Hello, I hope this is the right place to ask this. I have a quite specific question; I was watching the TV series 'Rome' a while ago, and in the opening sequence, there's shots of what looks like a huge, open-air public calendar, with alcoves, some holding small statues. Was this a real thing? What was it called? Was it used for religious purposes, i.e. so people knew when particular festivals would start? Google just throws up results for modern calendars with pictures of Rome, etc. Thank you!
Yes, these public calendars certainly were a thing. Here's an example found in the old Roman town of Antium (modern-day Anzio).
The idea of these lists was to show people which days were good for conducting legal business according to the auspices (signs from the gods) and which days were bad for legal business, as well as market days (every eighth day) and public holidays.
They appear to have a couple of names for these lists.
A good day for business was a "fastus" (a bad day was a "nefastus"). A list of days was therefore a "fasti diurni".
The days for the coming month were publicly announced on the first day of that month, because most Romans outside of the ruling classes couldn't read. The verb "calling out" was "calendae" in Latin. The lists themselves became known as "calendaria". And, that first day became known as the Kalends because it was the day on which the "calendae" occurred.