Hail to Jupiter!
Hail too to Venus!
Hail Jupiter Liber!
We honour our lord today as the quickening spirit of the earth
And lord of intoxication who eases our woes.
May the earth accept our libation of wine,
And may we prosper in the days ahead!
Salve Iupiter!
Salve Venus!
Salve Iupiter Liber!

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The Vinalia are the first day after the tempus nefastum of the month of April. Like the Parilia, they are the central foci of the month. On this day, the priest of Jupiter – the flamen Dialis – picks (at least symbolically) the first cluster of grapes of the season. A lamb is offered to the deity, and wine is poured on the earth. Taking its name from vinum ‘wine’, the Vinalia Priora is a wine-festival celebrating Jupiter in his more Dionysian alter ego rather than as the celestial lord of the heavens and lightning per se. In Roman religion, Jupiter is himself a duality – an embodiment of the divine twins that his cognate Janus expresses more graphically. For the Vinalia, Jupiter as the earth lord whose province is agricultural well-being is the role of the god that is celebrated.

As if in keeping with the gender ambiguities or bi-gender inclusiveness of the April deities, Ovid mentions the garden deity Venus also as a patron of the Vinalia. The day coincides with the foundation-day of one of her temples. Venus would be an additamenta figure that subsequently became associated with the festival.

With the conclusion of the dies nefasti, the Vinalia are to be understood as an Iovian festival par excellence.