Celebrating Saturnalia and winter solstice in Ancient Rome
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 มิ.ย. 2024
- Christmas is a Christian holiday celebrated on the 25th of December. Why? What did the ancient Romans do at the end of December? How did the winter solstice figure into this? We'll take a look at early Christian associations in December, already crowded with various festivals focused on December 25th. The most interesting and deep-rooted cult in Rome regarding the end of the year was the Saturnalia, which began on December 17th and was ultimately extended to December 23rd. Festivities honoring Saturn- an agricultural deity- included merrymaking, drinking, feasting, gambling, and more. Sound familiar? Let's examine just what aspects from pagan Rome were absorbed into Christmas! Io Saturnalia!
0:00 Introduction
0:23 Early Christian traditions for Jesus' birthday
0:39 The winter solstice
1:12 The cult of Sol Invictus
1:34 Cult of Mithras
1:58 Saturnalia festival
2:05 Temple of Saturn
3:18 Cult statue of Saturn from the temple
3:54 Saturnalia celebrations: December 17
4:25 Private celebrations at home
4:43 Sigillaria
5:11 Why is the Saturnalia celebrated in December? The time of the winter solstice.
6:07 Munera: gladiatorial games
7:08 In the home: subversion of the societal norms: actions and dress
8:00 King of the festival!
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I feel so lucky to have discovered this channel.
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Great video; Saturnalia has always been a fascinating holiday to me. Also, btw, loving the Via Appia series.
Glad you enjoy it! Stay tuned for more Via Appia!
Great Video! Roma Invicta!!
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Wonderful! Thank you and Merry Christmas.
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Fascinating! Thanks for sharing
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Io Saturnalia and happy holidays!
Happy new year!
Darius, that thing you said about "the sun is furthest from the earth on the winter solstice" (at about 0:47) is absolutely NOT true. But, alas, a common misunderstanding. In fact, the distance is almost at its MINIMUM then. The reason the days are shorter at that time of year is because of the earth's tilt on its axis, meaning that the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun, resulting in shorter days. You need to picture the earth's orbit around the sun as almost a circle; but the non-circularity is very, very small, so the distance does change, but only a little; and it does have an effect on the AMOUNT of sunlight we get, but (again) only a very small effect. The axis tilt is by far the major contributor to winter in the northern hemisphere in December, and to winter in the southern hemisphere in June.
Also, thank you for mentioning that the "Roman year" began in January. It made me look up when it was changed from March. I was surprised to (re-)discover that it was as early as 153 BC!
Agreed, Darius could have said it more clearly. THE TILT. Appreciate it!
Saturnalia is stile alive,Io Saturnalia Merry Chistmas
Auguri!
Io Saturnalia!
IO, SATURNALIA!!
yes! Io Saturnalia!
Interesting1
Could women join in the festival?
Balderdash.
The Lord of Misrule.. topsy turbulence..
Nobody in the smart town of Chillingbourne celebrates evil Xmas.
Top comment!
Ha
😳 P r o m o S M
Saturnalia was black mass for early Christians.
You are totally right. This Pagan celebration was a big sin for anyone that believe in Christ. Rome forced the population to change their religion to Christianism in name only but kept all the pagans tradition very much alive, including the worship of images.
Big sin?..what are you talking about here?...Constantine made a strategic decision to adopt Christianity to stem the rise of barbaric Christianity...the Catholic Church was king of Europe until the 16th century