How Did Roman Public Festivals Change The Course Of A Nation?

How could holding a public festival change the course of a nation? Every year, the Romans spent the majority of their days dedicating their lives to commemorate the gods, past leaders, seasons, or important historical events that led up to their current culture. These commemorations came in the form of festivities that would heavily influence the society the Romans lived in. During the period of ancient civilizations, Roman society revolved around festivals, which influenced their customs, art, and religion. Religion:

The majority of festivals were created to worship and please the Roman deities. The term "Dies Fenalis" is used for certain festivals that were meant to keep the gods appeased, usually through acts such as a procession to the

These celebrations were not confined to only having Roman origins and often followed traditions from other cultures, such as Egypt and Greece. The Romans looked for any opportunity to hold a public or private festival, such as using birthdays or a military general’s achievements as an excuse for one. On multiple occasions, festivals would overlap with one another and stretch for days or weeks at a time. One of the possible reasons that the Romans would create so many holidays would be because of their lack of weekends. Over time, in order to organize the festivals in a more reasonable way, the solar calendar was created to mark momentous occasions. Despite that, there would still be many festivals that could be randomly called to begin by the state, leaving less than eighty-nine days in one year that are not dedicated to a festival. Festivals were more commonly associated with large feasts, gambling, drinking, dancing, and singing. Anything could happen on the days of some festivals that would not normally happen, such as children being made heads of the house, slaves being treated as kings and queens, or lowly animals being praised and worshiped. Festivals were a time of excitement and competition as well, leading to the "Ludi" festivals, which were meant for popular games and races. Overall, the Romans not only viewed festivals as a way of conducting religious affairs but also as an outlook on precious life, which would go by quickly and should be treasured in the