Terminalia

From FB:

“Terminalia was an ancient Roman festival celebrated on February 23 in honor of the god Terminus, who presided over boundaries. Terminalia was celebrated on the last day of the old Roman year, from which it derives its name.

The statue of Terminus was merely a stone or post stuck in the ground to distinguish between properties. His worship is said to have been instituted by Numa who ordered that every one should mark the boundaries of his landed property by stones to be consecrated to Jupiter Terminalis, and at which every year sacrifices were to be offered at the festival of the Terminalia. On the festival the two owners of adjacent property crowned the statue with garlands and raised a crude altar, on which they offered up some corn, honeycombs, and wine, and sacrificed a lamb or a suckling pig. They concluded with singing the praises of the god. The public festival in honor of this god was celebrated at the sixth milestone on the road towards Laurentum doubtless because this was originally the extent of the Roman territory in that direction.

The central Terminus of Rome (to which all roads led) was the god’s ancient shrine on the Capitoline Hill. The temple of Jupiter, king of the gods, had to be built around it (with a hole in the ceiling as Terminus demanded open-air sacrifices).

Terminalia involved practices which can be regarded as a reflection or “yearly renewal” of foundational rituals. Neighboring families would garland their respective sides of the marker and make offerings to Terminus at an altar. Ovid identifies these, again, as crops, honeycombs, and wine. The marker itself would be drenched in the blood of a sacrificed lamb or pig. There followed a communal feast and hymns in praise of Terminus.

Those authors who gave the credit to Numa explained his motivation as the prevention of violent disputes over property. Plutarch further states that, in keeping with Terminus’s character as a guarantor of peace, his earliest worship did not involve blood sacrifices.”