Most of our holidays customs date back centuries, even thousands of years, and are linked to ancient festivals like Yule and Saturnalia. We decorate our Christmas tree, eat a Christmas ham and give gifts to one another not realizing where these traditions actually come from. And, in all honesty, you’d be lying to yourself if you didn’t feel that old familiar excitement that comes every year at Midwinter…at the Saturnalia Festival. The entire neighborhood is lit up and an unshakeable feeling of joy, merriment, and even a bit of primality fills the air. You notice the evergreen garlands draped over every threshold and wall of the city. The scent of bay laurel, spruce and fir envelopes you. Many customs of this festival were taken over and preserved via the Christian Church in Christmas.You walk through your city and hear wild laughter and singing coming from every street. Presents were given: little pottery dolls (sigillaria) to children, and wax candles (cerei) to friends and wine be given to his dependants. Within the family a mock king, Saturnalicius princeps, was chosen as a Master of Revels. In a fragment by the Latin poet Accius (170BCE) we read, ‘when they celebrate the day they joyfully hold feasts throughout the countryside and towns, and each man waits upon his own slaves.’ This may reflect the customs of early times when master and man worked more closely together and the farmer relaxed among his assistants. The best-known feature of the holiday is that masters waited at meal-time on their servants who briefly were treated as equals. It is a time of general jollity with gambling often occurring. At the banquet less formal clothes and soft caps (pilei) were worn it ended with a shout of ‘Io Saturnalia’. Livy states that a lectisternium was ordered after this sacrifice. This appears to have been well established 217 BCE. Then followed a banquet, which apparently anyone could attend. The temple also contained the State treasury.Īt this temple the Saturnalia opened with a great sacrifice, at which senators and equestrian wore their togas. Macrobius explains this as symbolizing the seed which had lain in the womb bursting into the light in the tenth month. The statue was also bound with woollen bonds, which were undone on It contained a statue of Saturn, which was filled with oil. It lay in the Forum at the foot of the Capitol. The temple of Saturn was dedicated on 17 December, probably in one of the early years of the Republic. Thus the Romans came to speak of the golden age of Saturn. Saturn is was also the king of the gods during a Golden Age before recorded history. ![]() Sacrifices were offered to him in the Greek fashion (Graeco ritu). His celebration would thus come at the end of the last sowing of the year. Saturn, for whom the festival is held, has often been explained as a god of sowing or of seed-corn. The festival was held around the time of the winter solstice, a season when mankind in many places and at many periods has felt the need for rest and merry-making, From the strictly religious point of view it was celebrated only on 17 December, but in practice, it extended to as many as seven days by Cicero’s time. Saturnalia, one of the best known of Roman festivals, the most popular: ‘the best of days’ said Catullus. Introductory Concepts of the Religio Romana. ![]()
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