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Speaker 1: Hey everyone, it's Eaves. Just wanted to let you know

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Speaker 1: that you'll be hearing an episode from me and an

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Speaker 1: episode from Tracy V. Wilson today. I hope you enjoyed

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Speaker 1: the show. Welcome to this Day in History Class from

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Speaker 1: how Stuff Works dot com and from the desk of

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Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class. It's the show where

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Speaker 1: we explore the past one day at a time with

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Speaker 1: a quick look at what happened today in history. Hello,

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Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson, and

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Speaker 1: I'd like to thank Christopher Haciotis for filling in for

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Speaker 1: me for the previous seven episodes. Today is December seventeen,

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Speaker 1: and the summer seventeenth marks the beginning of saturn Alia.

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Speaker 1: Although we don't know exactly what year the ancient Romans

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Speaker 1: observed saturn Alia for the first time, this was though

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Speaker 1: a very popular Roman holiday honoring the god's Saturn. It

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Speaker 1: was probably the most popular of all the Roman festivals,

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Speaker 1: and one of the things that Saturn was associated with

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Speaker 1: was agriculture, both sewing and harvesting, and this festival happened

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Speaker 1: at the end of the autumn harvest in the beginning

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Speaker 1: of the winter planting cycle. Originally this was just a

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Speaker 1: single day observance on thee and by the reign of

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Speaker 1: Emperor Augustus, which lasted from twenty seven b C until

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Speaker 1: he died in fourteen CE, it had become a two

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Speaker 1: day event. People had been celebrating it at that point

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Speaker 1: for at least two hundred years. Over time, Saturnalia got

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Speaker 1: longer and longer and more elaborate. It started overlapping the

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Speaker 1: winter solstice. It was lasting for seven entire days, although

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Speaker 1: some emperors tried to rein it in a little bit

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Speaker 1: cut it down to maybe a more manageable five days

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Speaker 1: instead of seven. This was not just a time for

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Speaker 1: drinking and feasting. People shut down their businesses, including for

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Speaker 1: this entire seven day stretch, took a break from all

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Speaker 1: their work. Various codes of proper behavior became more and

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Speaker 1: more relaxed. For example, people were allowed to gamble, which

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Speaker 1: wasn't acceptable, and a lot of other gumstances. Enslaved people

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Speaker 1: were temporarily given more freedoms, and some folks have made

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Speaker 1: connections to today's observances of Marti Gras in terms of

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Speaker 1: what the atmosphere was like. There was a lot of partying,

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Speaker 1: and revelry. At the end of this festival, there was

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Speaker 1: also a presentation of gifts, usually of candles and of

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Speaker 1: wax figures and wax models of fruit. People also decorated

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Speaker 1: their homes with greenery. The statue of Saturn and his

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Speaker 1: temple in Rome was typically bound with woolen rope, but

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Speaker 1: during Saturday Lya, those bombs would be cut during the festival.

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Speaker 1: Saturday Lea continue to be observed after the Emperor Constantine

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Speaker 1: converted to Christianity, which happened in the year three twelve.

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Speaker 1: That made the Roman Empire at least officially a Christian empire,

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Speaker 1: but pagan religions did continue to be observed and pagan

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Speaker 1: observances continued to happen, so for a time, Christian holidays

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Speaker 1: and Pagan holiday festivals were really being observed at the

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Speaker 1: same time. So a lot of people point to Saturnalia

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Speaker 1: as the origin point for Christmas in the Western Church,

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Speaker 1: and including both the dates that it celebrated and some

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Speaker 1: of the traditions involved in celebrating it. And this, I

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Speaker 1: mean it makes a lot of logical sense. Saturnalia and

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Speaker 1: Christmas were both being observed and the Roman Empire because

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Speaker 1: of the shifting of Saturnalia and the lengthening of it

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Speaker 1: that put it right up against December. But there were

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Speaker 1: also other pagan celebrations happening on the December as well,

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Speaker 1: some of them with closer parallels to Christianity than Saturnalia had.

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Speaker 1: The Roman civic holiday of Soul in Victa was also

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Speaker 1: observed on December twenty, and the cult of Mithress celebrated

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Speaker 1: the birth of their God on December, and the story

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Speaker 1: of the birth of Mithress has a lot of parallels

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Speaker 1: to the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. So

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Speaker 1: while Saturnalia may have had some influence on the top

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Speaker 1: timing of Christmas or some Christmas traditions, especially in the

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Speaker 1: Western Church, it's also really likely that other celebrations happening

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Speaker 1: in the early centuries of the religion played their own

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Speaker 1: part as well. You can learn a little bit more

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Speaker 1: about Saturnalia in the December two thousand nine episode of

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Speaker 1: Stuffy Miss in History Class. Thanks very much to Casey

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Speaker 1: Pigraham and Chandler Mayze for their audio work on this show.

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Speaker 1: You can subscribe to the Stay in History Class on

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, Google podcast, the I Heart Radio app, and

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Speaker 1: We're Real to get your podcasts. You can tune in

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Speaker 1: tomorrow for a discovery if you could call it that.

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Speaker 1: Hi again everyone, it's Eves and welcome to this Day

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Speaker 1: in History class A show where history waits for no one.

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Speaker 1: The day was December See. The Aztec Sunstone, a circular

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Speaker 1: stone marked by carvings of calendar signs and images related

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Speaker 1: to the Aztec creation myth, was rediscovered. Though it has

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Speaker 1: been called a calendar stone, archaeologist today believe that it

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Speaker 1: was not used as an astronomical device or sun dial,

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Speaker 1: but rather as a ceremonial container related to the Aztecs

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Speaker 1: sun got Tona Tu. The Aztecs Sunstone was probably carved

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Speaker 1: sometime between fifteen o two and fifteen twenty, during the

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Speaker 1: reign of motek Assuma the second. The center of the

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Speaker 1: stone bears an image of what's thought to be the

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Speaker 1: Sun got Tona to You, though some scholars have proposed

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Speaker 1: that it's an image of the god of the Night

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Speaker 1: Sun or the Earth Monster. The central image appears inside

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Speaker 1: a glyph that means movement and represents the fifth Sun

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Speaker 1: or the present era that will end with the destruction

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Speaker 1: of humankind. Tonatius hands appear as claws holding human hearts,

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Speaker 1: and his tongue is a stone knife. The image of

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Speaker 1: the sun god is framed by four boxes that contain

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Speaker 1: symbols of the four previous suns or eras. Surrounding the

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Speaker 1: central section is a ring depicting the signs that correspond

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Speaker 1: to the twenty days of the Aztec solar calendar. Around

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Speaker 1: that ring is a second ring with representations of sun

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Speaker 1: rays and square sections, each containing five dots. The outermost

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Speaker 1: ring depicts two fire serpents, and at the top of

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Speaker 1: that ring is a glyph that represents the date thirteen read,

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Speaker 1: which is said to correspond with the year fourteen seven

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Speaker 1: and the beginning of the fifth sun. The stone is

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Speaker 1: about twelve ft or four meters in diameter and ways

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Speaker 1: more than twenty four short tons. The stone may have

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Speaker 1: been originally located in the ceremonial precinct of to Note

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Speaker 1: Tilon and placed horizontally near where human sacrifices took place

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Speaker 1: After the Spanish conquest, religious officials buried underneath the Zokola

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Speaker 1: the central Plaza of Mexico City. Workers who were leveling

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Speaker 1: and remodeling the plaza dug up the stone on December

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Speaker 1: sev It was examined by archaeologists, then moved to a cathedral,

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Speaker 1: and later transferred to the Monolith Gallery of the Archaeological Museum.

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Speaker 1: There have been many interpretations of the stone's meaning. Scholars

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Speaker 1: have said that it may have been used as a

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Speaker 1: repository for human hearts or a base for the final

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Speaker 1: sacrificial of a gladiatorial combatant. Soon after its rediscovery, Mexican

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Speaker 1: scholar Antonio de leon Igama wrote a treatise on the

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Speaker 1: stone and hired artist Francisco de Aguera to illustrate an

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Speaker 1: image of the monument. Leon Igama and other early scholars

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Speaker 1: suggested that the stone was used as an astronomical or

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Speaker 1: timekeeping device. Scholars have also suggested that the stone was

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Speaker 1: used to represent rulership, death, sacrifice, and the success of

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Speaker 1: Aztec armies. The stone is currently how at the National

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Speaker 1: Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. I'm each Jeffcote, and

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Speaker 1: hopefully you know a little more about history today than

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Speaker 1: you did yesterday. Give us a shout or a share

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Speaker 1: on social media at T D I h C podcast,

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Speaker 1: or if you would prefer to email us, you can

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Speaker 1: send us a message at this day at I heart

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Speaker 1: media dot com. I truly hope you enjoyed today's show.

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Speaker 1: We'll be back tomorrow with another episode. For more podcasts

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Speaker 1: from my heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app,

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