Mystical systems
Saturnalia
Direct answer
Saturnalia was the Roman festival of the god Saturn, held from 17 December, a week of feasting, gifts and licence in which the ordinary social order was relaxed.
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At a glance
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Sol Invictus, Solstice, Astrotheology, Solar Myth
Saturnalia was the Roman festival of the god Saturn, held from 17 December, a week of feasting, gifts and licence in which the ordinary social order was relaxed.
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When was Saturnalia celebrated?
Saturnalia began on 17 December with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum and a public banquet. By the late Republic the holiday ran for up to seven days. Courts and schools closed, gambling was allowed, people wore the felt cap of the freedman, and slaves dined with their masters or were served by them. Friends exchanged wax candles and small clay figures, and greeted one another with the cry io Saturnalia.
In astrotheology the festival is cited as the pagan root of Christmas. The link is looser than the claim suggests. Saturnalia ended by 23 December, and the feast set on 25 December in the fourth century was the birthday of the Unconquered Sun. What the season's customs share, feasting, lights and gifts at midwinter, is real, but a direct line from one festival to the other is not documented.
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What sets Saturnalia apart
What marks Saturnalia out among Roman festivals is licensed reversal. For a few days the rules that held Roman society in place were suspended on purpose: the toga was put away, dice were legal, and a household chose a mock king by lot to give absurd orders. Saturn was remembered as ruler of a lost golden age without masters or property, and the feast acted that age out. The sun played no stated part in it, which is the weak point in solar readings of the feast.
- Opening day: 17 December, with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn in the Forum
- Length: up to seven days in the late Republic; three official days under Augustus
- Typical gifts: wax candles (cerei) and small clay figures (sigillaria)
- Main source: Macrobius, Saturnalia, early fifth century CE
- Greeting: io Saturnalia, shouted in the streets and at table
Often mistaken for something else: The birthday of the Unconquered Sun fell on 25 December and honoured a solar god; Saturnalia ended by 23 December and honoured Saturn, a god of sowing and of a lost golden age.
The story behind Saturnalia
Livy dates the festival's public banquet to 217 BCE, during the war with Hannibal, though Romans believed the rite far older. Augustus limited the legal holiday to three days and later emperors lengthened it again. The fullest ancient account is the Saturnalia of Macrobius, a dialogue written in the early fifth century CE, which records that the woollen bonds on the feet of Saturn's statue were untied for the feast. The festival was still kept in the fourth century and faded as the empire became Christian.
Why Saturnalia matters
Saturnalia is the best documented Roman midwinter festival, so claims about the pagan origins of Christmas customs are usually tested against it.
How to read Saturnalia
Writers cite it when comparing midwinter feasts, and historians use it to show how Romans marked the turn of the year around the solstice.
Saturnalia in practice: an example
A reader who hears that Christmas is simply Saturnalia renamed might check the dates and find that the Roman feast was over two days before 25 December.
Where readings of Saturnalia go wrong
Shared midwinter customs do not prove that one festival was copied from another; the surviving sources show likeness, not descent.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- saturnalia meaning, roman saturnalia, saturnalia festival, saturnalia and christmas, what is saturnalia
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
When was Saturnalia celebrated?
It began on 17 December. Under the late Republic it lasted up to seven days, to 23 December; Augustus cut the official holiday to three days, and later emperors extended it again.
Is Christmas based on Saturnalia?
Not directly. Saturnalia was over by 23 December, and no early Christian source says the feast of the Nativity replaced it. Some midwinter habits, such as feasting and giving gifts, are common to both, which is as far as the evidence goes.
What did Romans do during Saturnalia?
They closed courts and schools, feasted, gambled, wore the freedman's cap and gave small presents such as candles and clay figures. Slaves were allowed to dine with their masters and speak freely for the length of the feast.
