There has been little to celebrate recently so no harm in resurrecting a long forgotten festival beloved of Ancient Rome – Meditrinalia.

In Ancient Rome the date 11 October was marked in bold on the calendar because it was the day Romans started to drink their new stores of wine.

Avid wine drinkers may immediately think of today’s Beaujolais nouveau traditon, whereby wine is fermened for just three weeks from mid-October before being glugged back starting from 3 November each year.

We are forever borrowing from Ancient Rome, often without even realising it, so the festival of Meditrinalia could be something of a forerunner of today’s Beaujolais nouveau tradition.

Ancient Romans were a thrifty lot, however, and mixed the new wine with the old.

The festival is thought to have started when Rome was just a small agricultural area and it is linked to Jupiter, the god of sky and thunder, but also the most important god. His symbols were an oak tree and an eagle – strength and fertility on earth and power in the sky.

It is thought that the name Meditrinalia derives from the Latin word “medendus” – “healing” – because drinking wine had a beneficial effect on health for the Ancient Romans.

Today we are told that a glass of red wine a day can improve heart health by keeping our arteries clear. It also cheers us up in moderation – and a glass of wine with friends is a sociable thing to do.

The Ancient Romans loved nothing more than a reason to have a festival or celebrate.

On 15 October every year, they used to hold a horse sacrifice on the Campus Martius – a large area of Rome that today stretches from Teatro Marcello, near the Jewish Quarter, to the the River Tiber.

Personally, I would stick with Meditrinalia. If you are a non-drinker, perhaps raise a glass of grape juice instead – just as good for your arteries and very much in the spirit of Ancient Rome.

I am sure Jupiter would approve.

Saluti!

All images copyright A. Meredith except where stated