Traditions and Trivia: Saturnalia

Nowadays most people realize that there is nothing in the Bible that says Jesus was born in December.

A few might even realize that much of Christmas is pagan in origin, but even fewer know about Saturnalia.

Saturnalia is a pagan Roman holiday celebrating Saturn, god of sowing, after the autumn planting was finished.

The holiday typically lasted a week and culminated with a feast on the Winter Solstice, Dec. 21.

Ancienthistory.about.com states, “The Saturnalia was the most popular holiday of the Roman year. Catullus (XIV) describes it as ‘the best of days,’ and Seneca complains that the ‘whole mob has let itself go in pleasures’ (Epistles, XVIII.3).”

The ‘pleasures’ that Seneca complained of were the dancing and singing in the streets naked, sexual license, and other forms of merrymaking.

About 4th Century, Roman Christians decided that the birth of Jesus should be celebrated, and wanted a way to convert pagans. By combining the final day of Saturnalia with Christmas, a new holiday was born.

This compromise won over a lot of pagan followers by allowing them to continue celebrating their beloved Saturnalia, still the favorite holiday of the Roman year at the time.

Simpletoremember.com explains the problems this caused, “As Stephen Nissenbaum, professor of history at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst, writes, ‘In return for ensuring massive observance of the anniversary of the Savior’s birth by assigning it to this resonant date, the Church for its part tacitly agreed to allow the holiday to be celebrated more or less the way it had always been.’”

Modern day Christmas Parties are traditional after all.