Saturnalia: Roman Precursor To Christmas?

What came first? Saturnalia or Christmas?

Saturnalia is an ancient Roman pagan holiday in honor of the god Saturn. Held on the 17th of December it has evolved from a one-day holiday to a week-long festival, ending on the 23rd.

Saturnalia also has a big influence on modern-day religions such as Christianity. Many Christmas traditions come from pagan celebrations such as Saturnalia.

Who is Saturn?

Saturn was a deity of agriculture, wealth, renewal, and liberation. He carries a sickle, a symbol of the harvest.

Today we have the planet Saturn and the day Saturday which are named to honor him.

Saturn was quite popular during the Golden Age of humanity. a period of peace and prosperity for the Romans and the Greeks. His Greek counterpart was Cronus.

Saturn had two wives. Oops, goddess of abundance and Lua goddess of destruction. They represented both sides of an issue or the past and the present.

Ruins of the Temple to Saturn in Rome Italy. Built approximately 497 B. C. E

 Temple of Saturn

The main Temple of Saturn was constructed in Rome at Capitoline Hill. It took over 100 years to build but was finished in 497 BCE. It has been destroyed and rebuilt a few times over the centuries.

Sacrifices were frequently made to Saturn in the form of animals, wine, cheese, or bread.

The statue of Saturn in this temple was huge, having wool bound to its feet. During the holiday, the wool was removed as an act of liberation.

 Traditional Saturnalia Festivities

Saturnalia was a time of equality and liberation. People in Rome were excused from working, schools were closed, and war couldn’t be declared on this day.

Gambling was permitted and dice games were popular. Slave masters had to provide table service to their slaves.

All the people in the temple actively participated in the festivities and worship, and a public banquet followed.

A King of Saturnalia was elected who, with the title for the festival, got the power to order people around. People rejoiced and called this festival “the best of days”. Amongst many festivities, there are a few of them that stand out from the crowd and are worth mentioning in a bit more detail.

After a long day of celebrations in the public, Romans continued to celebrate at home, sacrificing a suckling pig, as a traditional sacrificial animal for earth deities.

Gift-giving - The third day of the Saturnalia festivities was reserved for gift-giving. Usually, people exchanged pottery or wax figurines called sigillaria, candles, or “gag gifts” which included something that made people laugh.

 To learn about the origin of more traditional Christmas traditions read our article Do Pagans Celebrate Christmas?

King of the Saturnalia - or Saturnalicius Principes, was a master elected to rule the ceremonies and their proceedings. He could give all sorts of commands during the festivities such as to throw people in fountains or to make people get naked.

Io Saturnalia - this was the popular phrase that was shouted as a salutation of the festival. It was a strongly emotive ritual exclamation used in announcing triumph in a gambling game or to punctuate a joke.

How to Celebrate Saturnalia Today?

But, if you’d like to celebrate Saturnalia today, what would be the things you could and should do! Let’s have a walkthrough of some of the modern-day Saturnalia celebrations!

●      Saturnalia has its official colors, and those are green and gold. During the festivities, you could wear clothes in these colors.

●      Decoration! Nothing goes without it. You should decorate your doorways, windows, and stairs with something green or gold! Wreaths for something green and golden ornaments.

●      In Rome, trees weren’t brought indoors as in many Germanic cultures. Decorate a tree on your property or somewhere near you! You can use golden cutouts of sun and star symbols!

●      Bake cookies! It’s always the right holiday for cookies. You can make all kinds of your favorite cookies and shape them in sun, star, or moon shapes and decorate with green and golden sprinkles.

●      If you are a pagan of legal drinking age where you hail from, make some mulsum! Mulsum was a popular drink in Ancient Rome made with wine and honey!

●      Greet people with the traditional greeting - Io, Saturnalia! And then tell them all about this wonderful holiday!

●      A banquet is a must for Saturnalia. Bread, fish, and cheese were common everyday foods in Ancient Rome. At a banquet, you may have something special like pork and sweets.

●      Gift-giving is a must! Small tokens of appreciation and presents are awesome to give to your close ones. Presents can include sweets, candles or something like that!

●      Decorate your altar with green and gold and a picture or statue of Saturn.

●      Last, but not least, celebrate freedom! Appreciate the freedom we have in the USA and Europe and light a candle for those who still live with oppression.

Check out our CALENDAR of pagan holidays!

 Take Away

 I really hope you have learned something new from the ancient pagan Roman culture and about the predecessor of modern-day Western Christmas!

Author, Marko, is a young pagan from Southeastern Europe, specializing his pagan path in his Native Faith called Rodnovery and dwelling into Wiccan solitary practices. Years of research and practice, from a very young age when curiosity blooms, gave Marko a good level of expertise on the topic of the Rodnovery religion.