Hail Ceres!
Hail to the grain-mother!
Hail to the freedom that provision allows!
Hail too to the earth’s creative fecundity!
We honour yet again the terra mater who grants us the food of the earth as our sustenance.
May disease be kept away from our crops, and
May we be ever mindful of your gifts and our responsibility to approach you wisely.
May we serve you holy goddess who is our foundation and very source.
Salve Ceres!
Salve Liber Liberaque!
Salve Cerus!
Salve Dea et Deus!

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The Cerealia honour Ceres as the goddess of cereals and bread. Among the Romans, she is closely associated with Libera and Liber (or Jupiter Liber). Ceres is concerned with the vitality of the earth and its role as the source of nourishment. The principle of creation in Latin is known as cerus, and when personified as such, we have the masculine figure of Cerus – most likely an expression of Jupiter Liber. Cerus appears otherwise as an indigitation of Janus. The cult of this day involved attaching burning brands to the tails of (red) foxes who were let loose in the Circus Maximus. Ceres-Cerus conform to the largely undifferentiated by gender but creative deity honoured throughout the month of April. The ritual involving the red fox is apparently a mimetic effort to mitigate the danger of wheat rust (robigo) that could attack the grain crop.