Esta era uma festa do antigo Império Romano
A maioria dos investigadores sustenta que foi esta festa que deu origem a que o Natal fosse a 25 de Dezembro.
Tragam os vossos TB'S e as vossas Geocoins e a vosa boa disposição.
Das 12.30 às 13.20
Saturnalia was an
ancient Roman festival in honor of the
deity Saturn, held on the 17th of December of the
Julian calendar and later expanded with festivities through to the 23rd of December. The holiday was celebrated with a sacrifice at the
Temple of Saturn, in the
Roman Forum, and a public banquet, followed by private gift-giving, continual partying, and a
carnival atmosphere that overturned
Roman social norms:
gambling was permitted, and masters provided table service for their
slaves.
[1] The poet
Catullus called it "the best of days."
[2]
In
Roman mythology, Saturn was an agricultural deity who was said to have reigned over the world in the
Golden Age, when humans enjoyed the spontaneous bounty of the earth without labor in a state of
social egalitarianism. The revelries of Saturnalia were supposed to reflect the conditions of the lost mythical age, not all of them desirable. The Greek equivalent was the
Kronia.
[3]
Although probably the best-known Roman holiday, Saturnalia as a whole is not described from beginning to end in any single ancient source. Modern understanding of the festival is pieced together from several accounts dealing with various aspects.
[4] The Saturnalia was the dramatic setting of the multivolume work of that name by
Macrobius, a Latin writer from
late antiquity who is the major source for information about the holiday. In one of the interpretations in Macrobius's work, Saturnalia is a festival of light leading to the
winter solstice, with the abundant presence of candles symbolizing the quest for knowledge and truth.
[5] The renewal of light and the coming of the
new year was celebrated in the later
Roman Empire at the
Dies Natalis of
Sol Invictus, the "Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun," on December 25.
[6]
The popularity of Saturnalia continued into the third and fourth centuries AD, and as the
Roman Empire came under Christian rule, some of its customs have influenced the seasonal celebrations surrounding
Christmas and the New Year.
[7]