While Roman Catholics recognize 15 August as a major religious holiday – the day on which the Virgin Mary was assumed into heaven to take up residence with her son, Jesus (see the painting by Poussin, above right) – for most Romans the day is also a high summer holiday.
The city of Rome begins to empty early in August, but by the 15th, the streets are vacant, shutters on the windows of apartments are tightly closed, and restaurants and shops have posted signs announcing that they’ll be out of business until the end of the month, as most Romans have left town to take up temporary residence at the sea or in the mountains. Those who remain in the Eterna either enjoy the peace and quiet that descends over the city or spend their time taking advantage of a myriad of free concerts and entertainments that celebrate the end of the summer.
Modern-day Romans aren’t the first to stage celebrations in mid-August, however. The tradition goes all the way back to the ancient Romans. In 18 BC, Rome’s first emperor Augustus declared that the month of August would be given over to the celebration of the Feriae Augusti (these two words give us the modern name for the holiday, Ferragosto), a series of festivals and celebrations, not least of which was that honoring Diana (see photo above, left), the goddess honored on Rome’s Aventine hill who presided over the woods, the moon, and motherhood.
Also honored in August were gods having to do with crops and fertility such as Vortumnus, god of the Seasons and the ripening of the crops; Consus, god of the Harvest; and Ops, the personification of the abundant harvest.
All these celebration of pagan gods dwindled away in the late antique period as Christianity took over the city of Rome, but the big ideas that informed the August celebrations remained intact. However, instead of honoring Diana, Consus, Vortumnus, and Ops, Christians directed their attention at another figure symbolic of maternity and fertility, the Virgin Mary, celebrating her miraculous Assumption into heaven in the middle of the month.
(The modern dogma that the Virgin Mary was transported to Heaven on Ferragosto arose in the 18th century and was formally proclaimed by Pope Pius XII only in 1950.)
