Saturnalia

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Saturnalia . Copy of a group of sculptures by Ernesto Biondi , Buenos Aires Botanical Garden (1909)

In the Roman Empire , the Saturnalia were initially just a feast day in honor of Saturn (mythology) . He was considered the ruler of the Golden Age . Originally a festival associated with the completion of winter sowing. This made the Saturnalia the largest Roman farmers' festival. In 217 BC In the course of the Second Punic War it was redesigned as a rite based on the Greek model, graeco ritu . Since that year a sacrifice and a great feast ( lectisternium ) at the Temple of Saturn has been occupied with carnivalesque features on Saturnalia until late at night. Titus Livius named the dedication of the Temple of Saturn in 497 BC as the occasion for the Saturnalia. Chr .; the date of foundation was related to the Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum . The festive season was listed in the Fasti Antiates maiores .

Course of festive activities

The celebrations began with a sacrifice in front of the Temple of Saturn and a public meal. Public institutions were closed during Saturnalia. The temples held public meals. It was customary to give presents at Saturnalia. In private banquets, sometimes with excessive drinking and eating, ridiculous poems and riddles were recited. Roman citizens took off the toga and wore comfortable tunics . The participants of the Saturnalia put on Pillei , felt caps that were otherwise only worn by released slaves . A Saturnalia prince ( Saturnalicus princeps ) was elected, and in some cases he was also called rex bibendi ("King of Drinking"). This name also indicates the strong increase in wine consumption during the festive season. Not only was the wine drunk on a large scale during the festive season, the game of dice for money was also officially allowed and festive gifts, apophoreta , could be raffled off. Otherwise morale loosened considerably during the holidays. The "abolition" of class differences was an important aspect of the Saturnalia; so too were slaves treated that day by their masters as "equals", even in part, the roles were reversed even (jokingly) so that the masters served their slaves. During Saturnalia, people gave each other small but sometimes very valuable gifts.

It was originally formed as Endoitio Exitio Nefas on December 17 celebrated and moved to the Julian calendar reform the day character to a Nefas Piaculum . The Saturnalia only found after 45 BC. It was used as a festival lasting several days between December 17th and 23rd, but was later extended to December 30th.

reception

By Martin Persson Nilsson , Alexander Hislop and others. a. m. a relationship with the Christian Christmas is established. However, this is viewed as speculation by the ancient historian Theodor Kissel .

At some German universities (for example Cologne and Kiel ), "Saturnalia" are traditionally held today as a student festival, at which you "settle" with the lecturers in the run-up to Christmas.

See also

literature

Web links

Wiktionary: Saturnalia  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
  • The Roman Saturnalia, www.carnuntum.at [1]

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl-Wilhelm Weeber : Everyday life in ancient Rome. A lexicon. Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf / Zurich 1998, p. 216.
  2. ^ Martin Persson Nilsson: Saturnalia. In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II A, 1, Stuttgart 1921, Sp. 201-211.
  3. ↑ Alexander Hislop: From Babylon to Rome. The origin of the Roman Catholic religion. CLV, Bielefeld 2002, ISBN 978-3-8939-7377-4
  4. ↑ Jörg Kraus: Metamorphoses of Chaos: Witches, Masks and Inverted Worlds . Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1998, ISBN 978-3-82601-424-6 , p. 162 f.
    Hans Förster: The beginnings of Christmas and Epiphany: an inquiry about the origin hypotheses. Vol. 46 Studies and texts on antiquity and Christianity, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2007, ISBN 978-3-16149-39-97 , p. 57 f.
  5. ^ Theodor Kissel: Carnival in ancient Rome: Great days on the Tiber . In: Spiegel Online . November 9, 2008 ( spiegel.de [accessed November 8, 2019]).
  6. ^ Announcement of the Saturnalia ( Memento from December 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), Inst. F. Classical Studies of the Philosophical Faculty of the Univ. to Cologne