April 28, 2009
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Writers Choice Featured Questions: Week 45
Hey all, I’m back and here are some questions for you.
(Better late than never, eh?)five questions for this week
How do you define “Wealth”?
redletra
What is the American Dream?
WondersCafe What is the one invention you wish never existed?
CaKaLusa What career would you pursue if money (salary wise and/or education spending, for example) was not an issue?
litoxshortaii If you could take part in any one event in history, what would it be?
Xena_Woman_12Answer any one or all of these questions in the coming week. I try to mix the whimsical with the serious here, so hopefully there is at least one question here for everyone.
April 28th
Six days of government sanctioned debauchery began today with the Roman festival of Floralia. Originally a feast motivated by the condition of crops and flowers, it is thought to have been created by command of the Sibylline oracle in 238 BCE. Games were instituted in honor of Flora at that time, but were soon discontinued. They were restored in 173 BCE by the consuls L Postumius Albinus and M Popilius Laenas after storms had destroyed the crops and vines.
Flora, originally a Sabine goddess of spring, flowers, and youth, was offered prayers for the ripe fruits of fields and trees. Her husband is Zephyrus, the west wind, and she is the twin sister of Faunus, the god of wild creatures. In later times, she was identified with the Greek goddess Chloris. A temple was built for her at the Circus Maxima between the Aventine and the Palatine hills, and there was a shrine at the Quirinal where stalks of grain were offered.
Men decorated themselves, their animals, and the city with flowers, especially roses. Women put aside their usual clothes and wore festive dresses. The scene was one of unrestrained merriment. Beans and other seeds were planted, representing fecundity. Offerings of milk and honey were made on this day and the surrounding five days, which comprise the Florifertum. Goats and hares were let loose as they represented fertility. Gift-giving for the season included small vegetables as tokens of sex and fertility.
The first five days of the games were theatrical performances. Day and night there were games (ludi Florales), pantomimes, theater and stripteases with people of all classes in their brightest clothes. The courtesans and prostitutes of Rome regarded the day as their own, performing naked in the theater and possibly fought in the gladiatorial arena.
When Augustus became Pontifex Maximus, he built a chapel to Vesta in his own house on the Palatine, and dedicated it on this day, which was made a public holiday.
Comments (4)
Hooray, the WCFQ’s are back! I was running out of blogging ideas. It was scary.
If money wasn’t an issue, I wouldn’t HAVE a career. I’d just read books, take classes that sounded interesting, volunteer at museums, and travel around to places. I’d be a dilettante.
To think that I would have missed out on such a great weblog had I not looked at the foot prints. You should comment someday. I want to thank you for featuring my question. I use to have a daily question in the old days. Thank you.
I’m so glad that you’re back! I may even do one of these questions that I haven’t ever done on my page before.
(I’ll have to wait til heidenkind does one so I can kind of copy her format. hehe)
@heidenkind - I think you’d find something to do that would be your “life’s work.” You don’t have to be paid for something to be your career.
@WondersCafe - Thanks
This is actually the second time I stole one of your questions from the featured question chatbox. The other one was “What right do humans have to treat animals as they wish.”
@Broom_Service - lol