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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Katie Lambert and I'm Sarah Downy, and Sarah and

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Speaker 1: I are both getting really excited about Christmas and talking

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Speaker 1: about our favorite traditions. Every year, I take my grandmother

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Speaker 1: to midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, and that's like, I think,

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Speaker 1: it really feels like Christmas for me. It's picking out

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Speaker 1: a Christmas tree and decorating it and getting out all

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Speaker 1: the old family ornaments that each have their own story,

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Speaker 1: and that's probably my favorite part of Christmas. But if

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Speaker 1: you're looking for a different way to celebrate this year,

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Speaker 1: we'd like to introduce you to Saturnalia. It's a pretty

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Speaker 1: awesome Roman festival. As far as Christmas goes, it's pretty

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Speaker 1: easy to imagine it as this one long tradition that

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Speaker 1: just goes, you know, all the way back to the

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Speaker 1: birth of Christ. But that's not really how it happened. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you'd think you have the Nativity and then the December

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Speaker 1: date and the gift giving from the three Kings or

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Speaker 1: wise men, but yeah, that's that's not quite how it works.

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Speaker 1: The history of Christmas actually predates the birth of Christ.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like there's a little bit of a mystery there, Sarah. Well,

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Speaker 1: so we have winter Solstice celebrations going on from a

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Speaker 1: very long time ago. Early Europeans um celebrated the literal

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Speaker 1: rebirth of the sun as the days started to get longer,

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Speaker 1: and they would do things that sound kind of Christmas e,

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Speaker 1: like feast on livestock that couldn't be cut through the winter.

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Speaker 1: And the German Pagans, of course had odin that scary

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Speaker 1: god who flew through the night, cursing some into blessing others,

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Speaker 1: so like a really horrible version of sad Santa Claus.

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Speaker 1: And then the North celebrate yule Tide, which, uh at

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Speaker 1: its simplest, is burning a giant ule log for about

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Speaker 1: a month or so until it turns to ash. But

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Speaker 1: that's not as good Saturnalia. We're going to learn about why.

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Speaker 1: And the early fourth century Christians thought so too. They

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Speaker 1: needed a good December holiday of their own, so they

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Speaker 1: chose a date that was nearer the festival of Saturnalia

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Speaker 1: December twenty, which was also the birthdate of the god Mithra.

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Speaker 1: And at the time, the religion of Mythrizon was a

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Speaker 1: big competitor for Christianity, which is funny because the cult

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Speaker 1: of Mithriss is celebrating the birth of their infant God

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Speaker 1: of light on So again, it's a good way to

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Speaker 1: absorb a pagan holiday and make it into something more Christian.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, so the early Christians start celebrating the Feast

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Speaker 1: of the Nativity on December, and that's right around Saturnalia,

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Speaker 1: and therefore it picks up a lot of the raucous

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Speaker 1: traits of the Roman festival, so much so that a

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Speaker 1: lot of Christians think it's blasphemous to be so crazy

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Speaker 1: in while celebrating Christ's birthday. Oh right. In the Middle Ages,

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Speaker 1: Christians would go to church and then they would party

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Speaker 1: like it was Marty Gras after that for days and

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Speaker 1: days and days, and pick a lord of misrule, a

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Speaker 1: beggar or a student, and poor people would show up

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Speaker 1: at rich houses and demand good food and it was

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Speaker 1: just a complete mess. Yeah, so we have Oliver Cromwell

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Speaker 1: canceling Christmas. When Sears control of of England. The soldiers

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Speaker 1: even patrolled the street looking for people cooking meat to

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Speaker 1: celebrate in The Puritans in New England ban it too.

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Speaker 1: It's not celebrated in Boston from sixteen fifty nine to

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Speaker 1: sixteen eighty one. So that's a pretty boring stretch of

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Speaker 1: winters there in Boston. It finally gets a little tamer,

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Speaker 1: more like what we know today by the late eighteenth century,

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Speaker 1: and that's where we pick up all those Victorian traditions,

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Speaker 1: which are sort of the staple of most of our

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Speaker 1: Christmas celebrations today. Right, But let's pretend for just a

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Speaker 1: second that Saturnalia went out over Christmas and what would

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Speaker 1: it be like. So the basic of Saturnalia, it's on

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Speaker 1: the winter solstice, like we said, and it's to honor

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Speaker 1: the god of the harvest, Saturn. Saturnalia was usually held December,

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Speaker 1: although originally was just one day, right, Yeah, and then

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Speaker 1: it was extended to a week, and then I think

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Speaker 1: Augustus tried to cut it down to three days because

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Speaker 1: he didn't like the courts being closed. People people didn't

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Speaker 1: go for that, the right Caligula brought it back to

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Speaker 1: five but everyone pretty much did what they wanted for

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Speaker 1: a week anyways. So what was Saturnalia all about? Though?

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Speaker 1: I mean, who is Saturn and why did he need

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Speaker 1: to be celebrated with this feast? Of merriment. Well, he

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Speaker 1: of course ruled during the golden age of man, when

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Speaker 1: everything was wonderful and the lions lay down with the lambs. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and Greek mythology's Chronus, and you might know him from

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Speaker 1: the rather disturbing Goya painting where you have this ravenous

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Speaker 1: god eating his children, because Saturn did just that. He

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Speaker 1: believed that one of his children would eventually overthrow him,

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Speaker 1: so to come sate for that, he ate most of

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Speaker 1: them except his wife sneaks away one Jupiter or Zeus,

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Speaker 1: who eventually does overthrow him. But we let that slide

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Speaker 1: during Saturnalia, the creepy child eating, and focus on that

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Speaker 1: golden age of man. Right, And this was a holy day,

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Speaker 1: but it was also this week of feasting and merrymaking,

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Speaker 1: and it was everybody's favorite holiday. Could tell us said

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Speaker 1: it was the best of days. And Sarah and I

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Speaker 1: have decided through our research that there is no party

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Speaker 1: like a Saturnalia party. And to prove it, we have

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Speaker 1: a quote from Lucien. So Lucien said of Saturnalia during

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Speaker 1: my week, the serious is barred, no business allowed, drinking,

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Speaker 1: noise and games and dice appointed of kings and feasting

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Speaker 1: of slaves, singing, naked clapping of frenzied hands, and occasional

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Speaker 1: ducking of corked faces and icy water. Such are the

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Speaker 1: functions over which I preside. I would like to preside

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Speaker 1: over the clapping of frenzied hands. Yeah, that sounds pretty good.

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Speaker 1: I don't know about the ducking of quirked faces, and

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Speaker 1: I see, I want no part of that. But the

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Speaker 1: nice thing about Saturnalia for us would be that businesses

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Speaker 1: were closed, schools were closed, courts were closed, and you

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Speaker 1: absolutely were not allowed to start any battles or any wars.

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Speaker 1: You were just going to have to put it off

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Speaker 1: for a week. Seneca kind of complaining said, the whole

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Speaker 1: mob has let itself go in pleasures, And that's basically

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Speaker 1: what Saturnalia was. Was also to celebrate the golden age

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Speaker 1: of man, when men were equal. There was also up

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Speaker 1: ending of social position. Right, everything was topsy turvy. Slaves

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Speaker 1: didn't have to work, they could wear their master's clothing.

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Speaker 1: People were like dice. Right, you were allowed to gamble

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Speaker 1: in public, which normally was considered to know. Now, children

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Speaker 1: could command adults, and interestingly, juvenilia, which was a feast

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Speaker 1: in honor of Rooms Children was near held around the

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Speaker 1: same time, and you were allowed to wear your synthesis

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Speaker 1: to dinner instead of your toga, which we think sounds

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Speaker 1: very nice. It was much less formal and a bit

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Speaker 1: flimsier in material and colorful. Right in December, I don't

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Speaker 1: know about them. You could also pull out your pilias,

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Speaker 1: which was a felt cap that normally freed slaves war,

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Speaker 1: but to celebrate and recognize the freedom of Saturnalia, everybody

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Speaker 1: could wear their special felt cap. Oh and I love

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Speaker 1: this part two. You could pick a lord of misrule.

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Speaker 1: So once you had your Lord of misrule, he could

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Speaker 1: command people to do pretty much anything he wanted them to,

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Speaker 1: and you all had to obey. But of course, like Christmas,

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Speaker 1: there was a sometimes burden of presence that you had

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Speaker 1: to get for everybody. Usually they were wax candles which

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Speaker 1: signified the return of light after the solstice, or sometimes

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Speaker 1: these little earthenware figures or faces. But you you had

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Speaker 1: to spend a lot for certain people. Right one out

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Speaker 1: of Choe Red was saying it would be about a

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Speaker 1: tenth of your income, so start saving, Sarah. If you

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Speaker 1: weren't giving candles or like earthenware figurines to your friends.

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Speaker 1: You could give them ours of plums or um what

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Speaker 1: else silverware perhaps or um silician socks from the Beard

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Speaker 1: of the Fetid Goat, which is from on my list.

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Speaker 1: It's from a really hilarious Economist article on Saturnalia. If

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Speaker 1: you can find it, and even if you're not singing,

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Speaker 1: Oh Holy Night at Saturnalia, you could have a chant

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Speaker 1: like perhaps Yo Saturnalia, Yo Saturnalia, which I think is

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Speaker 1: our new holiday greeting. People are gonna hear us yelling

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Speaker 1: that around the understand that our office Christmas party just

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Speaker 1: to wait. Speaking of office parties, I left this account

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Speaker 1: from Olus Gellius. I think that is how his name

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Speaker 1: is pronounced in his Roman friends who would gather in

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Speaker 1: the Athens baths and quiz each other on the ancient poets.

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Speaker 1: And if you didn't get it right, the crown of

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Speaker 1: Laurel was dedicated to Saturn. It reminded me of our

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Speaker 1: holiday office party last year. We had a quiz gameh right, Candice, Actually,

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Speaker 1: our former stuff you missed in History class co host

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Speaker 1: was really fantastic get Dead or Alive and enthusiastic about it.

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Speaker 1: Very enthusiastic and a lot of our favorite information about

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Speaker 1: Saturnalia comes from a Crobius work, The Saturnalia, which is

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Speaker 1: supposed to be an account of discussions in private houses

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Speaker 1: the day before and on the days of the festival. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: All right, well, I think that's about it, Katie and

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Speaker 1: I need to start getting ready for our Saturnalia celebration.

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Speaker 1: I have to good find my synthesis. Yeah, you want

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Speaker 1: to look good for Saturnalia. So to all of our listeners,

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Speaker 1: Merry Christmas, Happy Hanuka, the Kwanza, happy Holidays, and happy Saturday. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And if you want to learn more about Christmas or

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Speaker 1: the history of Christmas, you should check out How Christmas

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Speaker 1: Works written by me Um on our homepage at www

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Speaker 1: dot how stuff works dot com. For more on this

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Speaker 1: and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff works

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Speaker 1: dot com and be sure to check out the stuff

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Speaker 1: you missed in History Class blog on the How Stuff

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Speaker 1: Works dot com to homepage, Blue Blue