December 17. Io Saturnalia!

In keeping with winter solstice tradition, it is a day to visit friends and bear gifts, especially candles. Schools are closed. Courts are not in session. Oh yeah, there’s also a sacrifice to Kronos (a.k.a. Saturn) and a riotous feast with benefits.

On this most popular holiday to emerge from Ancient Rome, the social order is inverted and strictures are loosened. Slaves are served by their masters. Gambling is permitted in public. There is drinking, noise, mirth, and wantonness. The populace is showered with figs, nuts, and dates, women fight in the arena, and cranes are hunted by dwarfs. In short, it’s an old-fashioned Christmas, before there was even such a thing as Christmas. Hey, if the Flintstones can celebrate the birth of Jesus, why not?

In the interest of converting rather than alienating, Christianity kept the candles, but frowned on the orgies, or at least looked the other way. But Saturnalia traditions continued to be practiced down the centuries, as evidenced in the medieval Feast of Fools, in the Victorian revival of gift-giving, in the lighting of candles, and in the eating, drinking, singing, and dancing.

Saturnalia, at its peak, was practiced through December 23. Wishing you and yours a merry one!

As you set the table for Saturn, here’s John Ireland’s “Satyricon Overture:”