Saturnalia

Saturnalia was the feast at which the the Romans commemorated the dedication of the temple of the god Saturn, which took place on 17 December. Over the years, it expanded to a whole week, up to 23 December. In the vagaring Roman calendar the Winter Solstice fell in this period; in imperial times that event was celebrated in honour of Sol Invictus and put on 25 December by emperor Aurelian in 274, so after the Saturnalia. Saturnalia - Origins. The Saturnalia originally were celebrated with a public banquet. ...

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Saturnalia: Encyclopedia II - Saturnalia - Saturnalia's relation to Christmas It is a widely-held theory that Christians in the fourth century assigned December 25th (the Winter Solstice on the Julian calendar) as Christ's birthday (and thus Christmas) because pagans already observed this day as a holiday. This would sidestep the problem of eliminating an already popular holiday while Christianizing the population. It is also possible to see it as early Christians replacing the Pagan celebration in an act of triumphalism. However, others claim that early Christians independently came up with the date of December 25th ...

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Christmas - When was the original Christmas?

Saturnalia: Encyclopedia - Christianization

The historical phenomenon of Christianization, the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once (a political shift as much as a spontaneous mass shift in individual consciences), also includes the practice of converting pagan cult practices, pagan religious imagery, pagan sites and the pagan calendar to Christian uses. In Antiquity, Christianization was effected only partly through laws against sacrifice and sorcery and official conversions of temples to Christian churches. It was effected also by the degradation of pagan gods into d ...

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Christianization - External link

Saturnalia: Encyclopedia - Ambarvalia

Ambarvalia was a Roman agricultural fertility rite held at the end of May in honour of Ceres. At these festivals they sacrificed a bull, a sow, and a sheep, which, before the sacrifice, were led in procession thrice around the fields; whence the feast is supposed to have taken its name, ambio, I go round, and arvum, field. This sacrifice was called a suovetaurilia in Latin. These feasts were of two kinds, public and private. The private were solemnized by the masters of families, accomp ...

Saturnalia: Encyclopedia - Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius

Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius, Roman grammarian and Neoplatonist philosopher, flourished during the reigns of Honorius and Arcadius (395–423). He himself states that he was not a Roman, but there is no certain evidence whether he was of Greek or perhaps African descent. He may be identical with a Macrobius who is mentioned in the Codex Theodosianus as a praetorian praefect in Spain in 399-400, proconsul of Africa in 410, and lord chamberlain in 422. But the tenure of high office at that date was limited to Christians, and th ...

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Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius - External link

Saturnalia: Encyclopedia - All Saints

The festival of All Saints, also sometimes known as "All Hallows," or "Hallowmas," is a feast celebrated in their honour. All Saints is also a Christian formula invoking all the faithful saints and martyrs, known or unknown. Common commemorations by several churches of the deaths of martyrs began to be celebrated in the 4th century. The first trace of a general celebration is attested in Antioch on the Sunday after Pentecost. This custom is also referred to in the 74th homily of John Chrysostom (407) and is maintained t ...

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Saturnalia: Encyclopedia - Winter solstice

In astronomy, the winter solstice is the moment when the earth is at a point in its orbit where one hemisphere is most inclined away from the Sun. This causes the Sun to appear at its farthest below the celestial equator when viewed from the far hemisphere. Solstice is a Latin borrowing and means "sun stand still", referring to the appearance that the Sun's noontime elevation change stops its progress, either northerly or southerly. The day of the winter solstice ...

Saturnalia: Encyclopedia - 395

395 - Events. After the death of emperor Theodosius I, the Roman Empire is divided in an eastern and a western half. The eastern half is centered in Constantinople under Arcadius, son of Theodosius I, and the western half in Rome under Flavius Augustus Honorius his brother. Alaric the Visigoth, general of the foederati, renounces Roman fealty and is declared King, waging war against both parts of the Roman Empire. End of a 16 year period of peace between Romans and Visigoths. Possib ...

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Saturnalia: Encyclopedia - Roman religion

Roman Mythology Jupiter Mars Quirinus Divus Julius Divus Augustus Juno Vesta Minerva Mercury Vulcan Ceres Venus Diana Lares Fortuna Aeneas Romulus Numa Early Kings Pontifex Maximus Rex Sacrorum Vestal Virgins Flamen Dialis The F ...

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Saturnalia: Encyclopedia - Yalda

Yaldā is celebrated on the eve of the first day of the winter in the Iranian calendar, which falls on the Winter Solstice. It celebrates the birth of Sun god Mithra. Yalda - Historical Background. The festival was considered extremely important in pre-Islamic Iran (Persia) and continues to be celebrated to this day since 4000 years ago. Some historians believe that the festival spread to Europe through contacts between the Roman and Persian empires and was eventually replaced by Christmas; a theory that ac ...

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Read more here: » Yalda: Encyclopedia - Yalda

Saturnalia: Encyclopedia - Wheel of the Year

In some types of Neopaganism, particularly those influenced by Wicca, the Wheel of the Year is celebrated as the natural cycle of the seasons, commemorated by the eight Sabbats. Because one tenet of Neopaganism is that all of nature is cyclical, the passing of time is also seen as a cycle, a wheel which turns and turns. The course of birth, life, decline, and death that we see in our human lives is echoed in the seasons. The eight Sabbats are re ...

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Saturnalia: Encyclopedia - Anna Perenna

Anna Perenna was an old Roman deity of the circle or "ring" of the year, as the name (per annum) clearly indicates. Her festival fell on the Ides of March (March 15), which would have marked the first full moon in the year in the old lunar Roman calendar when March was reckoned as the first month of the year, and was held at the grove of the goddess at the first milestone on the Via Flamini ...

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Saturnalia: Encyclopedia - Carnival

A carnival is a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus and public street party, generally during the Carnival Season. Carnival is traditionally a Roman Catholic and, to a lesser extent, Christian Orthodox celebration. Most Protestant and non-Christian areas do not celebrate it, with some Fundamentalist Protestant groups condemning the celebration, although the word carnival has passed into the vernacular and taken on secul ...

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Carnival - Funfairs

Read more here: » Carnival: Encyclopedia - Carnival

Saturnalia: Encyclopedia - Massacre of the Innocents

The Massacre of the Innocents is the name given to infanticide in Bethlehem mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew, but not mentioned in the other gospels nor in the early apocrypha. According to a Christian tradition, the described events fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah. Massacre of the Innocents - The Massacre. According to the Gospel of Matthew 2:16–18: "When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem ...

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Saturnalia: Mysticism Magick Dictionary on SATURNALIA

SATURNALIA

The prototypical Roman holiday in which all things were permitted, from December 17th to the 24th. Public banquets were held in which masters served their slaves and criminals were pardoned. A central place of honor to children and the aged was reserved. Gifts were exchanged and social games prevailed. Above all, it was the festival that honored Time and the Golden Age of the Past. It is east to see why Xmas in preempting and perverting this feriae servorum has developed so bloated and grotesque a stranglehold on the Euro-American psyche.

(See also: SATURNALIA, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

Saturnalia: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Saturnalia

Saturnalia (Latin) [from Saturnus Saturn]

A Roman festival held on the 17th of December and for a week following, honoring the deity Saturnus; undoubtedly this was the beginning of the occult festival held in celebration of the winter solstice. Saturnus was identified by Roman scholars with the Greek Kronos, though his attributes at times are rather those of Demeter, who presides over the gifts of earth. Legend states that Tullus Hostilius founded the festival, but also that Romulus founded it under the name of Brumalia [from bruma winter solstice]

. This is the time when the sun enters Capricorn, one of the houses of Saturn. The observances described are almost identical with those which we associate with Christmas; and Christmas again links up with a Norse version of the solstice festival. There was a general relaxation of discipline and social barriers; a spirit of joy and mirth; the interchange of gifts; abolition of distinctions of rank and social casts; no fighting or punishment. All over Europe, in Ancient Mexico, and in many other places, candles or fires were lighted. Even the harmless familiar Christmas and New Year festivals are themselves but exoteric forms of what in its essence was a dramatic presentation of the mysteries of initiation appropriate to this particular one of the four sacred seasons. Saturnalia has got its present meaning from the licentiousness into which this celebration degenerated.

Occultly the Saturnalia derived its name not only from the regent of the planet Saturn, but also from the esoteric teachings of the Mystery schools dealing with Saturn's cosmogonical role. There were also the somewhat distorted mythologic ideas concerning the Age of Saturn, or the period of beginnings, of human happiness and innocence. While the Age of Saturn is usually placed at the beginnings of human history, Saturn likewise closes an evolutionary period when the age of innocence and happiness plus spirituality and intellect shall have returned. Saturn therefore both opens and closes a grand evolutionary period.

(See also: Saturnalia, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Saturnalia: Encyclopedia II - Christianization - The Christianized calendar

Several Christian feasts occupy moments in the year that were formerly devoted to pagan celebrations. Familiar examples are the Roman Saturnalia, converted to Christmas, the festivities of Yule in northern Europe, the name of Eostre converted to English "Easter" to identify the Paschal festival, the celebration of Midsummer Day as the birthday feast of John the Baptist, and the celebrations of Celtic ...

Saturnalia

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