Saturnalia : The Saturnalia (in Latin Saturnalia) are, during theantiquity Roman holidays taking place the a week's course du solstice bywinter (i.e. from 17 to 23 December) who celebrate the god Saturn and are supported de big celebrations Popular.
During this period, barriers sociales disappear, we organize meal, On exchange of gifts, On offers figurines to children and we decorated the maisons, with some plants green, holly, mistletoe and ivy including.
other holidays were instituted later at this periodIncluding Holidays.
Macrobe (*) reports various traditions Romans on theorigin the Party : several do reference to the sojourn of Saturn in the Lazio before the founding of Rome. Dethroned Saturn would have taken refuge in Italy, in the Lazio, where he gathers the men ferocious scattered in the mountains and gives them lois. His reign is a golden age, his peaceful topics being governed with more smoothly. et equity. The Saturnalia contribute to celebrate the memory of this age happy of the exercise of power.
For research modern, the Saturnalia are a Party typical of the "twilight of the year" like the Celtic festival of Samhain, period who sees practice of potlatch (**) Of banquet et magnificence, during which peace reigns and communication with the world of dead is established.
It seems that the date of costs from the temple of Saturn to Rome was also the 14 before the Calends of January, just at the beginning of the Roman republic. It would therefore be a costs of the novel national of the Roman republic without any relation to any solstice. This Party is theoccasion of the proclamation of new consuls.
The Temple of Saturn had a place special à Rome because we stored the treasure roman or aerarium Saturn and therefore has a more political and more nationale which religious.
In common, so-called "tropical" astrology, the solstice bywinter corresponds to the input of Sun in the sign of Capricorn which is considered the Domicile of Saturn. The term Saturnalia as Party celebrant the transition toWinter therefore finds all its meaning if we place ourselves under theangle of this heritage symbolic.
celebration : During the Saturnalia, the Romans offered “oscillated”, effigies of human heads, instead of real human heads.
During the Saturnalia, the slaves enjoy an apparent and temporary freedom.
During this Party very popular, the hierarchical order of men and the logic of things are reversed from façon parodic and provisional: the authority of the masters over the slaves is suspended. The latter have the right to speak and act without constraint, are free to criticize the defaults of their Maitre d ', play against them, to be served by them. Courts and schools are in holiday and prohibited executions, the job cease. We factory and we offers de small present (saturnalia et sigilaricia). Figurines hang from the thresholds of houses and from the chapels at crossroads.
Un Brive market special (sealed) takes place.
Sumptuous meals are offered.
La population goes en masse towards Mount Aventine. The chains worn by him are removed from the statue of the god, since Jupiter wanted to contain his appetite devouring by subjecting it to the regular rhythm of the stars and the days.
Calendar: According to Macrobe (*), first celebrated on the 14th before the Calends of January (15 December, because the month of December lasted 29 days under the Roman Republic), then on the 16th before the Calends (15 December, because the month de December lasted 31 days under the Julian calendar) and for three days after Julius Caesar's calendar reform. Another party was celebrated in thehonor of the goddess Angerona, the tutelary goddess of Rome, under Augustus, on the 21 December.
According to Macrobi, other holidays inserted themselves into this period (four days under Augustus, then five under Caligula, they end up lasting seven days under Diocletian, from 15 to 21 December).
Nevertheless, it seems that Macrobe (*) makes the confusion with the celebrations of January ; Emperor Augustus had proclaimed several feasts in his honor for the month de January.
Several other gods or goddesses are celebrated during this period, including:
– Epona celebrated on December 15, Gallic goddess of fertility, who joined the catalog of Roman gods;
– Ops, who is the goddess of the earth and woman of Saturn, that is why it is celebrated after the Saturnalia.
Posterity: It is said that the Saturnalia were in game theinspiration de holidays religious ou traditional instituted later:
- the jour de Holidays Christian takes up the symbolism of solstice bywinter, the theme of unconquered ground (the unconquered sun);
- the galette des rois, which crowned the roi " of the Party ;
- the celebration medieval of the period de Holidays, where the young people elected an “Abbé de Liesse” (Abbas Stultorum) or “Abbé de la Malgouverné”, presiding over all kinds of behaviours transgressive but temporarily tolerated (tradition later moved to the Anglo-Saxon world in the period ofHalloween);
– the processions and celebrations de carnival.
Other meanings: By extension, this term Saturnalia designates:
Saturnalia, a work by the writer Macrobe (*), in the form of a dialogue philosophical se drop down during Saturnalia;
- holidays unbridled during which all excess are permitted;
– an overflow time, debauchery, license, event violence of power or vice.
Saturnalia in the culture popular :
– Painting: Artists loved represent the holidays ancient. For example: Winter or Saturnalia by Antoine-François Callet, John Reinhard Weguelin. We can also cite Ernesto Biondi's Saturnalia for sculpture.
In 2018-2019, for the 350th anniversary of the Opéra National de Paris, visual artist Claude Lévêque creates an in situ installation called Saturnales.
– Films and series: In the Kaamelott series by Alexandre Astier, in the first episode of the 5th season, mention is made of the Saturnalia and the link between the Saturnalia celebrations and the beginning ofwinter.
(*) Macrobe (Flavius Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius) is a Latin writer, philosopher and philologist, author of the Saturnalia, and the Commentary on the Dream of Scipio. He was born around 370 in Sicca in Numidia (Africa). Along with Saint Augustine and Cassiodore, he was one of the “bearers of witness” at the end of Roman Antiquity, particularly with regard to the question of the soul.