1 June

Festival in honour of Carna

Carna refers to two distinct women from Roman mythology:

Carna was a nymph who lived where Rome would eventually be. Janus fell in love with her and gave her power over door hinges and handles. As a goddess, she was known as Cardea, from cardo hinge.

Carna was a Roman goddess who presided over the heart and other organs. Her festival took place on June 1.


3 June

Festival to Bellona

Bellona was an Ancient Roman war goddess. She is believed to be one of the numinous gods of the Romans (without a particular mythology and possibly of Etruscan origin), and is supposed by many to have been the Romans' original war deity, predating the identification of Mars with Ares. She accompanied Mars into battle and is taken variously as his sister, wife or daughter. She is also (as at her temple in Ostia) syncreted with Magna Mater.

Bellona's attribute is a sword and she is depicted wearing a helmet and armed with a spear and a torch.

Politically, all Senate meetings relating to foreign war were conducted in the Templum Bellonae (Temple of Bellona) on the Collis Capitolinus outside the pomerium.

Bellona's festival was celebrated on June 3.


7 June

first day of the Vestalia (penus vestae) in honor of Vesta

Vesta was celebrated at the Vestalia which took place from June 7 to June 15. On the first day of the festivities the penus Vestae (the curtained sanctum sanctorum of her temple) was opened, for the only time during the year, for women to offer sacrifices in. Such sacrifices included the removal of an unborn calf from a pregnant cow.

Vesta's (in some versions she is called Vestia) fire was guarded at her Temples by her priestesses, the Vestales. Every March 1 the fire was renewed. It burned until 391, when the Emperor Theodosius I forbade public pagan worship. One of the Vestales mentioned in mythology was Rhea Silvia, who with the God Mars conceived Romulus and Remus.

The Vestales were one of the few full time clergy positions in Roman religion. They were drawn from the patrician class and had to observe absolute chastity for 30 years. It was from this that the Vestales were named the Vestal virgins. They could not show excessive care of their person, and they must not let the fire go out. The Vestal Virgins lived together in a house near the Forum (Atrium Vestae), supervised by the Pontifex Maximus. On becoming a priestess, a Vestal Virgin was legally emancipated from her father's authority and swore a vow of chastity for 30 years. This vow was so sacred that if it were broken, the Vestal was buried alive in the Campus Sceleris ('Field of Wickedness'). It is likely that this is what happened to Rhea Silvia. They were also very independent and had many privileges that normal women did not have. They could move around the city but had to be in a carriage.
Vesta is also known as honoring God in Greek mythology.
Vesta was the goddess of the hearth at the centre of atrium and home. It was in the house and home that Vesta was most important as she was the goddess of the hearth and of fire. Vesta was particularly important to women of the household as the hearth was the place where food was prepared and next to it the meal was eaten with offerings being thrown into the fire to seek omens (the future) from the way it burned. Her weakness was that she couldn't fall in love.

8 June - second day of the Vestalia in honor of Vesta

9 June - third day of the Vestalia in honor of the goddess Vesta

10 June - fourth day of the Vestalia in honor of Vesta

11 June - fifth day of the Vestalia in honor of Vesta

Matralia in honor of Mater Matuta

Mater Matuta was an indigenous Roman goddess, whom the Romans eventually made equivalent to the dawn goddess Aurora, and the Greek goddess Eos. Mater Matuta had a temple on the Forum Boarium, and she was also associated with the sea harbors and ports, where there were other temples to her.

Her festival was the Matralia, celebrated on June 11 in her temple at the Forum Boarium. The festival was only for single women or women in their first marriage, who offered prayers for their nieces and nephews, and then drove a slave out of the temple.


12 June - sixth day of the Vestalia in honor of Vesta

13 June - seventh day of the Vestalia in honor of Vesta ; Quinquatrus Minusculae held in honor of Minerva

14 June - eighth day of the Vestalia in honor of Vesta

15 June - ninth and final day of the Vestalia in honor of Vesta