The Roman celebration of Vestalia was held each year in June, near the time of Litha, the summer solstice. This festival honored Vesta, the Roman goddess who guarded virginity and hearth fire. She was sacred to women.
Unlike many Roman deities, she was not typically portrayed in statuary - instead, the flame of the hearth represented her at the family altar. Likewise, in a town or village, the perpetual flame stood in the stead of the goddess herself.
As the goddess of hearth, she was also symbol of home; around which every newborn child would be carried for blessings, before receiving it in the family.
Every meal began and ended with an offering made to her with the following chant:
Vesta, in all dwellings of men and immortal,
Yours is the highest honour, sweet wine is offered,
First and last at the feast, poured out to you duly,
Never without you can gods or mortals hold the banquet.
In the hearth of every colony Vestas flame kept burning which was never allowed to go off. If a new colony was to be established, coal was taken from the main citys hearths to kindle new fire in the new citys hearth which symbolised the beginning of the new colony with Vestas blessing.
For the celebration of Vestalia, the Vestales made a sacred cake, using water carried in consecrated jugs from a holy spring. The water was never permitted to come into contact with the earth between the spring and the cake, which also included sacred salt and ritually prepared brine as ingredients. The hard-baked cakes were then cut into slices and offered to Vesta. During the eight days of the Vestalia, only women were permitted to enter Vesta's temple for worship. When they arrived, they removed their shoes and made offerings to the goddess. At the end of Vestalia, the Vestales cleaned the temple from top to bottom, sweeping the floors of dust and debris, and carrying it away for disposal in the Tiber river. Ovid tells us that the last day of Vestalia -- the Ides of June -- became a holiday for people who worked with grain, such as millers and bakers. They took the day off and hung flower garlands and small loaves of bread from their millstones and shop stalls.
Today, if you'd like to honor Vesta during the time of the Vestalia, bake a cake as an offering, decorate your home with flowers, and do a ritual cleansing the week before Litha. You can do a ritual cleansing with a Litha blessing besom.
The Vestalia was celebrated from June 7 to June 15
