Saturnalia 2015
(Lucian, Saturnalia, 2) Such sentiments, many a New Year’s Eve party-goer will be familiar with no doubt. The state in which many a Roman would end a night’s festivities is effectively described by Lucian, ‘now I faint, and drunken with thy liquor drag myself at last to sleep’. The philosopher and statesman Seneca complains that ‘the whole mob has let itself go in pleasures’. However, not everyone approved of this unrestrained revelry. The celebrations of 217 BC in Rome were particularly wild, as Livy records that ‘throughout the City for a day and a night “Saturnalia” was cried’.
It is clear that Romans also enjoyed a party with which to end the year. Gift giving at New Year is still practiced in many countries including France, Russia and Turkey and is also part of Hogmanay in Scotland. Likewise, when Catullus receives an excruciatingly bad book of poems as a joke from his friend Calvus, he moans ‘what have I said or done to deserve it / that you’re killing me now with all these poets?’ (Catullus, Carmen, 14) He grumbles that he has been gifted ‘everything which you have received during the past five days’. Martial detests the cheap quality of the gifts he receives from his friend Umber, who was recycling his own unwanted presents. Romans had a strong tradition of giving silly gifts which probably accounts for the number of complaints from recipients during Saturnalia. One such gift is a terracotta oil lamp dated to the second half of first century AD, which depicts the Roman goddess Victory alongside examples of New Year’s gifts: dates, figs, and coins and bearing the inscription ‘A happy and prosperous New Year!’ Rather than a partridge in a pear tree and Lords-a-Leaping, according to the poet Martial, gifts included perfumes, sausages, dice, wine, hair, ear pics, sponges, bladder footballs, woollen slippers, parrots and sheep’s heads. These gifts ranged from the modest to the extravagant and were sometimes bizarre. Nowadays gift-giving is most commonly associated with Christmas, however Romans used this practice to celebrate the New Year. ‘Victims were slain at the temple of Saturn in Rome’ in order to muster favour with the gods during the Second Punic War following the military success of Hannibal.
The Roman historian Livy even records a human sacrifice during the Saturnalia of 217 BC. He asks for the ‘obvious things-wealth, a lot of gold, to be lord of an estate, to own many slaves, clothing, bright-coloured and soft, silver, ivory, and everything else that is worth something’, but Saturn responds that the request is beyond him and that he should try his luck with Zeus instead. Lucian’s Saturnalia contains a dialogue between Saturn and a priest, in which the latter gives an extensive list of his New Year’s wishes. Romans would make prayers and sacrifices to Saturn in the hope of good fortune for the coming year. While we make our New Year’s resolutions, Romans were lazier and looked to the gods to grant their wishes. This date was then confirmed by the Julian Calendar in 46 BC, introduced by Julius Caesar. Until 153 BC the Roman New Year began on 1st March, however thereafter it was moved forward to 1st January.
Kevin Butcher, Professor of Roman history at the University of Warwick, says that “the festivities appear to have extended to everyone, including slaves, and there is the idea of a world turned upside down, with masters allowing servants freedoms, or even dining with them, and perhaps even waiting on them”. This winter festival originated as a farmers’ festival dedicated to Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture and the harvest.īeginning on the 17th December and lasting between three and seven days, Saturnalia was when work and business stopped (Lucian, Saturnalia, 13) – and was the most popular holiday of the year with the poet Catullus calling it ‘the best of days’. Roman celebrations were part of a religious festival called Saturnalia. Over 2000 years ago Romans were celebrating the New Year in much in the same way that we do today with parties, drinking, gifting and, of course, with hopes for the year ahead. A press release from the University of Warwick, with a nice photo too (and references!):