11th October: Meditrinalia

On this date in ancient Rome, they celebrated a festival called the Meditrinalia. An excuse to crack open a bottle of wine if ever I heard one.

1. The Meditrinalia was a Roman festival celebrated on October 11 in honour of the new Wine vintage.
2. It was dedicated to a lesser known goddess, Meditrina, who is the goddess of wine and health.
3. Part of the ritual on this date was the sampling of the new wine vintage by the workers who had produced it.
4. There was a customary saying connected with the wine tasting: vetus novum vinum bibo, novo veteri morbo medeor ("Being old, I drink new wine, and cure the old disease with the new").
5. Another custom was to mix old wine with the new in one cup and use it as a libation to the goddess.
6. Not much is known about Meditrina. She may have been the daughter of Apollo, others say daughter of Ascelpius, God of Healing and son of Apollo. So she was either daughter or grand-daughter to Apollo.
7. Some also say she was Cupid's cousin.
8. Her symbols are healing charms and herbal preparations.
9. Sextus Pompeius Festus was the first to write an account of the festival, linking it with a goddess, in the second century.
10. Our modern word, "medicine" may derive from Meditrina. Or perhaps both came from the Latin word "media" referring to a middle way, or balance, since disease was deemed to be an imbalance of the bodily systems.