Which Roman festival honored the spirits of the dead from February 13 to 21? The festival was the Parentalia, Rome’s nine-day observance for deceased ancestors.
The Parentalia began on February 13 and concluded on February 21. Most observances were private and family-centered: Romans visited ancestral tombs and offered flowers, grain, salt, wine-soaked bread, and violets to the spirits known as the Manes. These rites expressed the continuing obligations between living family members and their dead.
The opening day also had a public dimension. A Vestal performed a ceremony for Rome’s collective ancestors, while temples were closed, marriages were forbidden, and magistrates put aside official insignia during the sacred period. The family head, or paterfamilias, had a formal responsibility to maintain the rites.
The final day was Feralia, a darker public observance intended to placate potentially restless or destructive spirits. It is easy to confuse the Parentalia with Feralia because the latter marked its conclusion, or with Caristia on February 22, which shifted attention toward family affection and a communal meal. Saturnalia and Lupercalia honored different gods and had different purposes.