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Spoleto Festival
Spoleto Festival also called Festival of the Two Worlds, annual summer arts festival held in Spoleto, Italy. Founded by the composer Gian-Carlo Menotti and the conductor Thomas Schippers, the festival has been held annually since 1958. It features the works of composers, singers and musicians, as...
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Salzburg Festival
Salzburg Festival annual festival of music and drama held in Salzburg, Austria, for five weeks starting in late July. The festival may be considered a descendant of the Salzburg Music Festival Weeks that the Vienna Philharmonic gave irregularly between 1877 and 1910. After World War I several leadi...
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Flora
Flora in Roman religion, goddess of flowers and fertility. Her festival, the Floralia, Apr. 28-May 1, was celebrated with great gaiety and licentiousness.
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Aspen Music Festival
Aspen Music Festival annual summer event, held in Aspen, Colo. A former silver-mining boomtown, Aspen fell into decline and was culturally revived by Walter Paepcke, who formed the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. The Aspen Music Festival and Music School were founded under the auspices of t...
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Glyndebourne Festivals
Glyndebourne Festivals , operatic festivals given each summer since 1934 on the estate of John Christie at Glyndebourne, near Lewes, Sussex, England. The productions, under the directorship of Fritz Busch, were suspended in 1938 and resumed after the war in 1947. Vittorio Gui was musical director af...
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Lupercalia
Lupercalia , ancient Roman festival held annually on Feb. 15. The ceremony of the festival was intended to secure fertility and keep out evil. Two male youths, clad in animal skin, ran around the city slapping passersby with strips of goat skin. Because the youths impersonated male goats (the embodi...
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Bacchanalia
Bacchanalia , in Roman religion, festival in honor of Bacchus, god of wine. Originally a religious ceremony, like the Liberalia , it gradually became an occasion for drunken, licentious excesses and was finally forbidden by law (186 BC).
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Bona Dea
Bona Dea , in Roman religion, ancient fertility goddess worshiped only by women; also called Fauna. She was said to be the daughter, sister, or wife of Faunus. No man could be present at her annual festival in May.
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Kiddush
Kiddush [Heb.,=sanctification], Jewish ceremonial blessing indicating the beginning of the Sabbath or any other Hebrew festival. Kiddush is also said at mealtime and consists of a prayer of benediction over the occasion and the wine or bread.
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Mercury
Mercury in Roman religion, god of commerce and messenger of the gods; identified with the Greek Hermes . He was honored at the Mercuralia, a festival held in May and attended primarily by traders and merchants.
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