HISTORY OF SATURNALIA
By the beginning of December, writes Columella, the farmer should have finished his autumn planting. Now, at the time of the winter solstice (December 25 in the Julian calendar), Saturnus, the god of seed and sowing, was honored with a festival. The Saturnalia officially was celebrated on December 17 (a.d. XVI Kal. Ian.), midway between two other agricultural festivals: the Consualia, which celebrated the opening of the granaries and was in honor of Consus, god of the granary, and the Opalia, honoring Ops, who personified abundance and the fruits of the earth, and was the consort of Saturn.

In the Roman calendar, the Saturnalia was designated a holy day, or holiday, on which religious rites were performed. Saturn, himself, was identified with Kronos, and sacrificed to according to Greek ritual, with the head uncovered. The Temple of Saturn, the oldest temple recorded by the pontifices, was dedicated on the Saturnalia, and the woolen bonds which fettered the feet of the ivory cult statue within were loosened on that day to symbolize the liberation of the god. It also was a festival day. After sacrifice at the temple, there was a public banquet, which Livy says was introduced in 217 BC (there also may have been a lectisternium, a banquet for the god in which its image is placed in attendance, as if a guest). Afterwards, according to Macrobius, the celebrants shouted ?Io, Saturnalia!?

In Cicero's time, the Saturnalia lasted seven days, from December 17-23. Augustus attempted to limit the holiday to three days, so the civil courts would not have to be closed any longer than necessary, and Caligula extended it to five. Still, everyone seems to have continued to celebrate for a full week.

The Saturnalia was the most popular holiday of the Roman year. Catullus describes it as "the best of days," and Seneca complains that the "whole mob has let itself go in pleasures." Pliny the Younger writes that he retired to his room while the rest of the household celebrated. Cicero fled to the countryside. It was an occasion for celebration, visits to friends, and the presentation of gifts, particularly wax candles (cerei), perhaps to signify the returning light after the solstice, and small earthenware figurines (sigillaria). Martial wrote Xenia and Apophoreta for the Saturnalia. Both were published in December and intended to accompany the "guest gifts" which were given at that time of year. During the holiday, restrictions were relaxed and the social order inverted. Gambling was allowed in public. Slaves were permitted to use dice and did not have to work. Instead of the toga, less formal dinner clothes (synthesis) were permitted, as was the pilleus, a felt cap normally worn by the manumitted slave that symbolized the freedom of the season. Within the family, a Lord of Misrule was chosen. Slaves were treated as equals, allowed to wear their masters' clothing, and be waited on at meal time in remembrance of an earlier golden age thought to have been ushered in by the god.

This equality was temporary, of course; and Petronius speaks of an impudent slave being asked at some other time of the year whether it was December yet. Dio writes of Aulus Plautius, who was to lead the conquest of Britain, cajoling his troops. But they hesitated, "indignant at the thought of carrying on a campaign outside the limits of the known world." Only when they were entreated by a former slave dispatched by Claudius did they relent, shouting "Io, Saturnalia." (If a time of merriment, the season also was an occasion for murder. Commodus was strangled in his bath on New Year's eve, and Caracalla plotted to murder his brother during the Saturnalia.)

At the end of the first century AD, Statius still could proclaim: "For how many years shall this festival abide! Never shall age destroy so holy a day! While the hills of Latium remain and father Tiber, while thy Rome stands and the Capitol thou hast restored to the world, it shall continue." And the Saturnalia did continue to be celebrated as Brumalia (from bruma, winter solstice) down to the Christian era, when, by the middle of the fourth century AD, its rituals had become absorbed in the celebration of Christmas.

Lucius Aelius Stilo

WINTER SOLSTICE IN ANCIENT GREECE
Trying to put together a complete picture of ancient Hellenic festivals is always a little difficult - for one thing, there was no fixed civil calendar; for another there was no consistency among Hellenic city-states on festivals. Each city had its own festivals days - much like most towns in America have their very own ?town day? today.

Because of the difficulty in determining exactly what was celebrated where, modern recreationists use a somewhat hybrid calendar that was cobbled together from written, archeological and anthropological records. We do know a little more about what Athens did, and so the Athenian calendar tends to be the default these days.

While civil calendars weren?t fixed, certain celebrations follow the path of the sun and are therefore, pretty consistent. In the month known as Poseidon, which mostly coincides with December, ancient Athenians offered a sacrifice to Zeus Horios sometime around the solstice itself in the deme of Erkia. We can also assume that Poseidon himself was the recipient of a festival during this month, since it was, after all, named after him and the 8th day of the month was holy to him.

During the last half of the month a festival known as the Rural Dionysia was held. It included a procession with men carrying a phallus, cake-bearers, revellers and singing. The god was carried into the city to represent Dionysus coming into the city. Later in the year a City Dionysia would be celebrated. As always, sacrifices were made during this festival.

At the end of the month of Poseidon, the festival known as Haloa was celebrated in honor of Demeter and Dionysus. Here?s one of those things that we, in our temperate climates forget - winter was not a time of vegetative death for the ancient greeks - they were already looking forward to their first harvest. Hence this festival was known as ?Haloa? named after the halos, or threshing floor. This was a distinctly fertility oriented ritual, with genitalia shaped cakes and orgiastic revels.

The first week of what we think of as the ?New year? was filled with sacrifieces to major deities for the ancient Hellenes. Athene, Aphrodite, Artemis, Poseidon, Apollo, even the heroes Heracles and Theseus had their days.

Like so many other cultures, it appears that this time of year was full of celebrations, revels and parties...there?s just something in the air, we guess.

Sources:
Ancient Hellenic Calendar - http://www.winterscapes.com/dionysus/calendar.htm

Hellenic Month Established Per Athens (HMEPA) - http://www.numachi.com/~ccount/hmepa/calendars/695.2.Poseideon.html

And for those of you interested in a discussion of such things, there is a Yahoo! group:
Hellenic Calendar - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hellenic_Calendar

Athenia Glaucon

CELTIC HERITAGE IN CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS
Many of the traditional symbolism, both pagan and Christian, that we observe today during the Winter Solstice, or Christmas, were passed down to us from various cultures of the past. The Celts contributed their share of this, both adapted into their own culture from others and those stemming from their own belief system.

The Winter Solstice was not a time of major celebration as other festivals were (ie, Samhain), but it was observed nonetheless. The celebration of Yule was brought to the Celts by the Norse invaders and they adopted it to become part of their own celebrations. For the Celts, this was the time when the young holly king fought and prevailed over the old oak king (the holly king representing the new year, the oak king the old). They honored the Mother Goddess by the burning of the Yule log which was lit using the remains of the previous year?s log.

Two plants in particular had special meaning during this season, holly and mistletoe. Holly, remaining green even through winter, was said to keep things beautiful when all other trees lost their leaves. The berries of the holly are said to have represented the sacred menstrual blood of the Mother Goddess. Eventually, it evolved that people started decorating their homes with holly as a sign of protection, to ward off evil spirits. People wore holly in their hair when they went into the forest to watch the priests gather another sacred plant, mistletoe. Mistletoe was believed to have all sorts healing powers and the Druids would hold a special ceremony to gather it from the trees five days after the new moon following the solstice. It was then given out to the people to also use as a symbol of protection.

With the advent of Christianity, some of these symbols were adopted into the new faith. Others were not. The displaying of mistletoe was deemed too pagan and thus abandoned until it was revived more recently in history. Holly on the other hand, continued to be displayed, first a symbol to avoid persecution and then the berries came to symbolize the blood of Christ.

So as we are lighting the yule log this year, hanging wreaths with holly, and placing the mistletoe in the doorway, think about what these symbolized to the ancients. For these are the traditions they bequeathed to us.

Andrasta Baoisgne

THE TALE OF THE CUETLAXOCHITL (Nochebuena)
Long ago in the valley of the Mexica, there lived a young girl called Xochilipicue. It was the time of year when all the mothers of the village were busy collecting the special ingredients for the tamales. The fathers had locked themselves in the katl of the X-man, to be able to work undisturbed on all the wonderfully coloured banners for the grand festival of Huitzilopochtli. The priests were carrying lots of small packages into the temples, to put into the pot of offering.

On the third day of month of the Small Hay, the young adolescents all at the age of fourteen, were assembled on the main square. On their backs they carried some food for on the way, a piece of soap, a comb and where the boys also took an obsidian knife, the girls brought a mirror with them. They had reached the age on which they would go to the sacred hill of Tepeyec, to visit the temple of Coatlicue.

Xochi, as her friends called Xochilipicue, had celebrated her fourteenth birthday last week and so finally she was old enough to go on this exiting trip too. In the front of the row there were Dancing Flame and Brave as the Eagle, they were they only ones older than fourteen and they were chosen to lead this years Coatlichicues. Brave as the Eagle, raised his hand, this was the sign to go and march.

And off they went. It was a bright and sunny day and they youngsters marched in good spirit, singing songs along the way. " Coatlicue, sweet mother, here we come, we come and bring you gifts and hope that you will be pleased, because we all did our best, to make sure to make you something beautiful, please dear silver moon, shine on to us." They walked and walked and saw the sun turning over their heads and it was now descending and painted the sky a beautiful orange colour.

Brave as the Eagle looked around and pointed at an open area in the forest. "Here will make our camp for the night", he said. They would spend the night in the open air and that was one of the most exciting things. Because during the night, the Ciuateteo, the dark and evil creatures of the night were awake and they meant trouble. That's why Dancing Flame and Brave as the Eagle took Xochi and her friends to collect some wood for the campfire. The Ciuateteo were afraid of fire, so they would be safe.

Xochi had her arms full when suddenly she heard a loud scream. It was Dancing Flame who had run into a huge jaguar that was growling to her, because she was on his territory. Brave, with the obsidian knife in the hand, rushed over to the place where he had heard the scream. His entrance on the scene was so abrupt that the jaguar, for a split second, took his eyes off of Dancing flame, so she could run away and get herself in safety. Brave stood eye to eye with that mighty lord of the jungle.

All of a sudden a damp and thick mist came out of nowhere. Brave heard a vague woman's voice scattered by the mist. The jaguar howled, his head turned up in the sky. There, on the spot where the jaguar had stood the mist broke open. There stood a tall and well dressed young woman, her face was yellow and her lips were painted. She was the most beautiful creature Brave had ever seen in his life.
She held out her hand and Brave, completely overwhelmed by her beauty, couldn't do anything else than put his hand into hers.

And that was fatal. Brave couldn't move, his lips were dry. He felt his skin begin to change and his toes started to wriggle themselves into the ground. He looked at the lady in front of him. She had a mad look in her face, she was laughing so loudly that it scared every living animal. "Ciuateteo", was last thing Brave could say, before he completely changed into a tree.

The others had run away to the open field again, where they, as quickly as they could, had made the campfire. " Ciuateteo", they heard and then all was quiet.
"We have to go and look for him", Weeping Blades said. "Yes, we have to save him", another said. "No, we can't ", said Dancing Flame, "we have to stay close to the fire". "And besides, there is nothing we can do for him anymore tonight". "All we can do is wait till the morning dew and get to the temple of Coatlicue as soon as possible. There we can pray for him." Xochi, who liked Brave very much, was quiet. She was sad. Some agreed with Dancing Flame and others disagreed and while they were arguing, Xochi did something that she would normally not dare to do. She went into the forest again, all by herself.

At the place where it all happened she found a tree with it's branches all pointed downwards, as if it was mourning. Xochi stood there for a while and then she felt the urge to touch the tree. She embraced it and said with tears in her eyes:" Dear Brave, you are gone and what is to become of me? I love you!" She wept. "I wish the Ciuateteo is still around to change me too. Then we can be together, for always." The Ciuateteo was not showing and Xochi sat down under the tree. Was she dreaming when she heard the voice of Brave? "I have loved you for three moons now, Xochi, I was just about to tell you, but I wanted to wait till the Grand Festival to ask you if you wanted to be my wife. But now it is too late, I can love no more as the Ciuateteo has frosen my heart".

Xochi looked up the tree and more tears started to float out of her eyes. "Go to the temple and pray to our lady mother", Brave told her. And with sorrow in her heart, she joined the group again the following morning. At the temple, she prayed and prayed: "Niquilhuia xinechquetzalchihua, nechmaca teoxihuitl nomahpiltica, notzon tlapalxochitl" (And I ask you, oh beautiful lady, please give me turkoois for my fingers and colourful flowers for in my hair). But her heart felt heavy and she had little hope left. There where her tears had reached the ground, little plants appeared. And the plants began to grow and out of the plants bloomed beautiful red flowers. And the roots of these plants mingled with the roots of the tree and then it happended: Brave could feel his heart again and not long after that he could move his arms again.

After two days of prayer, it was time again to return home. Along the way, the group decided that they would pass the place where they had lost Brave, Brave as the Eagle to pay him some attention and to give him some food. But when they arrived at the scene of the terrible tragedy, there was no longer a mouning tree. Instead they found a field full of cuetlaxochitls with a handsome young man standing in the middle. "Brave!, you are alive". Brave was alive and as soon as he saw Xochi, he ran towards her and took her in his arms. The sun was shining and the moon smiled as they walked back to their village, hand in hand.

ChanChan Tupac

AWAKENING IN THE AMERICAS
The peoples of the Americas, separated from Eurasia and Africa by vast oceans, found their own way to civilization, at their own pace. Ziggurats encircled by crowded cities dotted the plains of Mesopotamia, great stone pyramids loomed above the Nile, and the Indus Valley buzzed with sophisticated urban life while many early Americans still followed a pattern of existence based on the nomads seasonal rounds.

The people moved purposefully with the advancing years, now reaping the bounty of the river basins, now that of the fog drenched hills timing their migration to the ripening crops and to good hunting or fishing seasons. Once in a while bands of wanderers encountered one another. They may have fought occasionally, but probably not often. So small was each band - probably between 12 and 20 people - and so interdependent its members that the loss of even an individual or two in a fight could be calamitous. Instead, the little groups most likely exchanged goods and stories at their meetings, arranged marriages between their young men and women, and celebrated occurrences such as changes of seasons.

The celebrations might take the form of religious ceremonies honouring whatever higher powers were believed responsible for the edible plants and game that kept these hunter-gatherers alive. Gradually, the seasonal encounters led to the establishment of ceremonial centres at sacred places where supernatural significance clung to certain natural features such as springs and caves: the later may have been considered wombs of the earth. The centres in turn attracted more small bands of people who came to worship, socialize and trade.

Sometime after 4,000 BC, a few of them had begun to settle in more or less permanent locations. During the third millennium BC, early Americans gave up the nomadic life in increasing numbers, especially in the highlands and coastal valleys of Peru and along the coasts of Mesoamerica, the region that stretches from the valley of Mexico south into Honduras. Forming small villages, they experimented with the cultivation of plants and with the domestication of animals. As they learnt to produce and store food, the villagers began to organise their labour more efficiently over the course of the year, mustering workers to join with those of other villages on common projects during period when crops did not require attention. In this fashion, they were able to construct bigger and better monuments to their gods. By the second millennium BC, the emerging pattern of society in the Mesoamerican and Andean regions was clear: scattered villages and hamlets, whose inhabitants cultivated nearby fields, supported ceremonial centres and groups of shamans, or holy people.

The villagers visited the centres regularly to participate in religious rites performed by the shamans, who later evolved into an elite priesthood. The centres grew in power and prestige, forming the bases of the first American civilizations: those of the Olmecs in Mesoamerica and the Chavin in the Andes.

Xolotl Huascar

Sources:
Hicks, Jim. The Empire Builders. Amsterdam: Time - Life Books 1974.
Donnan, Christopher B, ed. Early Ceremonial Architecture in the Andes. Washington D.C: Dunbarton Oaks. 1982.

BOOK REVIEW
Spqr V: Saturnalia by John Maddox Roberts St. Martin's, October 1999, 288 pp. ISBN: 0312205821
Genre: Detective/Mystery
Reviewed: 12/1/2002

In 695 AD Rome, Marcus Calpurnicus Bibulis and Gaius Julius Caesar head the consulship. However, Caesar's term will soon end. He will become the next consul of Gaul. Clodius is to replace him in Rome. Senator Decius Caecilis hates these changes because Clodius is his enemy. His family and friends consider Decius to be a ?weirdo? as he would rather solve a mystery than dabble in politics. His efforts gain him many enemies and frequent exiles out of the city. During the current transition of power, his father summons Decius home from Rhodes.

Due to the festive winter holiday of Saturnalia, Decius feels that Clodius will not try to kill him. Decius?s father wants his son to determine whether the deceased wife murdered their kinsman Quintus Caecilis by poisoning him. Quintus?s spouse happens to be Clodius?s sister making it possible that any finding will have severe political repercussions that could shake the foundation of the empire. Still, Decius risks his life to find the real killers and not necessarily the politically correct one.

John Maddox Roberts brings back popular Roman sleuth Decius who is in his usual form solving a mystery with major implications. Mr. Roberts uses many historical tidbits so that his audience can see Rome at the beginning of its most glorious period when Caesar is starting to consolidate his power. The who-done-it is cleverly designed so that the audience will follow a fine mystery as well as vividly observing everyday life in Ancient Rome. SPQR V: SATURNALIA has brought Mr. Roberts yet another bestseller.

Optimus Valerius