REGIFUGIUM. – A festival of the ancient Roman religion, held on February 24, a singular date as it is an even-numbered day and immediately follows the Terminalia, which close the sacred year, preceding the series of intercalary days.
Roman tradition conceived the festival as a commemoration of the expulsion of the kings, but it was evidently a ritual flight performed by the king. Note the parallelism of the date with March 24 and May 24, on which the calendrical notation *Quando Rex (Comitialis) F(as)* likewise alludes to a function of the king.
Bibl.: G. Wissowa, *Religion und Kultus der Römer*, 2nd ed., Munich 1912, p. 436; J. Frazer, *The Fasti of Ovid*, II, London 1929, pp. 495 ff.; F. Altheim, *A history of roman religion*, ibid. 1938, p. 171.