CARIS´TIA
CARIS´TIA or
CHARISTIA a Roman domestic feast, celebrated on
viii. Kal. Mart. (Feb. 22). Following the DIES
PARENTALES (Feb. 13-21) and
FERALIA (Feb. 21), days sacred to the dead (
Ov. Fast. 2.533 ff.; Mommsen-Marquardt, vi.
(iii.), 283 note 6, 298), this festival was a day of rejoicing and
thanksgiving for the survivors. None but relations and members of the same
family were invited, and the opportunity was taken to reconcile any quarrel
or disagreement that might have arisen among them (Val Max. 2.1.8). The
derivation is from
χαρίζομαι, to grant a
favour or pardon; but
caristia is the approved
spelling, and Ovid seems to have connected the word with
carus. (Ov.
Fast. ii 617 ff.;
Mart. 9.54,
55;
Tertull.
de Idolol. 10 Orell.
Inscr. 2417;
Kalend. Rust.; Mommsen-Marquardt, vi. (iii.) 125; Paley
on Ov. and Mart.
ll. cc.）
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