What if you had to sit on the ground every time you said thank you to someone special?

The Opialia: Rome's Big Thank You to Mother Earth!

How ancient Romans celebrated the goddess who kept everyone fed

Romans sat on the ground to thank the underground goddess Ops for yummy food!

Imagine a day when everyone in ancient Rome stopped working to say THANK YOU to the earth itself! That's exactly what happened every year on August 11th during the festival called the Opialia!

Ops (pronounced like 'oops' but without the second 'o') was a super important goddess to the Romans. She was the goddess of abundance — which means she made sure there was enough food, crops, and good stuff for everyone. Think of her as Mother Earth's Roman cousin!

Here's something wild: Ops was so special that her shrine was kept UNDERGROUND, beneath the famous Roman Forum! Romans believed that since crops grow from the earth, it made sense to honor her below ground level. Cool thinking, right?

During the Opialia, people would actually sit on the ground while praying to Ops. Why? Because they wanted to be as close to the earth as possible! They believed this showed respect and helped their prayers reach her faster.

💡 The goddess Ops had a secret underground shrine beneath Rome's busiest meeting place — the Forum — because Romans believed earth goddesses belonged below ground!