21st April: Rome blows out 2763 candles

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Almost 3000 years of history, but only 140 birthdays. The wishes of  the Romans to the city in all the ages.

At the beginning a big pagan feast then a day like others, and in modern age once again a secular feast of a great value. This is in few words the history of the celebrations related to the magic date of 21^st April, that still today, thanks to the numerous events in costume, evokes scents, flavours, colours and ancient awesomeness.

The ancient feast in the imperial age, as the Varrone’s legend reports, was fixed on the 21^st April followed  a series of astrological calculations of Lucio Taruzio and totally set aside after the fall of the Empire. In the medieval and modern age the 21^st April lost completely its importance to be get back just in the XIX century as “antipapal fest”.

Some  Mazzinian, Garibaldian revolutionists and some liberal republicans celebrated the event, for example, during the spring of 1894, shortly after the upsetting (temporal) of the Pope theoretical government. Then the feast was got back definitely and fixed on the 21^st April, after the capture of Rome by the troops of the newly born Italian reign in 1870.  

In fascist period the 21^st April , for a Mussolini’s will, became a national feast. The aim was to exalt the roman imperial myth to show up to exploits of the Italian army engaged in the setting up of a colonial empire. This costume was obviously  abolished, beginning from  the 1945, after the defeat in the second world war, from this moment after a partial adumbration period,  was got back in a more decisive way only in the last two decades.

The ancient Rome lives again today in the events full of colours, reconstructions  and costumes of the Cultural Association of  Roman civilization and the pulsating heart of the empire comes to beat in the numerous events organized by the Municipality and the Town hall in occasion of an important birthday so ancient and important.

(Translated by Francesca Angelini)