What is "parilia"

thumb|upright=1.5|Festa di Pales, o L'estate (1783), a reimagining of the Festival of Pales by Joseph-Benoît Suvée In ancient Roman religion, the Parilia is a festival of rural character performed annually on 21 April, aimed at cleansing both sheep and shepherd. It is carried out in acknowledgment to the Roman deity Pales, a deity of uncertain gender who was a patron of shepherds and sheep.

Ovid describes the Parilia at length in the Fasti, an elegiac poem on the Roman religious calendar, and implies that it predates the founding of Rome, traditionally 753 BC, as indicated by its pastoral, pre-agricultural concerns. During the Republic, farming was idealized and central to Roman identity, so the festival took on a more generally rural character. Increasing urbanization caused the rustic Parilia to be reinterpreted rather than abandoned, as Rome was an intensely traditional society. During the Imperial period, the date was celebrated as the "birthday" of Rome ( dies natalis Romae).