This weekend marks the start of the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia, which begins 12/17 and traditionally runs for seven days. The first day starts with sacred rites while the rest consists of parties, trading gifts, drinking, gambling, and general festivities. For more information about Saturnalia, see my post from last year.
Of course, this is also the time of year when many Pagans are quick to publicly say that Christians appropriated Saturnalia along with Teutonic Yule in Christmas. Christians, of course, get frustrated with hearing this from Pagans. As it turns out, it’s complicated and there are misunderstandings are both sides.
While there’s a lot of garbage on the internet, there are some good resources. At the end of this post are YouTube videos on the topic recently uploaded by two excellent scholars.
To all of my readers, I hope you have a great holiday season, whatever you celebrate.
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