|
|
|
Saturnalia celebrations in the
past
The ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia
ran from December 17th-23rd. Saturnalia was particularly interesting culturally.
During the last day of this festival, it was traditional for masters to change
places with their household slaves. How this custom was observed varied widely,
depending completely on the house. The Saturnalia was a large and important
public festival in Rome. It involved the conventional sacrifices, a couch (lectisternium)
set out in front of the temple of Saturn and the untying of the ropes that bound
the statue of Saturn during the rest of the year. Besides the public rites there
were a series of holidays and customs celebrated privately. The celebrations
included a school holiday, the making and giving of small presents (saturnalia
et sigillaricia) and a special market (sigillaria). Gambling was allowed for
all, even slaves; however, although it was officially condoned only during this
period, one should not assume that it was rare or much remarked upon during
the rest of the year. It was a time to eat, drink, and be merry. The toga was
not worn, but rather the synthesis, i.e. colorful, informal "dinner clothes";
and the pileus (freedman's hat) was worn by everyone.
Slaves were exempted from punishment,
and treated their masters with disrespect. The slaves celebrated a banquet:
before, with, or served by the masters. A Saturnalicius princeps was elected
master of ceremonies for the proceedings. Saturnalia became one of the most
popular Roman festivals which led to more tomfoolery, marked chiefly by having
masters and slaves ostensibly switch places. The banquet, for example, would
often be prepared by the slaves, and they would prepare their masters' dinner
as well. It was license within careful boundaries; it reversed the social order
without subverting it.
The Saturnalia was originally celebrated
in Ancient Rome for only a day, but it was so popular it soon it lasted a week,
despite Augustus' efforts to reduce it to three days, and Caligula's, to five.
Like Christmas, this important holy day (feriae publicae) was for more than
fun and games. Saturnalia was a time to honor the god of sowing, Saturn. But
again, like Christmas, it was also a festival day (dies festus) on which a public
banquet was prepared. An effigy of the god was probably one of the guests.
The poet Catullus describes Saturnalia
as the best of days. It was a time of celebration, visits to friends, and gift-giving,
particularly of wax candles (cerei), and earthenware figurines (sigillaria).
The best part of the Saturnalia (for slaves) was the temporary reversal of roles.
Masters served meals to their slaves who were permitted the unaccustomed luxuries
of leisure and gambling. Clothing was relaxed and included the peaked woollen
cap that symbolized the freed slave. A member of the familia (family plus slaves)
was appointed Saturnalicius princeps, roughly, Lord of Misrule.
By the beginning of December, writes
Columella, the farmer should have finished his autumn planting. Now, at the
time of the winter solstice (December 25 in the Julian calendar), Saturnus,
the god of seed and sowing, was honored with a festival. The Saturnalia officially
was celebrated on December 17 (a.d. XVI Kal. Ian.) and, in Cicero's time, lasted
seven days, from December 17-23. Augustus limited the holiday to three days,
so the civil courts would not have to be closed any longer than necessary, and
Caligula extended it to five (Suetonius, XVII; Cassius Dio, LIX.6), which Claudius
restored after it had been abolished (Dio, LX.25). Still, everyone seems to
have continued to celebrate for a full week, extended, says Macrobius (I.10.24),
by celebration of the Sigillaria, so named for the small earthenware figurines
that were sold then.
Macrobius, in his Saturnalia, creates
an imaginary symposium among pagan intellectuals that takes place then. There,
he offers an explanation for the varying length of the holiday. Originally,
it was celebrated on only one day, the fourteenth before the Kalends of January
(December 19). With the Julian reform of the calendar, however, two days were
added to December, and the Saturnalia was celebrated sixteen days before the
Kalends (December 17), "with the result that, since the exact day was not
commonly known--some observing the addition which Caesar had made to the calendar
and others following the old usage--the festival came to be regarded as lasting
for more days than one" (I.10.2). The original day now was given over to
the Opalia, honoring Ops, who personified abundance and the fruits of the earth,
and was the consort of Saturn. As the two deities represented the produce of
the fields and orchards, so they also were thought to represent heaven and earth.
It was for this reason, says Macrobius (I.10.20), that the two festivals were
celebrated at the same time, the worshippers of Ops always sitting in prayer
so that they touched the earth, mother of all. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
What was Saturnalia
In the Roman calendar, the Saturnalia
was designated a holy day, or holiday, on which religious rites were performed.
Saturn, himself, was identified with Kronos, and sacrificed to according to
Greek ritual, with the head uncovered. The Temple of Saturn, the oldest temple
recorded by the pontiffs, had been dedicated on the Saturnalia, and the woolen
bonds which fettered the feet of the ivory cult statue within were loosened
on that day to symbolize the liberation of the god.
It also was a festival day. After sacrifice
at the temple, there was a public banquet, which Livy says was introduced in
217 BC (there also may have been a lectisternium, a banquet for the god in which
its image is placed in attendance, as if a guest). Afterwards, according to
Macrobius (I.10.18), the celebrants shouted "Io, Saturnalia!" at a
riotous feast in the temple.
The Egyptian and Persian traditions merged
in ancient Rome, in a festival to the ancient god of seed-time, Saturn. The
people gave themselves up to wild joy. They feasted, they gave gifts, they decorated
their homes with greenery. The usual order of the year was suspended: grudges
and quarrels forgotten; wars interrupted or postponed. Businesses, courts, schools
closed. Rich and poor were equal, slaves were served by masters, children headed
the family. Cross-dressing and masquerades, merriment of all kinds prevailed.
A mock king -- the Lord of Misrule -- was crowned. Candles and lamps chased
away the spirits of darkness. As Roman culture became more licentious, so did
Saturnalia.
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). Pliny the Younger writes that he retired to his room while
the rest of the household celebrated (Epistles, II.17.24). It was an occasion
for celebration, visits to friends, and the presentation of gifts, particularly
wax candles (cerei), perhaps to signify the returning light after the solstice,
and sigillaria. Martial wrote Xenia and Apophoreta for the Saturnalia. Both
were published in December and intended to accompany the "guest gifts"
which were given at that time of year. Aulus Gellius relates in his Attic Nights
(XVIII.2) that he and his Roman compatriots would gather at the baths in Athens,
where they were studying, and pose difficult questions to one another on the
ancient poets, a crown of laurel being dedicated to Saturn if no-one could answer
them.
In the Saturnalia, Lucian relates that
"During My week the serious is barred; no business allowed. Drinking, noise
and games and dice, appointing of kings and feasting of slaves, singing naked,
clapping of frenzied hands, an occasional ducking of corked faces in icy water—such
are the functions over which I preside." This equality was temporary, of
course; and Petronius speaks of an impudent slave being asked at some other
time of the year whether it was December yet. Dio writes of Aulus Plautius,
who was to lead the conquest of Britain, cajoling his troops. But they hesitated,
"indignant at the thought of carrying on a campaign outside the limits
of the known world." Only when they were entreated by a former slave dispatched
by Claudius did they relent, shouting "Io, Saturnalia" (LX.19.3).
At the end of the first century AD, Statius
still could proclaim: "For how many years shall this festival abide! Never
shall age destroy so holy a day! While the hills of Latium remain and father
Tiber, while thy Rome stands and the Capitol thou hast restored to the world,
it shall continue" (Silvae, I.6.98ff). And the Saturnalia did continue
to be celebrated as Brumalia (from bruma, winter solstice) down to the Christian
era, when, by the middle of the fourth century AD, its rituals had become absorbed
in the celebration of Christmas.
Saturnalia in Literature
Seneca the Younger wrote about Rome during
Saturnalia around AD 50:
It is now the month of December,
when the greatest part of the city is in a bustle. Loose reins are given
to public dissipation; everywhere you may hear the sound of great preparations,
as if there were some real difference between the days devoted to Saturn
and those for transacting business....Were you here, I would willingly confer
with you as to the plan of our conduct; whether we should eve in our usual
way, or, to avoid singularity, both take a better supper and throw off the
toga.
Horace in his Satire II.7 (published
circa 30 BC) uses a setting of the saturnalia for a frank exchange between a
slave and his master in which the slave criticizes his master for being himself
enslaved to his passions. Martial Epigrams Book 14 (circa AD 84 or 85) is a
series of poems each based on likely saturnalia gifts, some expensive, some
very cheap. For example: writing tablets, dice, knuckle bones, moneyboxes, combs,
toothpicks, a hat, a hunting knife, an axe, various lamps, balls, perfumes,
pipes, a pig, a sausage, a parrot, tables, cups, spoons, items of clothing,
statues, masks, books, and pets. Pliny in Epistles 2.17.24 (early second century
AD) describes a secluded suite of rooms in his Laurentine villa which he uses
as a retreat:
...especially during the saturnalia
when the rest of the house is noisy with the licence of the holiday and
festive cries. This way I don't hamper the games of my people and they don't
hinder my work/studies.
Macrobius in Saturnalia I.24.23-23 wrote:
Meanwhile the head of the slave
household, whose responsibility it was to offer sacrifice to the Penates,
to manage the provisions and to direct the activities of the domestic servants,
came to tell his master that the household had feasted according to the
annual ritual custom. For at this festival, in houses that keep to proper
religious usage, they first of all honor the slaves with a dinner prepared
as if for the master; and only afterwards is the table set again for the
head of the household. So, then, the chief slave came in to announce the
time of dinner and to summon the masters to the table.
The Saturnalia was originally celebrated
in Ancient Rome for only a day, but it was so popular it soon it lasted a week,
despite Augustus' efforts to reduce it to three days, and Caligula's, to five.
Like Christmas, this important holy day (feriae publicae) was for more than
fun and games. Saturnalia was a time to honor the god of sowing, Saturn. But
again, like Christmas, it was also a festival day (dies festus) on which a public
banquet was prepared. An effigy of the god was probably one of the guests.
The poet Catullus describes Saturnalia
as the best of days. It was a time of celebration, visits to friends, and gift-giving,
particularly of wax candles (cerei), and earthenware figurines (sigillaria).
The best part of the Saturnalia (for slaves) was the temporary reversal of roles.
Masters served meals to their slaves who were permitted the unaccustomed luxuries
of leisure and gambling. Clothing was relaxed and included the peaked woollen
cap that symbolized the freed slave. A member of the familia (family plus slaves)
was appointed Saturnalicius princeps, roughly, Lord of Misrule.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
