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The Roman Christmas: Saturnalia
In light of the excitement of the past holiday season, I began to wonder what it
would be like to be a boy in Ancient Rome joyfully awaiting the next holiday. I
thought that the Roman Holiday that was closest to Christmas was Saturnalia;
however, there is a frequent festival, named Agonalia, which occurred often, in-
cluding in the month of December. Agonalia was a celebration for the God of
beginnings and ends Janus, and it usually involved the sacrifice of a ram and
was performed on the Quirinal Hill. However, Saturnalia is the more widely
known major Roman holiday that occurs at this time of year. It is also the larg-
est Roman holiday, and is celebrated on December 17th. Saturnalia is associat-
ed with Christmas because of the many similarities that exist between the two
holidays, such as the decorations, which consisted of boughs of laurel and ever-
green trees as well as plenty of candles and lamps to represent light. Some tra-
ditions were also similar between the two holidays. For instance, Romans ex-
changed gifts called Sigillaria, which were typically symbolic candles and dolls;
this practice is of course analogous to our giving and receiving of presents on
Christmas morning. Perhaps the most unique aspect of Saturnalia is that slaves
were exempted from all punishment on the holiday; in fact, their masters waited
on them at dinner. A die was rolled to determine the Saturnalian king, the Sat-
urnalian king determined what everyone at dinner had to do, i.e. singing, danc-
ing, or any other embarrassing thing. It is even said that Nero rigged the die so
he could be Saturnalian king and humiliate Claudius’s son Brittanicus by mak-
ing him sing in front of everyone. Saturnalia was also a time of relaxation from
the rigor of an elite Roman’s life. The laws of gambling were relaxed throughout
the course of the whole festival so that everyone had an opportunity to enjoy
some gambling. Romans even slipped off the formal toga for a more comfortable
unisex garment, the synthesis. Overall, Saturnalia was a unique and interest-
ing Roman holiday that shares many unexpected parallels with the Christian
celebration of Christmas. -Jesse Campbell: Parliamentarian