![\"io-saturnalia\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/io-saturnalia.gif?resize=349%2C184&ssl=1\")
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We are in the midst of Saturnalia, so consider this article by Classics scholar Mary Beard on “Five Things the Romans Did at Christmas.”<\/a><\/p>\n The headline was just to grab you, because she begins, “OK, the Romans didn\u2019t actually have Christmas. And even Christian Romans didn\u2019t celebrate Jesus\u2019 birthday on 25 December until at least the fourth century AD. ”<\/p>\n Another sample:<\/p>\n A few Roman writers enter into the spirit of the occasion. Catullus<\/a>, for example, called it \u201cthe best of days\u201d. But mostly they were supercilious lot, complaining about the forced jollity and the forced shut-down (just like me . . .!). The philosopher Seneca tut-tuts<\/a> about all the dissipation and fact that you can’t get any public business done.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I don’t put myself in the same class as Seneca (or Mary Beard), but I will probably be thinking on Thursday that I should go pick up the mail at our little post office . . .<\/p>\n Read the rest.<\/a> And also what happens when she “takes the show on the road<\/a>,” so to speak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We are in the midst of Saturnalia, so consider this article by Classics scholar Mary Beard on “Five Things the Romans Did at Christmas.” The headline was just to grab you, because she begins, “OK, the Romans didn\u2019t actually have Christmas. And even Christian Romans didn\u2019t celebrate Jesus\u2019 birthday on 25 December until at least […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[56,148,43],"class_list":["post-6935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-rome","tag-solstice","tag-yule"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-1NR","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3646,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3646","url_meta":{"origin":6935,"position":0},"title":"Why is Saturn\/Cronus in Saturnalia?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"At this time of year, when the popular press runs articles on Christmas customs, a few rhetorical bases are always touched. The Christmas tree is a \"Pagan survival,\" that sort of thing. And that Christmas bears some relationship to the Roman celebration of Saturnalia. At Religion Nerd, Louis A. Ruprecht,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Greece\"","block_context":{"text":"Greece","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=greece"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10107,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10107","url_meta":{"origin":6935,"position":1},"title":"Io Saturnalia!","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In \"humor\"","block_context":{"text":"humor","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=humor"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/starbucks-io-saturnalia.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/starbucks-io-saturnalia.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/starbucks-io-saturnalia.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/starbucks-io-saturnalia.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":548,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=548","url_meta":{"origin":6935,"position":2},"title":"What the Romans did for\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 31, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"What the Romans did for us--and keep on doingSpurred by the latest spate of TV miniseries and feature films, Cambridge classics professor Mary Beard looks in the mirror of ancient Rome and describes the different images that it reflects back to us.This game of defining ourselves against the habits of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1274,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1274","url_meta":{"origin":6935,"position":3},"title":"IO SATVRNALIA","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Return of the Sun, miraculous menorahs (officially over, yes), Baby Jesus\u2014it's all good.Did you make your reservation at Kentucky Fried Chicken yet?And Io, Saturnalia!(graphic lifted from another Pagan blogger)","rel":"","context":"In \"Yule\"","block_context":{"text":"Yule","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=yule"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chasclifton.com\/uploaded_images\/saturnalia-766380.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4911,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4911","url_meta":{"origin":6935,"position":4},"title":"Revising the Story of Christmas","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 30, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It is an article of faith (an appropriate word here) for contemporary Pagans that Christianity stole holidays left and right from our spiritual ancestors, particularly Christmas. Here Mollie Ziegler at Get Religion, a blog about the critical examination of religion-writing in the (mostly) American media, gets into some of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7362,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7362","url_meta":{"origin":6935,"position":5},"title":"Irish Druids Now Officially “Indigenous” \u2014\u00a0They Say","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 30, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"That is how the Celtic Druid Temple frames government recognition as an \"official charity.\" The Celtic Druid Temple is a full member of the World Druid Order and now has legal and formal recognition in Ireland as a religious charity with a CHY number 20684 issued by the Dept of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Druids\"","block_context":{"text":"Druids","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=druids"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.celticdruidtemple.com\/uploads\/2\/0\/0\/7\/20074727\/1395427677.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6935"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6940,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6935\/revisions\/6940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}