Saturnalia
Saturnalia, the festival of the Saturnalia
某神之戯。Secundis et tertiis Saturnalibus 某戯第二三日。Non semper erunt Saturnalia 福吉不恒。
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- Saturnus; sc. festa, the festival of the Saturnalia(beginning Dec. 17), C., L., H.: prima, the first day of the Saturnalia, L.: secunda, tertia.
SATURNA´LIAthe festival of Saturnus, to whom the inhabitants of Latium attributed the introduction of agriculture and the arts of civilised life. Falling towards the end of December, at the season when the agricultural labours of the year were fully completed, it was celebrated in ancient times by the rustic population as a sort of joyous harvest-home, and in every age was viewed by all classes of the community as a period of absolute relaxation and unrestrained merriment. During its continuance no public business could be transacted, the law courts were closed, the schools kept holiday, to commence a war was impious, to punish a malefactor involved pollution. (Macrob. Sat. 1.10, 16; Martial (Mart. 1.86; Suet. Aug. 32; Plin. Ep. 8.7.) Special indulgences were granted to the slaves of each domestic establishment; they were relieved from all ordinary toils, were permitted to wear the pilleus the badge of freedom, were granted full freedom of speech, partook of a banquet attired in the clothes of their masters, and were waited upon by them at table. (Macrob. Sat. 1.7; Dio Cass.; Justin. 43.1, 3; Hor. Sat. 2.7, 5; Martial (Mart. 11.6, 14.1-Z2; Athen. 14.44.)
The public festival began with a sacrificium publicum in front of the temple of Saturn in the Forum (Dionys. 6.1), and then followed the convivium publicum, at which senators and knights wore the dinner dress [SYNTHESIS]. In private the day began with the sacrifice of a young pig (Mart. 14.70; Hor. Od. 3.17, 14); all ranks devoted themselves to feasting and mirth, presents were interchanged among friends, and crowds thronged the streets, shouting Io Saturnalia (this was termed clamare Saturnalia). (Catull. 14; Senec. Ep. 18; Suet. Aug. 75; Martial (Mart. 5.18, 19, 7.53-Z2, 14.1-Z2; Plin. Ep. 4.9; Macrob. Sat. 1.8, 10; Serv. ad Verg. A. 3.407)
Many of the peculiar customs exhibited a remarkable resemblance to the sports of our own Christmas and of the Italian Carnival. Thus on the Saturnalia public gambling was allowed by the aediles (Martial (Mart. 5.84, 14.1-Z2, 11.6-Z2), just as in the days of our ancestors the most rigid were wont to countenance card-playing on Christmas-eve; the wearing of the synthesis and of the pilleus (Martial (Mart. 14.141, 6.24-Z2, 14.1-Z2, 11.6-Z2; Senec. Ep. 18) may find their counterpart in the dominoes, the peaked caps, and other disguises worn by masques and mummers; the cerei were probably employed as the moccoli now are on the last night of the Carnival; and lastly, one of the amusements in private society was the election of a mock king (Tac. Ann. 13.15; Arrian, Diss. Epictet. 1.25; Lucian, Saturn. 4), which at once calls to recollection the characteristic ceremony of Twelfth-night.
Saturnus being an ancient national god of Latium, the institution of the Saturnalia is lost in the most remote antiquity. In one legend it was ascribed to Janus, who, after the sudden disappearance of his guest and benefactor from the abodes of men, reared an altar to him, as a deity, in the forum, and ordained annual sacrifices; in another, as related by Varro, it was attributed to the wandering Pelasgi, upon their first settlement in Italy, and Hercules, on his return from Spain, was said to have reformed the worship and abolished the practice of immolating human victims; while a third tradition represented certain followers of the last-named hero, whom he had left behind on his return to Greece, as the authors of the Saturnalia (Macrob. Sat. 1.7). Records approaching more nearly to history referred the erection of temples and altars, and the first celebration of the festival, to epochs comparatively recent, to the reign of Tatius (Dionys. 2.50), of Tullus Hostilius (Dionys. 3.32; Macrob. Sat. 1.8), of Tarquinius Superbus (Dionys. 6.1; Macrob. l. c.), to the consulship of A. Sempronius and M. Minucius, B.C. 497, or to that of T. Larcius in the preceding year (Dionys. 6.1; Liv. 2.21). These conflicting statements may be easily reconciled by supposing that the appointed ceremonies were in these rude ages neglected from time to time, or corrupted, and again at different periods revived, purified, extended, and performed with fresh splendour and greater regularity. (Comp. Jordan, Topog. 1.360.) The festival was, no doubt, an old Italian rite of prehistoric date, but the adoption of the ritus graecus in its ceremonies, as shown by the uncovered head [SACRIFICIUMp. 586] and the lectisternium, was due to the order from the Sibylline books in the year 217 B.C. (Liv. 22.1, 19). It is suggested by Marquardt that the feasting of slaves, which the Romans took to be a tradition from the golden age when all were equal, may have really originated with the lectisternium in that year; since such general feasting of all ranks was part of the lectisternia (Macrob. 1.6, 13; LECTISTERNIUM).
During the Republic, although the whole month of December was considered as dedicated to Saturn (Macrob. 1.7), only one day, the XIV. Kal. Jan., was set apart for the sacred rites of the divinity: when the month was lengthened by the addition of two days upon the adoption of the Julian Calendar, the Saturnalia fell on the XVI. Kal. Jan., which gave rise to confusion and mistakes among the more ignorant portion of the people. To obviate this inconvenience, and allay all religious scruples, Augustus enacted that three whole days, the 17th, 18th, and 19th of December, should in all time coming be hallowed, thus embracing both the old and new style (Macrob. 1.10). A fourth day was added, we know not when or by whom, and a fifth, with the title Juvenalis, by Caligula (Dio Cass.; Suet. Cal. 17); an arrangement which, after it had fallen into disuse for some years, was restored and confirmed by Claudius (Dio Cass.).
But although, strictly speaking, one day only, during the Republic, was consecrated to religious observances, the festivities were spread over a much longer space. Thus, while Livy speaks of the first day of the Saturnalia (Saturnalibus primis, Liv. 30.36), Cicero mentions the second and third (secundis Saturnalibus, ad Att. 15.32; Saturnalibus tertiis, ad Att. 5.20); and it would seem that the merry-making lasted during seven days, for Novius, the writer of Atellanae, employed the expression septem Saturnalia, a phrase copied in later times by Memmius (Macrob. 1.10), and even Martial speaks of Saturni septem dies (14.72), although in many other passages he alludes to the five days observed in accordance with the edicts of Caligula and Claudius (2.89; 14.79, 141).
Among the presents of all kinds which were made at this season (Suet. Aug. 75; Plin. Ep. 4.9, 7; Lucian, Cronosol. 14-16; Mart. 4.46, 7.53-Z2, and all book xiv.), we must notice especially the cerei and the sigillaria. The cerei were wax tapers (funiculi or funales cerei) and were the most ordinary gift (Macrob. 1.7, 33; Varro, L. L. 5.64; Mart. 5.18), which may possibly, as some think, have a symbolical reference to the festival of waning light in the season of bruma; it may be noticed also that candles were the light of primitive times before oil lamps were known (Varro, L. L. 5.119), and so may have belonged to a primitive festival. The sigillaria or sigilla, which were especially characteristic of the Saturnalia (Sen. Ep. 12.3; Suet. Cl. 5; Macrob. 1.11, 49; Spartian. Carac. 1, Hadr. 17; Mart. 14.182), were small figures of terra-cotta and possibly sometimes of dough baked hard (Lobeck, Aglaoph. 1079). Some regarded them as relics of a human sacrifice to Saturn (Macrob. 1.11, 48; comp. OSCILLA). Hence the name of the street Sigillaria(Gell. 5.4), and the sale or fair of statuettes which lasted for four days after the 17th of December was called sigillaria; there is no ground for the supposition that certain of the festal days bore that name. (Marquardt, Staatsverw. 3.586 ff.; Preller, Röm. Myth. p. 413.)
[W.R] [G.E.M]A Roman festival in honour of Saturnus (q.v.). It was held late in December at the end of the vintage and harvesting, and was in early times the prototype of the English Harvest Home and the American Thanksgiving Day. At all periods it was a season of absolute relaxation, of merriment, and even license. While it continued, no business could be transacted, the law courts were closed, the schools kept holiday, to commence a war was impious, and even to punish a malefactor involved pollution (Macrob. Sat. i. 10, 16; Pliny , Epist. viii. 7). Special indulgences were granted to the slaves of each domestic establishment; they were relieved from all ordinary toils, were permitted to wear the pilleus, the badge of freedom, received full license of speech, and partook of a banquet attired in the clothes of their masters, and were waited upon by them at table (Macrob. Sat. i. 7; Dio Cass. lx. 19; Athen. xiv. 44). All classes devoted themselves to feasting and mirth, presents were interchanged among friends, wax tapers (cerei) being the common offering of the more humble to their superiors, and crowds thronged the streets, shouting Io Saturnalia! (hence clamare Saturnalia), while sacrifices were offered with uncovered head, from a conviction that no ill-omened sight should interrupt the rites of such a happy day. Many of the peculiar customs of this festival exhibit a remarkable resemblance to the sports of our own Christmas and of the Italian Carnival. Thus on the Saturnalia public gambling was allowed by the aediles, just as in the days of our ancestors the most rigid were wont to countenance card-playing on Christmaseve; the whole population threw off the toga, wore a loose gown, called synthesis (q. v.), and walked about with the pilleus on their heads, which reminds us of the dominos, the peaked caps, and other disguises worn by masques and mummers; the cerei were probably employed as the moccoli now are on the last night of the Carnival; and lastly, one of the amusements in private society was the election of a mock king (Tac. Ann. xiii. 15; Lucian, Saturn. 4), which at once calls to recollection the characteristic ceremony of Twelfth Night.
During the Republic, although the whole month of December was considered as dedicated to Saturn, only one day, the XIV. Kal. Ian., was set apart for the sacred rites of the divinity. When the month was lengthened by the addition of two days upon the adoption of the Julian Calendar, the Saturnalia fell on the XVI. Kal. Ian., which gave rise to confusion and mistakes among the more ignorant portion of the people. To obviate this inconvenience, and allay all religious scruples, Augustus enacted that three whole days, the 17th, 18th, and 19th of December, should in all time coming be hallowed, thus embracing both the old and new style (Macrob. i. 10). Under the Empire the merry-making lasted for seven days, and three different festivals were celebrated during this period. First came the Saturnalia proper, commencing on XVI. Kal. Dec., followed by the Opalia (from Ops, the wife of Saturnus), anciently coincident with the Saturnalia, on XIV. Kal. Ian.; these two together lasted for five days, and the sixth and seventh were occupied with the Sigillaria ( Epist. xii. 3), so called from the little earthenware figures (sigilla, oscilla) exposed for sale at this season, and given as toys to children. See Marquardt, Staatsverwaltung, iii. 586 foll.; Preller, Röm. Myth. p. 413.