Hail Mars!
Hail to the coming year!
May we celebrate your equestrian vehicle,
And may we celebrate the lustral protection you grant in times of transition!
We honour too your alter ego of merry-making and good times.
Salve Marte!
Salve Mars-Mars!
Salve Marmurie!
Salve Marte!

 

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These Equirria or horse races in honour of Mars herald the new year that follows two days after them. Whether intercalation takes the form of an extra day after the 24th or after the 28th of February, or, with the pre-Julian calendar Romans, the insertion of 22, 23 or even more days, the February Equirria shifted to the second day before the Kalends of March. The Regifugium always preceded the February Equirria with two days between them. Mars is the god of protection. Before his assimilation to the Greek war-god Ares, he was understood primarily as an agricultural deity and the protector of the community – a protector who warded off both physical and supernatural forms of threat. The circular path of the race track mimetically duplicates the lustration circuit with which Mars is associated.