Ritual for New Year
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Bonum felicem faustum fortunatum annum novum MMDCCLXXI, Annum Sacrum Concordiae, Anniversarium XX Novae Romae!
We wish all Nova Romans a very happy and propitious and blessed New Year, the Roman year of M. Cotta C. Petronio cos. ‡ MMDCCLXXVII a.u.c.!
You can perform your New Year ritual to Father Ianus, and to other gods you want to invoke, following the guidelines here. It is written for every Nova Roman citizen: you can use this prayer at your lararium on the 1st of January and during the days until the Ides of January, for praying a happy, successful and propitious New Year of your family and Nova Roma.
This prayer here is a short and simple one, for ordinary citizens of Nova Roma. We wish as many of you as possible use this in your prayer during these days, on the first days of January.
Roman prayers were generally rhythmical, composed as verse of the rhythm of thoughts, repetitions, alliterations, the number of words and accents.
If you are new to Roman rituals, please read our article about simple rituals for starters, before you proceed.
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Preparations to the New Year ritual
Clean your body (you can use the prayer for ablution) and approach the altar capite velato.
Praefatio
This is the "preface" prayer before the main prayer. The section of praefatio may be left out of the ritual if you want to perform a shorter, less formal ceremony. But it is always pious and propitious to use the longer version.
Invocation of Ianus
After these words, burn incense.
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Invocation of a patron deity
After the words for Ianus, there is "blank text" for other deities you choose to worship. Please fill the empty place with the name of the deity you want, and fix the word "propitius" (male) or "propitia" (female) according to the gender of the deity you invoke. It is strongly recommended to invoke your patron deities and those deities you especially need in the New Year. Each of them must have a new invocation for each section of the entire prayer. In this 15th Anniversary of Nova Roma and Sacred Year of Concordia, we suggest Concordia in the first place, and the following gods and goddesses:
- Iuppiter Optimus Maximus (in vocative: Optime Maxime)
- Fortuna
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Closing of the praefatio for Ianus
In this section, if you are male, use the variant "precatus" (I, the man, have prayed), if you are female, say "precata" (I, the woman, have prayed). Offer wine after these words:
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Closing of the praefatio for patron deity
Again, if you are male, use the variant "precatus" (I, the man, have prayed), if you are female, say "precata" (I, the woman, have prayed). Offer wine after these words for a male deity, milk for a female:
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Main prayer
You could have skipped the previous parts, but this is obligatory. After chanting these words, offer wine and incense:
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Piaculum
In this part, you expiate your accidental mistakes, even those, too, which you did not know of. Sacrifice wine:
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