February

Purification and the journey

Once the last month of the Roman year, February takes its name from Februus, an Etruscan afterlife figure much like Pluto, and from the Februa, a mid-month festival held in his honour for purging, purification and the “cleansing of evil”. The Februa also marked the passage from winter and death toward spring and rebirth.

Its traveller is Mercury/Hermes, son of Jupiter/Zeus: herald of the gods, mediator between people and the divine, and guide of spirits to the afterlife, his winged sandals carrying him quickly between realms and worlds.