At the time of ancient Rome, in the sacred calendar, August 23 was the day dedicated to the God Vulcan. He was identified with the destructive fire, on whose altar burned a perennial flame, associated with the summer fires used in agriculture during the harvest.
Volcanalia was the name of this holiday. To help the God were two “attendants”, Maia and Stata Mater, one was an ancient goddess of fire and sexual heat, the other (was) a domestic deity of the crossroads that protected from fire. The one, therefore, represented the fire that spreads, the other the one that stops; both together with the God supervised the feast and the games that took place in honor of the fishermen of the Tiber river, who sacrificed in the fire small live fishes, caught in it, to symbolize human souls.
At this point it should be made clear about the gods related to the fire element: Vulcan was the God of destructive fire, unlike Vesta who was the Goddess of domestic fire. Therefore the first one was the wild fire, the other was the fire that man had been able to “train” and make useful and domestic. But the fire of the God Vulcan has an even greater value, it is the fire in which the lightning of Jupiter was forged, as well as the shields of Rome, which served to protect the children of Mars, a deeply warrior people, the Romans one.
The Volcanalia were celebrated in the city (exactly in the space between the city and the defensive walls, called pomerio) but also in the countryside, with wild songs and dances, banquets and night fires. They wore clothes warmed by the sun, the clothes of the feast, enriched with flowers and garlands, to symbolize the prelude to the new advent of the heat of the sun. Another ritual was to place bronze bowls on the fire with pieces of lead inside, the metal sacred to the God. When the lead had melted it was poured into bowls of cold water where it took various forms, so that the head of the family could decipher its meaning and recognize the omen of good harvest or good luck.
Still today, as in ancient times, fire continues to exert its mystical and aggregative charm, even if the propitiatory value is now lost in the folds of time.
