Carna's feast day was marked as "nefastus" on the calendar; that is, it was a public holiday when no assembly or court could convene. Mashed beans and lard — a dish perhaps to be compared to refried beans or hoppinjohn— were offered to her as "res divinae", and thus the day was known as the "Kalendae fabariae", the Bean-Kalends, since at this time the bean harvest matured. Beans had many magico-religious properties in ancient Greece and Rome in addition to their importance as a food crop.