Post by Graveyardbride on Dec 9, 2014 9:33:52 GMT -5
Did the Romans Give Us Christmas?
The Romans brought us sanitation, public health, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads and a system to deliver fresh water the fresh water, but did they also bring us Christmas?
When giving gifts, singing carols and decorating trees, few think of the Romans, but most are aware our holiday traditions are based on ancient pagan festivities and some of our current practices come from the Roman Saturnalia. Way back in the 15th and 16th centuries, Polydore Vergil (c. 1470-1555) noted similarities between pagan and Christian practices. For example, “The Lord of Misrule,” a predominantly English tradition that took place on Christmas Day, is very much like a Saturnalia custom wherein masters and servants or slaves swapped roles for a day. One might wonder why the Romans permitted such nonsense, but this was what the Saturnalia was all about. Held in mid-December in honor of the god Saturn, the celebration involved relaxation of the social order in a carnival-type atmosphere.
Saturn was one of the principal deities of the Italians: a god of time, agriculture and things bountiful who reigned over the Golden Age, an era of peace, happiness and plenty. Indeed, the pleasures associated with the Golden Age were perhaps re-enacted in the Saturnalia itself. The festival celebrated the god in his role as overseer during a season of hard times and anxiety, when winters were harsh and food scarce. As the days shortened and the earth died, Saturn was commemorated to keep him happy during the coming time of need. The Saturnalia culminated in the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, which in the Julian calendar, was December 25. In anticipation of the coming light, formal business ceased as the Romans reveled, frolicked and feasted, in the certain knowledge that when spring returned, crops would grow and animals would increase their numbers, providing a year of bounty and prosperity.
During the celebration, the Romans exchanged gifts such as candles, signet rings, toothpicks, combs, toothpaste, baby rattles, hairpins, woolly slippers, warm caps, tablecloths and, yes, even socks! These were exchanged during or following a feast that was served by the head of the household himself because slaves were given time off to enjoy their own celebrations. Because Saturn, like most Roman deities, had a shadowy side and a closet full of skeletons, one scholar, Samuel L. Macey, has likened him to Santa Claus. While many would say a god who eats his children to maintain power has little in common with the jolly old elf we call Santa, as aforestated, there was another side to Saturn.
During the Saturnalia, the Romans participated in games, gambled, dressed up in costumes and and recited ribald poems. Of course, as it is today, overindulgence in alcoholic beverages was a big part of the revelries.
In addition to the Saturnalia, another important Roman festival with influential ties to Christmas was the celebration of the Unconquered Sun. A mention of the celebration of the “Unconquered” on December 25 in the 4th century almanac, the Calendar of Philocalus, is most likely a reference to the “Unconquered Sun.” In the same manuscript, December 25 is also listed as the birth of Jesus. The Calendar of Philocalus is therefore cited by some scholars as possible evidence for the coalescence of the festival of the Unconquered Sun with the celebration of the birth of Christ. David M. Gwynn suggests: “The commemoration of Christ’s birth on 25 December … appears to have originated in the west, in part to provide a Christian counterpart to the birthday of the Sun.”
By the end of the late Roman period, Christmas had been added to the Christian calendar. While many of the traditions of the old pagan festivals have seemingly disappeared, others merely changed form. Thus began the long history of Christmas.
Sources: Marguerite Johnson, The Conversation, December 7, 2014; and Priscilla Clayton, "The Romans Gave Us Christmas," Holiday Traditions, December 2002.