Cerealia – The Grains Festival

Cerealia is a festival dedicated to all grains, as indeed happened in ancient Roman rites of Vesta and Ceres, the Ludi. In a broader view, the festival is extended to all countries of the Mediterranean area, from which the subtitle “Ceres and the Mediterranean“. The ancient rituals of the Vestal Virgins and the Ludi of Ceres, recalled in staged form, are the “Roman” element that characterizes each edition of the festival. The connection to the Mediterranean, gives to the event an international exposition, enhancing the intercultural exchange and presenting every year a different country: 2011 Egypt; 2012 Turkey; 2013 Greece, 2014 Cyprus; 2015 Croatia; 2016 Morocco; 2017 Treaties of Rome and European Union, 2018 Malta, 2019 Tunisia, 2020 special edition due to Covid.

The Mediterranean has been and still is the meeting point of a myriad of societies belonging to cultural systems partially connected but also substantially different. Cultural pluralism has been, since ancient times, a permanent feature of the Mediterranean basin. The event will be then, not only a moment of historical commemoration, but also of cultural exchange, thereby tackling issues such as nutrition, environment, economy, territory and social dimension, issues presented in the current context, which characterizes the varied world of grains.