Saturnalia, an ancient Roman festival, is originally held on 17 Dec. Festivities are later extended to Dec 23 to align with other seasonal celebrations. Saturn is the revered but paranoid agricultural Titan god who eats his children so they won't usurp him.
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Saturn, Titan God
Saturn is an ancient energy. He's equated with Cronus in Greek lore, a Titan born of Uranus and Gaia. Saturn / Cronus overthrows his father by slicing off his testicles with a sickle, and takes command of the skies.
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With the Goddess Rhea (Greek Ops) he fathers several children. As it's prophesized one of his children will usurp him, as he usurped his father, he devours each infant at birth.
In the artwork above Saturn savagely eats his son. Goya swerves from the tradition of Saturn swallowing his children whole. This is one of his "dark" paintings, not for public viewing, done on a wall of the artist's home.
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When Zeus is born, Rhea wraps a rock in a blanket to deceive Saturn. Saturn tells her to nurse the infant once more before he devours him. As she pretends to nurse the substitute baby her breast milk sprays into the heavens to become the Milky Way.
As Saturn wonders why his youngest child is so hard to chew, Rhea spirits young Zeus off to a cave by the sea in Crete. There he's nursed by a she-goat, Amalthea. In another version she's a nymph tending goats, who gives him goat's milk to nurture his growth.
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When Zeus grows up he returns to Saturn and forces him to disgorge the rock, and the gods and goddesses who are kin of Zeus. He then cuts off Saturn's testicles, or cuts him into bite-sized bits, or banishes him to the darkest part of Hades, and rises to rule.
During and after the Roman conquest of Greece in 31 BC, Saturn is combined with the Greek Titan Cronus. Saturn takes the Cronus mythology and the two are regularly interchanged or conflated.
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The deities he fathers are Jupiter (Gr. Zeus), Neptune (Poseidon), Pluto (Hades), Juno (Hera), Ceres (Demeter) and Vesta (Hestia). When Jupiter / Zeus frees his siblings they take their rightful places among the Gods.
In ancient Rome Saturn is a god of time, generation, dissolution, abundance, wealth, agriculture, cycles of renewal, and liberation or freedom. Despite his child-eating ways, the mythological reign of Saturn is considered a Golden Age of peace and prosperity.
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The feast of Kronia in July / August is a harvest celebration dedicated to Cronus, who retains his status as an agriculture deity of abundance and wealth. In the rising shadow of Saturn he is ultimately assimilated.
Io Saturnalia!
Saturnalia festivities begin with a blood sacrifice at the temple of Saturn, followed by a public banquet. People exchange gifts, usually joke gifts, or figures of wax or pottery known as sigillaria.
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The noun Sigillaria corresponds to the last day of Saturnalia. In ancient times a street in Rome, Via Sigillaria, is occupied by shopkeepers who make and sell the figurines. On Saturnalia they hit their best sales figures of the year.
Dec 17 through to the 23rd celebrations continue day and night. Excess is expected. People dance, drink and gamble. Roles of rich and poor, slave and master are reversed. Men and women often switch gender.
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The cry "Io, Saturnalia!" resounds through the streets and palaces of pleasure. It signals the beginning of the celebration, or the celebration itself. It can also follow the punchline of a joke. During the reign of Claudius it defuses a mutiny.
The freedman Narcissus is devoted to Emperor Claudius. When he hears of revolt in the ranks, Narcissus steps onto the balcony to address the soldiers. Seeing him in place of his "Master", one in the crowd calls out "Io Saturnalia!" and amid laughter the mutiny dissolves.
For Saturnalia a King is elected, who gives ridiculous orders such as banning blue clothes. Masters set up dining tables for slaves and everyone feasts together as equal. Similar fests include Lord of Misrule in England and the Feast of Fools or Narrenfest in Germania.
According to Greek writer Athenaeus, other festivals incorporating the concept of masters dining with slaves include the Athenian festival Anthesteria, dating back to the 10th or 11th century BC, and the Spartan feast of Hyacinthia.
A festival ancient even in the time of Classical Antiquity, Athesteria occurs over three days in January or February. Hyacinthia commemorates the death of Hyacinthus, a lover of Apollo. Apollo kills him by accident and immortalizes him as the hyacinth flower.
Symbolically Hyacinthus is in Hades for the winter, and emerges as one of the first blossoms of spring. The first day of Hyacinthia is for mourning, and the others are a celebration of his resurrection.
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According to the Latin writer Macrobius of Late Antiquity, Saturnalia is a festival of light leading up to the winter solstice. Many candles are lit, symbolizing the quest for truth and knowledge.
Number of days celebrated varies, first seven, then three to five, until Caligula, brother of Agrippina the Younger, decrees the event should be five days. It's now returned to the time-honored tradition of seven days. Io Saturnalia!
In the later Roman Empire the renewal of light and approach of the new year is celebrated as Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or "Birth Day of the Unconquerable Sun" on 25 December. The festival continues into the 4th century, when the Romans invent Christmas 357 AD.
Saturnalia predates and influences the pagan Festival of Yule, which is originally an extended Scandinavian harvest festival. Holly leaves, vines and wreaths are popular Saturnalia decorations.
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Holly stays green, its berries plump and red, long after other plants wither in winter. The berries are toxic to people and pets, a good reason to let them color the season instead of the stomach. Some birds can eat them.
During Saturnalia the statue at Saturn's temple has its feet wrapped and tied in wool. The wrappings are later taken off to symbolize liberation. While mythic golden days of the reign of Saturn are over, the festival is still celebrated today. Io Saturnalia.
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