Saturnalia cake12/27/2023 Saturnalia festivities began with ritual and sacrifices in the Temple of Saturn. Modern understanding of the festival is pieced together from several accounts dealing with various aspects. Thus the origin of the Christmas-tree, and the custom of making presents to children and friends may be traced back to the Roman Saturnalia, while the Yule-log and Yule-fire are remnants of ancient sun-worship, one of the Roman festivals in honor of the Sun god being celebrated on the 25th of December as “Dies Natalis Solis Invicti.”Īlthough probably the best-known Roman holiday, Saturnalia as a whole is not described from beginning to end in any single ancient source. Many of the customs of the Roman Saturnalia were taken over by the Christian Church in celebrating Christmas. The public festival, in the time of the republic, was for only one day but for seven days the celebration continued in private houses. The special feature of the festival was the gift of wax candles and of little images of wax or clay called sigilla. On this day the slaves feasted and were waited upon by their masters, as the female slaves were waited upon by their mistresses on the Matronalia. The festival was extended in later times to three and still later to seven days.ĭuring the celebration of this holiday no public business could be transacted, the courts were closed, war was suspended, all private enmities were for the time forgotten, and the city was alive with hilarity. The Greek equivalent was the Kronia.įalling towards the end of December, at the season when the agricultural labors of the year were completed, it was celebrated by the country-people as a sort of joyous harvest home, and in every age was viewed by all classes of the community as a period of absolute relaxation and unrestrained merriment. The revelries of Saturnalia were supposed to reflect the conditions of the lost mythical age, not all of them desirable. In Roman mythology, Saturn was an agricultural deity who was said to have reigned over the world in the Golden Age, when humans enjoyed the spontaneous bounty of the earth without labor in a state of innocence. Saturn being an ancient national god of Latium, the institution of the Saturnalia is lost in the most remote antiquity. Originally it was held on 17 December of the Julian Calendar, but the party later expanded with festivities through to 23 December. The poet Catullus called it “the best of days”. Saturnalia was an ancient Roman festival in honor of the deity Saturn.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |