April 28 is a date of the Floralia, a festival dedicated to the goddess Flora, the ancient Roman goddess of flowers and fertility. Flora is associated with Spring, the season of new life and color It is also a celebration of sex for pleasure as well as procreation.

Wear bright multi-colored clothing to emulate the flower colors, and wear wreathes of flowers around your heads and laced them into your hair.

The festival celebration lasts for six days.

According to legend, the festival was first instituted on the advice of the Sibylline Books, which were considered prophetic. For the Romans, the festival symbolizes the cycle of life, birth, and death. It is a time of dancing, gathering of flowers and the wearing of colorful clothes.

The Floralia opened with theatrical performances, often mimes that could even include a naked actress.

The figure of Flora has been painted by some of the greatest painters in the Western tradition, such as Botticelli and Poussin.

WEARING FLOWER WREATHS

With a name like Floria, we know flowers are an important symbol for this goddess. She welcomes the flowers of spring.

We continue to celebrate Flora during Beltane when we wear our flower garlands. May flowers are especially associated with Flora and wearing them celebrates the goddess.

Weave flowers together to make garlands.

FLOWER SYMBOLISM

• Dandelions – enhances dreams and prophetic powers

• Gardenia – peace and healing

• Honeysuckle – strengthens memory, helps let go of the past

• Hyacinth – love and protection

• Jasmine – good for dream work, raises self-esteem and good fortune

• Lavender – purifying, sweet dreams and relaxation

• Lily of the valley – peace and harmony

• Marigolds – enhance vision work

• Rose – love and peace

• Sweet pea – friendship and courage

WELL DRESSINGS

Many modern pagans give thanks to Flora by dressing the wells of their town with floral arrangements. Flora’s blessing protects the water supply and brings good weather for spring blooms and celebrating at the wells is one way to ask for her blessing.

Offerings:

Give flowers to people. Allow a rabbit and a goat to run free in the house.

Altar:

Upon a cloth of pink set a pitcher of water, pots of earth, flower seeds, incense of flowers, a bowl of beans, and many fresh flowers should be strewn around the room. The candles of Walpurgisnacht (if you have been observing it) should remain and be lit, and a sixth added to them, for Odhinn’s journey continues even as we celebrate Floralia.

Floralia Invocation

Hail Flora, Lady of Beauty!
We must have not only our bread,
And our work, and our discipline,
But we must also have beauty in our lives,
That we may never become mere worms,
Measuring out our dull grey lives,
Never thinking to look around
And see the great beauty
That the Gods have made for us.
Let us look upon their gifts
And see in that loveliness
A measure of their love for us.
Hail Flora, who lights up our eyes!

Chant:

Oh, Flora will bring the buds in the spring,
And laugh among the flowers.
In summer’s heat Her kisses are sweet,
She sings in leafy bowers.
She cuts the cane and gathers the grain
When fruits of fall surround Her,
Her bones grow old in winter’s cold,
She wraps Her cloak around her.

Spend a day beautifying your harder and your house.

Another Honoring Flora Ritual

The following is intended as suggestions for a ritual in honor of Flora on the occasion of Floralia. It can be performed on any of the days of Floralia (April 28 – May 2). Feel free to use and adapt as you see fit. You can perform this ritual outdoors, but it doesn’t need to be.

Before the Ritual:

-Acquire, Print, or Download a reproduction of the Pompeii Fresco depicting Flora

Arrange something with flowers:

A bouquet, a centerpiece, a garland, a floral crown. Use your intuition in this. Listen to the flowers, see where they would like to be arranged. Notice which flowers speak to you, and which want to be arranged together. Let the arrangement of these change your state of mind. Feel the life force flowing through them. Think of the unique energetic combination created by putting the different components together.

Assemble an Altar

Assemble an Altar with the Pompeii Fresco at the center, and three candles in front of it. three offering bowls in front of them.

their mortal deaths. Contemplate Bacchus’ pleasure in the blooms. Contemplate the desire of flowers bursting with life, drawing us in, turning toward the sun.

Repeat three times:

Hail Flora Mater!

Mother of Blossoms,

Our Lady of the Flowers, Nymph, Survivor,

Wreath Crowned Reveller,

in the games of Floralia,

and the Riots of May,

Mistress of all that

Blooms, Fruits, Withers, Decays, Ave Flora! Ave! Ave!

Be silent for a few moments and visualise Flora. Notice her hair, her billowing dress. Notice the blue surrounding her. Could you sense the wind? Could you see how the wind surround Her, ruffle her dress and hair? Notice the flowers Flora is picking. What are they? Could you see these flowers, in turn, sway in the wind? She is turned away from us. She picks the flower and moves on. Let’s follow Her. Where is she going?

Offer Thanks to Flora

After the visualization offer thanks to Flora, to Bacchus, to the Flower Heroes. Close the ritual.

Spend the rest of the day writing, walking to places where flowers bloom, drinking wine, dancing, spending time with people you love.