Salzman, On Roman Time: The Codex Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity (University of California Press, 1990), pp. 17, 121–122. Days were also marked with nundinal letters in cycles of A B C D E F G H, to mark the "market week"Rüpke, The Roman Calendar from Numa to Constantine, p. 6. (these are omitted on the table below).
On a dies religiosus, individuals were not to undertake any new activity, nor do anything other than tend to the most basic necessities. On the calendar under the Republic, a dies natalis was an anniversary such as a temple founding or rededication, sometimes thought of as the "birthday" of a deity. During the Roman Empire, some of the traditional festivals localized at Rome became less important, and the birthdays and anniversaries of the Roman emperor and his family gained prominence as Roman holidays. On the calendar of military religious observances known as the Feriale Duranum, sacrifices pertaining to Imperial cult outnumber the older festivals.
Festivals marked in large letters on extant fasti, represented by festival names in all capital letters on the table, are thought to have been the most ancient holidays, becoming part of the calendar before 509 BC.Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic, p. 41. After the mid-1st century AD, a number of dates are added to calendars for spectacles and games (ludi circenses) held in honor of various deities in the venue called a "circus".
Unless otherwise noted, the dating and observances on the following table are from H.H. Scullard, Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic (Cornell University Press, 1981), pp. 69–84.
| • dies natalis of the Temple to Juno Sospita • Ludi circenses for Hercules (after the mid-1st century AD)Salzman, On Roman Time, p. 122. |
| • dies natalis of the Temple to Concordia on the Capitoline Hill |
| Ludi Genialici ("Games for the Genius", perhaps the Genius of the Roman PeopleMary Beard, J.A. North, and S.R.F. Price, Religions of Rome: A Sourcebook (Cambridge University Press, 1998), vol. 2, p. 77.), after the mid-1st century AD |
| Ludi Genialici continue |
| • dies natalis of a Temple to Faunus on the Tiber Island • the nine-day Parentatio or Parentalia begins, with a public rite conducted by the Vestals for the collective di parentes or ancestors of the Roman people |
| • Parentalia continues |
| • Februa (later)Lupercalia • Parentalia continues |
| • Parentalia continues |
| • Quirinalia • last day of the Fornacalia • Parentalia continues |
| • Parentalia continues |
| • Parentalia continues |
| • Parentalia continues |
| • Feralia, marking the end of the Parentalia with offerings to the Manes |
| • Caristia, family celebration that finished the Parentalia |
| • TERMINALIA |
| • Regifugium |
| * Lorio, established by Hadrian to commemorate the adoption of Antoninus Pius as CaesarSalzman, On Roman Time, p. 141. |
| • Equirria |
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