The Strena blog begins...

Published on December 31, 2025 at 10:57 PM

The family blog begins...  Our name, its definition and origins...

I am naming our new blog site strena.org

More about the meaning of Strena...

From the Latin is Simple website...

strena, strenae [f.] A Noun

Translations

Favorable omen

A new year's gift

strena, strenae [f.] A - Latin is Simple Online Dictionary

 

And from the Oxford English Dictionary...

strenae

  • J. Linderski

Strenae, originally the luck-bringing (mostly laurel) twigs (from the grove of the goddess Strenia), also figs, honey-cakes, and dates; later any gifts, lamps, coins, and even gold, exchanged by the Romans (and accompanied by good wishes) on New Year's Day. In the case of the houses of the *rex sacrorum and the major *flamines, the temple of Vesta, and the curiae (see curia (1)), the laurel branches were placed there on 1 March, the old New Year (FestusGloss. Lat. 408; Ov.Fast. 1. 175–226; 3. 137–42; Suet.Aug. 57; Tib. 34; Mart. 8. 33; 13. 27; Macrob.Sat. 1. 12. 6; Symm., Relat. 7, 15; Lydus, Mens. 4. 4; ILS 7214). Hence the meaning of strena as ‘good omen’ (already in Plautus). The custom was (unsuccessfully) combated by the Church (cf. August; Serm. 198. 2).

Strenae | Oxford Classical Dictionary

 

December 31, 2025

Photo source – Wikipedia – Didier Descouens – CC BY-SA 4.0

More about the Goddess...

Strenia was an ancient Roman goddess of the new year, of strength, of spiritual, physical and emotional well-being, and of rebirth.  The original Roman new year was on March 1, and so Strenia is a goddess of the spring (The Roman new year was changed from March to January 1 by Julius Caesar in 45 BC with the advent of the Julian Calendar).  It is said that Strenia is of Sabine origin, the Sabines being an ancient Italic tribe that pre-dated Rome.  She was known by the names of Strenia, Strenua, and Strina. 

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