3 December: Festival of Bona Dea

On this date, one of two annual festivals of Bona Dea, was held in Ancient Rome. Here are ten facts about this festival.

1. Who is Bona Dea? The name translates as “the good goddess”. She was also known as Feminea Dea "The Women's Goddess", Laudandae Deae "The Goddess to be Praised" and Sancta "The Holy One".
2. Her temple was was situated on a lower slope of the Aventine Hill, south east of the Circus Maximus. This location was home to several foreign cults as well. It isn't known exactly when Bona Dea's temple was founded.
3. She was a deity especially for women. Men were excluded from her festivals and rites and were not allowed to know her true name. That didn't stop the male historians from speculating as to who she might be. Various accounts say she was an aspect of Terra, Ops, Cybele, or Ceres; or she was a Latin form of the Greek goddess Demeter. Most often, however, she was identified as the wife, sister, or daughter of the god Faunus.
4. She is usually pictured as a matronly woman seated on a throne, holding a cornucopia in her left hand and a serpent feeding from a bowl in her right. The cornucopia, represents her abundant generosity and fruitfulness, and the snake her healing powers.
5. Bona Dea had two annual festivals, one in the spring, on May 1, which would be held at her temple, and a winter one held in December. This festival would be hosted by the wife of Rome's senior Annual Magistrate, who would invite other women from the elite class and their attendants.
6. So what did the festival entail? First of all, the house had to be ritually cleansed of all male presences. Husbands were presumably packed off to the Roman equivalent of the pub for the evening – but it wasn't just husbands and sons who had to make themselves scarce. Male animals and even pictures of males had to be removed. The house would be decorated with vine leaves and other plants (but myrtle, for some reason, was not allowed). A banquet was prepared and a special couch for the goddess to sit on as the honoured guest. The Vestal Virgins would bring a statue of the goddess from the temple to place on the couch. A sow would be sacrificed and its entrails presented to the goddess as her meal, along with a libation of wine. Thereafter, the women would drink Wine, play games and party all night.
7. According to Cicero, any man who caught even a glimpse of the rites could be punished by blinding.
8. Roman women weren't usually allowed to drink wine or perform Blood sacrifices. The festival of Bona Dea was the only time they could do so, especially during the evening and night. The wine, therefore, was euphemistically referred to as "milk" and the container as a "honey jar". (Could this be where the expression “land of Milk and Honey” comes from?) Historians say that the presence of the Vestal Virgins provided sufficient gravity and authority for the occasion to be recognised as an official one.
9. It was this festival, in 62 BC that led to Julius Caesar divorcing his wife Pompeia. Caesar was senior magistrate that year, so it fell to Pompeia to host the festival of Bona Dea. The story goes that a man named Publius Clodius Pulcher sneaked into the party dressed as a woman because he wanted to seduce Pompeia. While Pompeia may not have had anything to do with it at all, she still had to go, because “Caesar's wife must be above suspicion.”
10. Nevertheless, it did bring the festival into some disrepute, at least as far as Juvenal was concerned. Over a century later, he wrote, "which altars do not have their Clodius these days?" implying that the festival was little more than an excuse for women to have a drunken orgy.

My Christmas Novella!

A Very Variant Christmas

Last year, Jade and Gloria were embroiled in a bitter conflict to win back their throne and their ancestral home. This year, Queen Jade and Princess Gloria want to host the biggest and best Christmas party ever in their palace. They invite all their friends to come and bring guests. Not even the birth of Jade's heir just before Christmas will stop them.

The guest list includes most of Britain's complement of super-powered crime-fighters, their families and friends. What could possibly go wrong?

Gatecrashers, unexpected arrivals, exploding Christmas crackers and a kidnapping, for starters.

Far away in space, the Constellations, a cosmic peacekeeping force, have suffered a tragic loss. They need to recruit a new member to replace their dead colleague. The two top candidates are both at Jade and Gloria's party. The arrival of the recruitment delegation on Christmas Eve is a surprise for everyone; but their visit means one guest now faces a life-changing decision.

Meanwhile, an alliance of the enemies of various guests at the party has infiltrated the palace; they hide in the dungeon, plotting how best to get rid of the crime-fighters and the royal family once and for all. Problem is, they all have their own agendas and differences of opinion on how to achieve their aims.

Not to mention that this year, the ghosts who walk the corridors of the palace on Christmas Eve will be as surprised by the living as the living are by them.

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