What Was The Festival Of Saturnalia?

Saturn was a god worshipped by the Romans, though his origins are probably much older.He may have begun as a legend of the Latin people who were the original Romans, some of whom believed that he had come to Latium to escape from Zeus (Jupiter.) He was associated with corn and fertility, like a male version of the ancient earth goddesses; some people believed that he had once ruled the world like the ancient Greek god Cronos. The feast of Saturn or Saturnalia was held at the end of Decmber in Rome, and lasted a week. It had many features in common with the later festival of Christmas. People exchanged gift and even cards; there was a huge amount of eating and drinking, and a tendency to see the feast as subverting the usual order. Sometimes slaves or servants were treated as lords for a day, for instance – a custom which persisted for hundreds of years in many European Christmas festivals.

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