We are approaching that holiday time of the year again: Saturnalia is almost upon us! The Ancient Romans celebrated this winter solstice festival for several days in late December. Although it was a religious festival, Romans thought of it as a fun, carnival time, when gifts were exchanged and lots of food consumed. The fifth-century BCE poet Catullus called Saturnalia “optimo dierum,” “The best of days.” During Saturnalia, traditional behaviors were upturned, and class distinctions were mocked — for example, you can see a group of people gambling in this image. Catullus gets at the mischievous aspect of the holiday in one of his poems (14a), in which he — with tounge-in-cheek — lambasts his friend for re-gifting him a present, which happenes to be an extremely bad book of poetry. The irony of course is that Catullus was a celebrated poet who thought rather highly of himself. Many of the traditions of Saturnalia were similar to those that developed around the holiday of Christmas.
Source(s): Image from Eagles&Dragons Publishing, Dec 2018, by ADAMHA, “Io Saturnalia! Celebrating ‘the best of days’ in Ancient Rome.
