![]() ![]() During the festivities, you could wear clothes in these colors. Saturnalia has its official colors, and those are green and gold.How to Celebrate Saturnalia Today?īut, if you’d like to celebrate Saturnalia today, what would be the things you could and should do! Let’s have a walkthrough of some of the modern-day Saturnalia celebrations! It was a strongly emotive ritual exclamation used in announcing triumph in a gambling game or to punctuate a joke. Io Saturnalia - this was the popular phrase that was shouted as a salutation of the festival. He could give all sorts of commands during the festivities such as to throw people in fountains or to make people get naked. King of the Saturnalia - or Saturnalicius Principes, was a master elected to rule the ceremonies and their proceedings. To learn about the origin of more traditional Christmas traditions read our article Do Pagans Celebrate Christmas? Usually, people exchanged pottery or wax figurines called sigillaria, candles, or “gag gifts” which included something that made people laugh. Gift-giving - The third day of the Saturnalia festivities was reserved for gift-giving. Amongst many festivities, there are a few of them that stand out from the crowd and are worth mentioning in a bit more detail.Īfter a long day of celebrations in the public, Romans continued to celebrate at home, sacrificing a suckling pig, as a traditional sacrificial animal for earth deities. People rejoiced and called this festival “the best of days”. Slave masters had to provide table service to their slaves.Īll the people in the temple actively participated in the festivities and worship, and a public banquet followed.Ī King of Saturnalia was elected who, with the title for the festival, got the power to order people around. Gambling was permitted and dice games were popular. People in Rome were excused from working, schools were closed, and war couldn’t be declared on this day. Saturnalia was a time of equality and liberation. During the holiday, the wool was removed as an act of liberation. The statue of Saturn in this temple was huge, having wool bound to its feet. Sacrifices were frequently made to Saturn in the form of animals, wine, cheese, or bread. It has been destroyed and rebuilt a few times over the centuries. It took over 100 years to build but was finished in 497 BCE. The main Temple of Saturn was constructed in Rome at Capitoline Hill. ![]()
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