Today it is Dies Neastus Publicus – the regular working day on which modern Romans may do their daily businesses – both civic and religious. It is OK to sign contracts, travel, start new projects, worship the Immortals, etc.
It is the 10th day before Kalendae Ianuariae.
It is the E nundial day, the 7th day before Nundinae – the market day of this year.
The Roman festival of Larentalia was held on 23 December but was ordered to be observed twice a year by Augustus; by some supposed to be in honour of the Lares, a kind of domestic genii, or divinities, worshipped in houses, and esteemed the guardians and protectors of families, supposed to reside in chimney-corners. Others have attributed this feast in honour of Acca Larentia, the nurse of Romulus and Remus, and wife of Faustulus. During this festival, offerings were made to the dead, usually at altars dedicated to Acca Larentia. A sacrifice was typically offered in the Velabrum, the spot where Acca Larentia is buried. Larentalia was part of a series of ancient Roman festivals and holidays celebrating the end of the old year and the start of the new. In ancient Roman culture, sigillaria were pottery or wax figurines given as traditional gifts during the Saturnalia. Sigillaria as a proper noun was also the name for the last day of the Saturnalia, December 23, and for a place where sigillaria were sold. A sigillarius was a person who made and sold sigillaria, perhaps as an offshoot of pottery manufacture. The Via Sigillaria in Rome was a street dedicated to manufacturing and selling these gifts.
