Floralia

In ancient Roman religion, the Floralia was a festival in honor of the goddess Flora, held April 27 during the Republican era, or April 28 on the Julian calendar. In Latin, the festival was known as the Ludi Florae, the Games (ludi) of Flora. Under the Empire, the games lasted for six days.

The festival had a licentious, pleasure-seeking atmosphere. In contrast to festivals based on Rome's archaic patrician religion, the games of Flora had a plebeian character.

Flora

Flora is one of the most ancient goddesses of Roman religion and was one of fifteen deities to have her own state-supported high priest, the flamen Florialis. A goddess of flowers, vegetation, and fertility, she received sacrifices (piacula) in the sacred grove of the Arval Brothers, an archaic priesthood. Her altar at Rome was said to have been established by the Sabine king Titus Tatius during the semi-legendary Regal period.Flusalis (linguistically equivalent to Floralia) was a month on the Sabine calendar, and Varro counted Flora among the Sabine deities.

Anton Pann

Anton Pann (born Antonie Pantoleon-Petroveanu, and also mentioned as Anton Pantoleon or Petrovici; 1790s—2 November 1854), was an Ottoman-born Wallachian composer, musicologist, and Romanian-language poet, also noted for his activities as a printer, translator, and schoolteacher. Pann was an influential folklorist and collector of proverbs, as well as a lexicographer and textbook author.

Biography

Early years

Pann was born sometime between 1794 and 1798, in Sliven, Rumelia (in today's Bulgaria). According to some accounts, his mother, Tomaida, was an ethnic Greek, while his father, Pantoleon Petrov, was Bulgarian; it is known that he worked as a coppersmith bucket-maker, which makes it likely that he was a Romani of the Kalderash caste. In Romania, the latter view is notably supported by Romani community activists, who cite Pann among the most prominent Romani artists. This view is also accepted by some Romanian authors. Various other interpretations state that Pantoleon Petrov, who died during Anton Pann's childhood, was Bulgarian, Aromanian, or Romanian. The writer, who was the youngest of Petrov and Tomaida's three sons, eventually adopted the family name Pann, as a colloquial contraction of his father's given name.