Feronia is a Latin goddess who was honored with the first fruits of the harvest in a Thanksgiving type of ritual thought to ensure a bountiful harvest for the following year. In ancient Roman religion, Feronia was a goddess associated with wildlife, fertility, health and abundance. She was worshipped in Capena, at the base of Mount Soracte, a mountain ridge in a province of ancient Rome.

As the goddess who granted freedom to slaves or civil rights to the most humble part of society, she was especially honored among plebeians and freedmen. In ancient Rome Feronia’s festival was celebrated on the Ides of November, which in all likelihood was originally the day of the full moon, but eventually was settled on November 13th, or to be slightly more accurate in the Roman versions of November 13th.

Feronia’s festival, which was like a lively fair or market, was celebrated in a sacred grove where first-harvested fruits were offered to her near the foot of Mt. Soracte. Although woods and springs were especially sacred to her, and she preferred the peace of the country to the hustle of the city, Feronia also had a temple in Rome.

Feronia’s followers were thought to perform magickal acts such as fire walking. Slaves thought of her as a goddess of freedom, and they believed that, if they sat on a particular holy stone in her sacred sanctuary, they could attain freedom. One tradition says that newly freed slaves would go to her temple to receive the pileus, the special cap that signified their status as free people.

From Goddesses For Every Day and Patheos

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