TexasMadness
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Vestalia
Vesta is both the goddess of purity and of the earth. Fire is the symbol for both of these so often she is referred to as the Goddess of the Hearth.
Vestal Virgins were selected at a young age to tend the fire in the Temple of Vesta. They spent 30 years in her service. The first ten as a novice learning the rights of the religion. The next ten performing public ceremonies and tending the fire. And the last ten teaching the novices. At the end, they would return to an earthly life and marry. However, if she broke the rules of celibacy beforehand, she would be buried alive.
The Vestalia was the feast day of Vesta. Starting on June 7th, the doors to the Temple were thrown upon to all matrons who crowded to the temple barefoot with offerings of food. The Virgins offered sacred cakes made from the first ears of corn. On June 15th, the temple was swept and all that was left was thrown into the Tiber. During the festivals, marriages could not take place.
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6/9/2009, 4:34 pm
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Saijen SilverWolf
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Re: Vestalia
Interesting!
My maternal Grandmother's first name was Vesta 
--- Blessed Be,
~*~ Saijen ~*~
~~*~~  .~~*~~ |
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6/10/2009, 9:48 pm
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TexasMadness
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Re: Vestalia
How cool! Any Italian in your blood or just an interesting name choice?
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6/10/2009, 11:02 pm
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Saijen SilverWolf
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Re: Vestalia
No Italian that I'm aware of. My sister used to think Grandma was a gypsy, I always knew she was a Witch....so, it's possible that somehow the name came to her via something a bit more magical. I have no clue. She's been gone since I was 12...she was buried on my 13th birthday. Her first and middle names....Vesta Laura. It's on her side that I am related to Andrew Johnson.
But I love knowing that she had the same name as a Goddess 
--- Blessed Be,
~*~ Saijen ~*~
~~*~~ .~~*~~ |
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6/11/2009, 9:13 pm
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TexasMadness
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Re: Vestalia
Vestalia would have been still going on in Ancient Rome. Subjects would have been pouring in and out of the round temple whose entrance faced east and to the rising sun. Like most Temples, hers is now in ruin, but it looked like this in her day:
Today it looks like this:
The sacred fire that burned within was never allowed to go out. However, we all know that such things aren't always possible. If her fire did ever extinguish, it was relight during the Vestalia by using a glass and focusing the rays of the sun. Only a fire started like this was considered pure enough to represent the goddess.
The sacred flame was put out for the last time in 394 C.E. by Theodosius I after he won the Battle of the Frigidus and converted the Roman Empire to Christianity.
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6/12/2009, 11:36 pm
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KaliMorgan76
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Re: Vestalia
Buried alive seems a little harsh.
Interesting just the same. 
---
“Never think that whatever is around you is beyond your comprehension, no matter how complicated it seems.
To attain total freedom, learn how to undo the web of illusion that has convinced you that you are not free…”
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6/18/2009, 2:44 pm
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