In Chapter Eight, The Power of Rome in the Sixth Century, of The Beginnings of Rome: Italy From the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (Circa 1,000 to 264 B.C.), T.J. Cornell discusses the walls and boundaries of Rome, and mentions three related festivals: Terminalia, Robigalia, and Ambarvalia.
Terminalia, named after the god Terminus who protected boundary markers. (Wikipedia, as usual handle with care)
TERMINAʹLIA, a festival in honour of the god Terminus, who presided over boundaries. His statue was merely a stone or post stuck in the ground to distinguish between properties. On the festival the two owners of adjacent property crowned the statue with garlands and raised a rude altar, on which they offered up some corn, honeycombs, and wine, and sacrificed a lamb (Hor. Epod. II.59) or a sucking pig. They concluded with singing the praises of the god (Ovid. Fast. II.639, &c.). The public festival in honour of this god was celebrated at the sixth milestone on the road towards Laurentum (Id. 682), doubtless because this was originally the extent of the Roman territory in that direction.
The festival of the Terminalia was celebrated a. d. VII. Kal. Mart., or the 23d of February on the day before the Regifugium. The Terminalia was celebrated on the last day of the old Roman year, whence some derive its name.
Robigalia
LacusCurtius has Smith's Dictionary again but with a severe caveat. However, elsewhere, Biil Thayer has a lengthy article:
"Instituted by Numa Pompilius, the Robigalia, an ancient agricultural festival celebrated in honor of Robigo (or Robigus, the gender was uncertain), the goddess of blight, red rust, or mildew, was celebrated on April 25, when the crops were most vulnerable to disease (Pliny, XVIII.285; also Varro, On Agriculture, I.1.6; On the Latin Language, VI.16). In his poem for that day, Ovid relates that he, himself, happened to meet the priest as he and his followers, all dressed in white, were on their way to the sacred grove to offer sacrifice. Joining the procession, he relates how the flamen Quirenalis carried; with him the entrails of both a dog and a sheep. Incense, wine, and entrails were thrown on the fire and a prayer offered. "Scaly Robigo, god of rust, spare Ceres' grain; let silky blades quiver on the soil's skin. Let growing crops be nourished by a friendly sky and stars, until they ripen for the scythe...Spare us, I pray keep scabrous hands from the harvest. Harm no crops. The power to harm is enough" (Fasti, IV.911ff). read on
I doesn't seem clear to me what this has to do with boundaries, except that the OCD says that the above sacrifices were made at th fifth mile stone.
Ambarvalia
LacusCurtius has Smith's Dictionary, Arvales Fratres:
"Besides this festival of the Dea Dia, the fratres arvales were required on various occasions, under the emperors, to make vows and offer up thanksgivings, an enumeration of which is given in Forcellini (Lex, s.v.). Strabo, indeed (V.3), informs us that, in the reign of Tiberius, these priests (ἱερομνήμονες) performed sacrifices called the Ambarvalia at various places on the borders of the ager Romanus, or original territory of Rome; and amongst others, at Festi, a place between five and six miles from the city, in the direction of Alba. There is no boldness in supposing that this was a custom handed down from time immemorial, and, moreover, that it was a duty of this priesthood to invoke a blessing on the whole territory of Rome. It is proved by inscriptions that this college existed till the reign of the Emperor Gordian, or A.D. 325, and it is probable that it was not abolished till A.D. 400, together with the other colleges of the Pagan priesthoods."
The Classic Encyclopedia has an entry Ambarvalia:
"AMBARVALIA, an annual festival of the ancient Romans, occurring in May, usually on the 29th, the object of which was to secure the growing crops against harm of all kinds. The priests were the Arval Brothers, who conducted the victims - ox, sheep and pig (suovetaurilia) - in procession with prayer to Ceres round the boundaries of the ager Romanus. As the extent of Roman land increased, this could no longer be done, and in the Acta of the Fratres, which date from Augustus, we do not find this procession mentioned (Henzen, Acta Fratrum Arvalium, 1874); but there is a good description of this or a similar rite in Virgil, Georg. i. 338ff., and in Cato's work de Re Rustica (141) we have full details and the text of the prayers used by the Latin farmer in thus "lustrating" his own land. In this last case the god invoked is Mars. The Christian festival which seems to have taken the place of these ceremonies is the Rogation or Gang week of the Roman Church. The perambulation or beating of bounds is probably a survival of the same type of rite. See W. W. Fowler, Roman Festivals (1899), p. 124 ff."
Calendar of Holidays and Festivals at Nova Roma
Various links to the Roman Calendar
Calendar fragments:
The above image is from Wikimedia Commons: Roma, Museo Nazionale Romano a Palazzo Massimo: Fasti Praenestini
