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 5th day before Idae Decembres.
It is the C nundial day, Nundinae – the market day this year.
Today is the Festival of Jupiter. Sacrificial victims (hostiae) offered to Jupiter were the ox (castrated bull), the lamb (on the Ides, the ovis idulis) and the wether (a castrated goat or castrated ram) (on the Ides of January). The animals were required to be white. The question of the lamb’s gender is unresolved; while a sacrificial lamb for a male deity was usually male, for the vintage-opening festival the flamen Dialis sacrificed a ewe lamb to Jupiter. This rule seems to have had many exceptions, as the sacrifice of a ram on the Nundinae by the flaminica Dialis demonstrates. During one of the crises of the Punic Wars, Jupiter was offered every animal born that year.
