Hail Janus!
Hail Juno!
Hail Flora!
Hail Maia!
Hail Bona Dea!
Hail to the guardian spirits of ‘Rome’!
May we root our love of the divine and the flowers of agricultural well-being and growth
In the ancestral world of those who have passed before us!
May we welcome spring and summer as the radiant face of the all-giving goddess!
May we honour our earth in wakeful guardianship!
Salve Iane!
Salve Iuno!
Salve Flora!
Salve Maia!
Salve Bona Dea!
Salve lares praestites!

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The Kalends of May are sacred, as are all Kalends, to Janus and Juno. These Kalends are a complex festival through the various associations to the day. Although they receive no special notation in the Fasti, they are also known elsewhere as Beltane for the Celtic Irish and constitute one of the major quarter festivals of the year – the beginning of the bright half of the year if not of the year itself.

The connection with Flora, the goddess of flowers, is to be seen with the Kalends as the central day of the Forifertum, the fereiae conceptivae of Flora – either a five-day celebration or the five-day period within which Flora’s movable feast could occur. Flora, along with Maia (after whom the month is named), Fauna, Ops, etc. is most likely the otherwise unnamed Bona Dea, the ‘Good Goddess’, and on this day the flamen Volcanalis sacrificed a pregnant sow to Maia (the ‘great one’) as the Bona Dea. A further significance for the Kalends of May is that they fall at the mid-point between the end of the April dies nefasti and the nine-day Lemuria in May.

The Aventine templum-herbarium of the Bona Dea was founded on this day. This temple housed snakes as part of the goddess’ retinue – the snake being a symbol for the genius and the lar. Implicit in this festival is the recognition of the lares praestites, of the legendary heroes Romulus and Remus, of the divine twins Mars and Quirinus, and as an affirmation of the ultimate identity of Jupiter and Mars. In other words, the fundamental understanding of the dioscuric triad between the terra mater and the divine twins is encapsulated in the Roman idea honoured at this time of the connection between the divine with the world of the dead and fertility.

Appropriate offerings for the day include those associated specifically with the Bona Dea, namely, milk and honey. And besides the porca, the day also has canine associations through the lares praestites. Furthermore, the snake appears as a potent vehicle for both goddess and god, for guardian spirit and the departed soul.