Definition: Parentalia is the name of an Etruscan and Roman festival running from February 13-21 to honor the dead. The first 7 days of Parentalia were for private ancestral rites, but on the final day of the Parentalia there was a public celebration called the Feralia, which Feldherr refers to as "a banquet shared with the dead." He says that at the Feralia, the following offerings are made to the dead: salt, cereals, beans, wine, milk, and violets.
Holleman says the Pre-Julian calendar Parentalia was not 9, but 8-1/2 days.
References:
- C. Robert Phillips III "Parentalia" The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spawforth. © Oxford University Press 1949, 1970, 1996, 2005.
- "Non inter nota sepulcra: Catullus 101 and Roman Funerary Ritual
Andrew Feldherr
Classical Antiquity, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Oct., 2000), pp. 209-231. - "Considerations about the Tomb of the Claudians at Cerveteri"
A. W. J. Holleman
Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Vol. 33, No. 4 (4th Qtr., 1984), pp. 504-508
