LORD OF MISRULE SATURNALIA FULL

Within the family, a Lord of Misrule was chosen, a Symbolized the freedom of the season (Martial, Epigrams, XIV.1). Permitted in public, as was the pileus, a felt cap normally worn by the manumitted slave that Instead of the toga, colorful dinner clothes ( synthesis) were Permitted to use dice and did not have to work. Poets, a crown of laurel being dedicated to Saturn if no-one could answer them ( Attic Nights, XVIII.2).ĭuring the holiday, restrictions were relaxed and the social order inverted. Aulus Gellius relates that he and his RomanĬompatriots would gather at the baths in Athens, where they were studying, and pose difficult questions to one another on the ancient Martial wrote Xenia and Apophoreta for the Saturnalia,ĭecember and intended to accompany the 'guest gifts' that were given at that time of year. It was an occasion for visits toįriends and the presentation of gifts, particularly wax candles ( cerei), perhaps to signify the returning light after the Retired to his room while the rest of the household celebrated ( Epistles, II.17.24). Catullus describes it as 'the best of days' ( Poems,Īnd Seneca complains that the 'whole mob has let itself go in pleasures' ( Epistles, XVIII.3). The Saturnalia was the most popular holiday of the Afterwards, according to Macrobius, the celebrants shouted Io, Saturnalia at a riotous feast in the temple Ordered to make that day a festival and observe it as such for ever' ( History The cry of the Saturnalia resounded through the City, and the people were Lectisternium (in which an image of the god was placed as if inĪttendance), which Livy says was introduced in 217 BC. It also was a festival day.Īfter sacrifice at the temple, there was a public banquet, as well as a The feet of the ivory cult statue within were loosened on that day to symbolize the liberation of the god. Of Saturn, the oldest temple recorded by the pontiffs, had been dedicated on the Saturnalia, and the woolen bonds Saturn, himself, was identified with Kronos, and sacrificed to according to Greek ritual, with the head uncovered. In the Roman calendar, the Saturnalia was designated a holy day, or holiday, on which religious rites were That the two festivals were celebrated at the same time, the worshipers of OpsĪlways sitting in prayer so that they touched the earth, mother of all As the two deities represented the produce of the fields and orchards, so they also were Of the earth, and was the consort of Saturn. The original day was given over to the Opalia, honoring Ops, who personified abundance and the fruits Sixteen days before the Kalends (December 17) 'with the result that, since the exact day was not commonly known-some observing theĪddition which Caesar had made to the calendar and others following the old usage-the festival came to be regarded as lasting for moreĭays than one' (I.10.2). With the Julian reform of the calendar, however, two days were added to December, and the Saturnalia was celebrated Only, the fourteenth before the Kalends of Originally, the festival was celebrated on one day In the Saturnalia, Macrobius creates an imaginary symposium among pagan intellectuals in which he offers anĮxplanation for the varying length of the holiday. ( sigillaria) that were sold then (I.10.24). The Sigillaria on the last day of Saturnalia, so named for the small earthenware figurines

LORD OF MISRULE SATURNALIA FULL

Still, everyone seems to have continued to celebrate for a full week, extended, says Macrobius, by celebrating Life of Caligula, XVII Dio, Roman History, LIX.6.4), the fifthĭay restored by Claudius after it once had been abolished (Dio, LX.25.8). Necessary (Macrobius, Saturnalia, I.10.4), and Caligula extended it to five (Suetonius, Augustus limited the holiday to three days, so the civil courts would not have to be closed any longer than (counting inclusively), from December 17 to 23. Jan.) and, in Cicero's time, lasted seven days The Saturnalia officially was celebrated on December 17 (XVI Kal. Now, with the approach of the winter solstice (December 25 in the Julian calendar), Saturnus, the god of seed and sowing

By the beginning of December, writes Columella, the farmer should have finished his autumn planting ( De Re Rustica,

Lord of misrule saturnalia