I only just found out that February is named after Februus. And who is Februus, you ask? The Roman god of purifications. Associated with Hades/Pluto and the Underworld.
Tomorrow is the Ides of February, Ides being another idea that comes down to us from the Romans. To them ritual was very important, and is woven into the very fabric of time. And in some senses theirs wasn't that long ago.
1 comment:
It makes sense that Februus was a Roman god of purification as well as the name being associated with the word for fever. It looks as though it was a common reference to not just one culture.
If you feel like adventuring into the depths of wikipedia or google in general try doing a search for the term 'religious rituals'. There's a whole lot of them I hadn't begun to know about and I do know about more than a few. The Indian ones, having so many gods as they do, are myriad. I don't know how they have time for anything else.
Our culture has largely moved away from religious rituals but has found new irreligious ones that provide neither comfort nor transcendence. It's interesting to consider that although the Roman Empire may have fallen its descendents embraced Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, the two most ritualistic of the Christian religion.
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