Io Saturnalia!

Author: Hatch, M. A., (2010), “Io Saturnalia!”, first published in The Imperial Courier, Volume 5, Issue 1, THE RMRS, pp. 3-4.

Origins With the conclusion of autumn planting, and at the winter solstice, Saturnus, the god of seed and sowing, was honoured with a festival. In the Roman calendar, December 17th (a.d. XVI Kal. Ian.), the Saturnalia, was thus designated a holy day (or holiday) on which religious rites were performed. Saturnus, himself, was identified with the Greek god, Kronos, and sacrificed to according to Greek ritual, with the head uncovered. The Temple of Saturn in Rome, the oldest temple recorded by the pontiffs, had been dedicated on the Saturnalia. On this holy day, the woollen bonds which fettered the feet of the ivory cult statue within the temple were loosened to symbolise the god’s liberation. After the conventional sacrifices at the temple, there followed a public banquet that Livy says was introduced in 217 BC. There also may have been a lectisternium, a banquet for Saturnus, in which the god’s image was placed on a couch as if a guest. A Saturnalicius princeps was elected master of ceremonies for the proceedings, including the often riotous public feast in the Temple. The customary greeting for the occasion was “Io, Saturnalia!” (Io pronounced “yo”) being a Latin interjection related to “ho” (as in “Ho, praise to Saturn”).

Celebrations Besides the public rites were a series of holidays (schools, for example, were closed) and private celebration. As today it was customary to visit friends and give small gifts, particularly wax candles (cerei) - perhaps to signify the returning light after the solstice - and sigillaria, so named for the small earthenware figurines. The poet Martial’s Epigrammata XIV (circa AD 84 or 85) contains a series of poems each based on likely Saturnalia gifts, some expensive, some very cheap. Examples quoted included writing tablets, dice, knuckle bones, money boxes, 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. Quite a diverse list.

Saturnalia was the most popular holiday of the Roman year. Catullus (XIV) describes it as “the best of days”, while Seneca complains that the “whole mob has let itself go in pleasures” (Epistles, XVIII.3). By Cicero's time, the Saturnalia‘s popularity had seen it grow into a week-long celebration between December 17th and 23rd. Efforts to shorten it were largely unsuccessful: the Emperor Augustus tried to limit the holiday to three days, so the civil courts would not have to be closed any longer than necessary. Caligula later extended the festival to five days (Suetonius, XVII; Cassius Dio, LIX.6), while Claudius officially restored it to the week-long festival after it had been abolished (Dio, LX.25). Yet despite the efforts of the Emperors, Romans seem to have continued to celebrate for a full week - extended, says Macrobius (I.10.24), by celebration of the Sigillaria.

Gambling was allowed for all, even slaves. Yet, although officially condoned only during this period, one should not assume that it was rare or much remarked upon during the rest of the year. Saturnalia was a time to eat, drink, and be merry. The toga was not worn, but rather the synthesis - colourful, informal “dinner clothes” - and the pileus, the felt cap normally worn and associated with freed slaves, was worn by everyone as a symbol of the freedom of the season. Slaves were exempt from punishment and treated their masters with (a pretence of) disrespect and, if allowed, could wear their masters' clothing. For many slaves there was an opportunity to celebrate a banquet either before, with, or served by the masters, the latter being in remembrance of an earlier golden age thought to have been ushered in by Saturnus. Yet the reversal of the social order was mostly superficial; 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; briefly reversing the social order without actually subverting it.

Although a time of merriment, the season was also an occasion for those with murderous intent. The Catiline conspirators, for example, intended to fire the city and kill the Senate on Saturnalia, when many would be preoccupied with the festivities. Likewise, during this joyful season, the Emperor Commodus was strangled in his bath on New Year's eve AD 192. Later still, Caracalla plotted to murder his brother Geta, his rival for supreme power, during Saturnalia.

In literature Martial wrote “Xenia” and “Apophoreta” for Saturnalia, with both works 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 Saturnus if no-one could answer them.

Seneca the Younger wrote about Rome during Saturnalia around AD 50 (Epistles XVIII.1-2):

“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 the setting of Saturnalia for a frank exchange between a slave and his master in which the slave criticises his master for being himself enslaved to his passions. Pliny in Epistles II.17.24 (early 2nd-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 honour 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.”

And Christmas? At the end of the 1st-century AD, Statius could still proclaim (Silvae I.6.98ff):

“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.”

Saturnalia continued to be celebrated in various guises, for example as Brumalia (from bruma meaning “winter solstice”), into the 4th-century AD. At this point, however, the ascendant Christians assigned December 25th (the winter solstice according to the Julian calendar) as Christ's birthday because the day was already observed and celebrated as a “holy day”. As the dates of Saturnalia are not precisely coincident with “Christmas”, a more refined argument suggests Christmas was set on December 25th, the feast of Sol Invictus, which itself had supplanted Saturnalia. However, with many of the traditions of Saturnalia incorporated into Sol Invictus, it is possible that some of those traditions - such as the exchanging of gifts - were also carried forward as a part of the Christian holiday.