December
17
/ 2020
Saturnalia was a festival celebrated by the ancient Romans. Originally, this celebration was held annually for a day on the 17th of December, but the festival was so popular that it was extended to a week (December 17-23). Despite efforts to reduce the length of the celebration - Augustus tried to reduce it to three days and Caligula attempted to cut it to five - the celebration of Saturnalia remained a weeklong event. This was a period when the Romans indulged in oodles of joyous and merry activities – some may even call it excessive enjoyment. As Sir James Frazer puts it in his work, The Golden Bough, it was a time “when the darker passions find a vent which
