LECTISTERNIUM

(Lat. lectus, a couch, and sternere, to prepare.) A religious festival or ceremony among the ancient Romans, celebrated during times of public calamity, and remarkable as a singular relic of barbarous superstition, retaining the impre ion of a very rude age. In this festival the gods themselves were invited to the entertainment their; statues were taken from their pedestals, laid on couches with pillows and pedestals, and placed at the table, while the servants used gravely to convey the viands to the idols' lips. The first festival of this sort, according to Livy, which took place, was held in the year of Rome 354, on the occasion of a contagious disease which committed frightful ravages among their cattle, and lasted for eight succe ive days. On the celebration of this festival enemies were said to forget their animosity, and all prisoners were liberated. [s. 668]