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Saturnalia is an ancient Roman festival and holiday in honour of the god Saturn, held on 17 December in the Julian calendar and later expanded with festivities until 19 December. By the 1st century BC, the celebration had been extended until 23 December, for a total of seven days of festivities. [1]
In the dialogue of Macrobius's Saturnalia, the interlocutor Praetextatus says that sigillaria were substitutes for the sacrificial victims of the primitive religious rituals. [5] Interpreted as such, they raise questions about human sacrifice among the earliest Romans [6] (see also Argei and oscilla). The speaker Evangelus, however, counters ...
Macrobius (5th century CE) presents an interpretation of the Saturnalia as a festival of light leading to the winter solstice. [34] [14] (1.1.8–9) The renewal of light and the coming of the new year was celebrated in the later Roman Empire at the Dies Natalis of Sol Invictus, the "Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun," on December 25. [35]
In third-century Rome, its citizens celebrated the winter solstice, the mid-December festival Saturnalia for the god of Saturn and the birthday of the sun god, Sol Invictus, on December 25, per ...
The festival was also celebrated in parts of Ionia, and in these places the month was called Kronion, named after the festival. [2]: 82 [3]: 385 [b] Scholars usually interpret it as a celebration of the mid-summer (first) harvest. Its Roman equivalent is Saturnalia. [2]: 38
In Rome, this yearly festival was celebrated with thirty chariot races. [45] Gary Forsythe, Professor of Ancient History, says "This celebration would have formed a welcome addition to the seven-day period of the Saturnalia (December 17–23), Rome's most joyous holiday season since Republican times, characterized by parties, banquets, and ...
Fornacalia, a mid-February baking festival celebrated by the curiae, the 30 archaic divisions of the Roman people; the date was announced by the curio maximus and set for each curia individually, with a general Fornacalia on February 17 for those who had missed their own or who were uncertain to which curia they belonged.
Saturnalia is a late example of the Symposium genre pioneered by Plato and Xenophon. [2] It is written as a series of scholarly dialogues at fictional banquets held over the eve of Saturnalia and three days of the holiday, December 16–19. [3] In each book, one of the characters does the bulk of the speaking on the topic. [4]