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search Festa di Pales, o L'estate (1783), a reimagining of the
Festival of Pales by Joseph-Benoît Suvée  In ancient Roman
religion, the Parilia is a festival of rural character performed
annually on April 21, aimed at cleansing both sheep and
shepherd. It is carried out in acknowledgment to the Roman deity
Pales, a deity of uncertain gender who was a patron of shepherds
and sheep.[1]  Ovid describes the Parilia at length in the
Fasti, an elegiac poem on the Roman religious calendar, and
implies that it predates the founding of Rome, traditionally 753
BC, as indicated by its pastoral, pre-agricultural concerns.
During the Republic, farming was idealized and central to Roman
identity, so the festival took on a more generally rural
character. Increasing urbanization caused the rustic Parilia to
be reinterpreted rather than abandoned, as Rome was an intensely
traditional society. During the Imperial period, the date was
celebrated as the "birthday" of Rom