Roman Saturnalia

Summary

Dan Snow's History Hit: Episode Summary – "Roman Saturnalia"

Release Date: December 4, 2024

In the December 4, 2024 episode of Dan Snow's History Hit titled "Roman Saturnalia," host Dan Snow delves into the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia, exploring its origins, practices, and enduring influence on modern Christmas celebrations. Joined by Mayte Gomez Rejon, the English Heritage Collection curator for Hadrian's Wall, Snow unpacks how Saturnalia's traditions have woven into the fabric of contemporary holiday customs.

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1. December Traditions and the Spirit of Midwinter

As December ushers in festive decorations and a sense of communal warmth despite the cold, Dan Snow sets the stage for his exploration of Christmas origins, deliberately steering away from its religious aspects to focus on the secular traditions that prevail today. He emphasizes the human inclination to maintain cherished traditions, referencing historical celebrations like the Romans' Saturnalia, the Vikings' Yuletide, and Christian festivities marking Jesus's birth.

Dan Snow [00:59]: "Humans for millennia seem to have drawn comfort from doing familiar things. From the Romans honoring Saturn with gift giving... Each generation has inherited the traditions of those who have gone before."

2. The Origins of Saturnalia

Saturnalia was an ancient Roman festival honoring Saturn, the God of farming and harvest. Celebrated during the winter solstice—the shortest day of the year—it symbolized the rebirth of the sun and the promise of longer, warmer days, aligning with agrarian hopes for fruitful agriculture.

Mayte Gomez Rejon [07:36]: "So Saturn was the God of seed sowing... and his period of reign was really seen as this golden age of prosperity."

The festival initially commenced on December 17th and, by the late Republic (1st century BC), expanded to a multi-day celebration lasting until December 23rd. Saturnalia coincided with other local British winter festivals, facilitating a blend of Roman and indigenous traditions as the Romans integrated into Britannia.

3. Saturnalia Practices and Social Customs

Saturnalia was renowned for its exuberant celebrations that contrasted sharply with the rigid hierarchical structure of Roman society. Key practices included:

• Social Inversion: Hierarchical norms were temporarily upended. Slaves were granted freedoms, could dine with their masters, and were sometimes appointed as mock kings of the festivities.

  Mayte Gomez Rejon [11:05]: "Roman society is very hierarchical... with Saturnalia, each household would choose a mock king who would preside over the festivities, often someone from the lowest part of the family."

• Feasting and Public Revelry: Festivities included lavish feasts, public gambling (normally prohibited), exuberant street celebrations, and a carnival-like atmosphere where merriment was encouraged.

  Dan Snow [12:32]: "There's something about this time of year, isn't it, with the feasting... Did the Romans just feast all the time on their religious holidays, or was there something particular about Saturnalia?"

• Gift-Giving: Gifts ranged from extravagant to modest tokens, reflecting the quality of friendships rather than monetary value. Marshall, a 1st-century AD poet, noted that simple gifts like toothpicks or small figurines often held more sentimental value.

  Mayte Gomez Rejon [16:48]: "He suggests that token gifts of sort of a lower value might actually be more well received and measure better the higher quality of a friendship."

4. Saturnalia's Integration into Roman Britain

As the Romans established their presence in Britain, Saturnalia merged with local pagan traditions, fostering a syncretic cultural landscape. This integration involved associating Roman deities with indigenous gods, such as linking Minerva with Sulis at the thermal springs in Bath, and merging Jupiter with the Celtic sky god.

Dan Snow [09:55]: "The Romans found a political patchwork... They recognized these strong pagan beliefs, and they found ways to blend them with the Roman way of life."

The festival's inclusive and joyous nature provided a fertile ground for cultural assimilation, allowing Roman and British traditions to coexist and influence each other.

5. The Influence of Saturnalia on Modern Christmas

The episode extensively explores how Saturnalia's traditions have subtly permeated modern Christmas customs. While Christmas adopts a distinct religious significance, many secular practices echo Saturnalian roots:

• Evergreen Decorations: Both Saturnalia and Christmas feature evergreens like mistletoe and holly, symbolizing eternal life and resilience during winter.

  Mayte Gomez Rejon [10:51]: "In Saturnalia, you lit wax tapers and torches because you're bringing light into the dark that is Midwinter. We do that now."

• Gift-Giving: The tradition of exchanging gifts during Saturnalia has clear parallels with contemporary Christmas gift exchanges, emphasizing generosity and personal connections.

• Festive Feasting and Public Celebrations: The communal feasting and public merriment of Saturnalia mirror modern holiday gatherings and public festivities.

Furthermore, the selection of December 25th as Christmas Day aligns with the Roman celebration of Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun, rather than directly with Saturnalia. This strategic dating likely facilitated the adoption of Christian traditions by aligning them with existing pagan celebrations, easing the transition for converts.

Mayte Gomez Rejon [23:59]: "So the fact that it's the 25th of December and there's a link to Sol... it's another way of the Church sort of trying to link in with previous celebrations."

6. The Transition from Pagan Festivals to Christianity

As Christianity gained prominence within the Roman Empire, the Church sought to integrate and repurpose existing pagan festivals to foster broader acceptance. Saturnalia's joyous and communal spirit provided a foundation upon which Christian Christmas could build, preserving familiar traditions while infusing new religious meaning.

Dan Snow [22:18]: "How should we think about Saturnalia and its impact on our midwinter, our Christmas holiday traditions?"

Mayte Gomez Rejon [22:32]: "You can see that a lot of the traditions of the activities that you did in Saturnalia would link to Christmas."

The episode highlights that while the religious underpinnings shifted, the essence of celebrating light, generosity, and community endures from Saturnalia to modern Christmas.

7. Conclusion and Series Outlook

Dan Snow wraps up the episode by acknowledging the enduring legacy of Saturnalia within the tapestry of modern winter celebrations. He hints at upcoming discussions in the series that will trace Christmas's evolution through various historical epochs, including insights into the Tudor era's lavish festivities and the Germanic influences shaping today's traditions.

Dan Snow [25:21]: "We're going to get into Yule, folks, and how people through the ages have survived the darkest months in Britain... We're going to hit that later in the series."

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Key Takeaways

• Saturnalia was a multifaceted Roman festival celebrating the God Saturn, characterized by social inversion, feasting, and gift-giving.
• The festival's timing with the winter solstice emphasized themes of renewal and hope for future prosperity.
• Social customs during Saturnalia, such as role reversals and public revelry, provided a temporary relief from societal hierarchies.
• Saturnalia's traditions have influenced modern Christmas practices, particularly in areas like decoration, gift-giving, and communal celebrations.
• The strategic alignment of Christmas with existing pagan festivals like Saturnalia and Sol Invictus facilitated the integration of Christian traditions into established cultural practices.

Dan Snow's exploration of Saturnalia not only illuminates the rich history behind our current holiday customs but also underscores the enduring human desire to find light and joy during the darkest days of the year.

Transcript

[Dan Snow]

Hi, I'm Dan Snow and if you would like Dan Snow's historyhit ad free, get early access and bonus episodes. Sign up to historyhit With a historyhit subscription. You can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries with top history presenters and enjoy a new release every week. Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com subscribe.

[Eva Longoria]

Do you ever wonder where your favorite foods come from? Like, what's the history behind bacon wrapped hot dogs? Hi, I'm Eva Longoria. Hi, I'm Mayte Gomez Rejon. Our podcast Hungry for History is back and this season we're taking an even bigger bite out of the most delicious food and its history, seeing that the most popular cocktail is the margarita, followed by the mojito from Cuba and the pina colada from Puerto Rico. Listen to Hungry for history on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Francis Mackintosh]

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[Eva Longoria]

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[Dan Snow]

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[Mayte Gomez Rejon]

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[Eva Longoria]

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[Dan Snow]

December has arrived. There are lights in people's windows. There are trees in front rooms. Shops stores have had festive decorations up since, well, probably before Halloween. There's definitely a sense of excitement in the air that history hit. We're looking forward, in my case, with some nerves to our Christmas party. We're working hard on our festive TV shows and podcasts. My kids are starting to get excited about, well, presents mostly, but there's also skating on the ice rink and the trip into the big smoke. Southampton itself, the Sea City to watch the pantomime. Now for my North American listeners, that's a totally unique, really fairly indescribable experience. Camp satirical, slightly inappropriate, and yet somehow a very Christmassy show. This time of year, things just feel different. There's an energy, there's enthusiasm. We make the effort to see people we don't usually see for the rest of the year. There's a warmth in December, despite the cold weather. I think that comes from cherished traditions coming together to sing carols, volunteering for a charity, making that certain type of food, or decorating your house in the same way every year with those familiar old baubles lovingly unpacked from dusty boxes. Humans for millennia seem to have drawn comfort from doing familiar things. From the Romans honoring Saturn with gift giving. So Vikings celebrating Yuletide on the shortest day of the year. Christians choosing to mark the birth of Jesus in December. Each generation has inherited the traditions of those who have gone before. Kept some jettisoned others adapted them to suit what they needed in their present. So every Wednesday in December, I'm going to be exploring the origins of Christmas as we know it today. Not focusing on the religious side of things, but the. The traditions that we return to and celebrate this time of year. We're going to explore some of the key moments, some of the key figures, and how those traditions were shaped. We're looking at Emperor Domitian. We talk about Henry VIII and how they still affect what we do in 2024. We're going to be traveling through the ages, from the Celtic solstice celebrations to the gargantuan feasts of the Tudor court, the bawdy entertainment of the Georgians, and the influence of one particular Victorian writer on what we now all recognize as traditional Christmas. For this first episode, we're going to go all the way back. We're going to visit the Roman Empire for the festival of Saturnalia. You're listening to Dan Snow's history hit this is our Origins of Christmas series. Enjoy. When the Romans landed on British shores, they found a political patchwork. Diverse, competitive tribes led by kings and chieftains, each with their own customs and pagan traditions. Some they shared, some were distinct. It seems the winter solstice, the shortest day. It symbolized the rebirth of the sun and the promise of longer, warmer days ahead. The return of fruitful agriculture of life. While evergreen plants like mistletoe, holly and ivy were brought into the home as decorations, symbols of eternal life, proof that not everything died in the middle of winter. As well as decoration, we also think that feasting and storytelling and drinking were essential at this time of year as communities sought to bring a little warmth and joy. As the Romans sought to make Britannia Roman, they did rely on their military power to crush those who resisted. But they were also pragmatic enough to know they had to work with the grain of the belief systems of the people in Britain. They recognized these strong pagan beliefs, and they found ways to blend them with the Roman way of life. For example, the Roman goddess Minerva, the Greek Athena became associated with Sulis, a local deity worshipped at the thermal springs in Bath. The site eventually became a prominent Romano British temple complex. Meanwhile, Jupiter, the father of all the Roman gods, was sometimes merged with the Celtic sky God, reflecting shared attributes. And the good news for the Britons is that the Romans also liked to have a big old celebration. In midwinter, this proved a fertile place to forge common ground. The Romans had their own celebration of Saturnalia. They worshipped the God Saturn, the God of farming and harvest, which sat easily alongside these indigenous British winter festivals. And today, we're still celebrating many of the traditions of Roman Saturnalia are part of our own Christmas. But so too are other pagan and Christian influences, which we've picked up over the years. And this is Dr. Francis Mackintosh, the English Heritage Collection curator for Hadrian's Wall in the Northeast. She's an expert in the traditions of Roman Saturnalia. Francis, thank you very much for coming on the podcast.

[Mayte Gomez Rejon]

Not at all. It's a pleasure to be here.

[Dan Snow]

Tell me, who's Saturn and what's this festival all about?

[Mayte Gomez Rejon]

So Saturn was the God of seed sowing, and he's a really ancient God. He's founded, apparently, a fortified village, and the spot where the capital is in Rome, which was called Saturnia, and he taught people how to cultivate the ground. And his period of reign was really seen as this golden age of prosperity. So festival to Saturn, Saturnalia was all about sort of harking back to this golden age when everything was wonderful and men were ideal and things all went smoothly.

[Dan Snow]

So pre lapsarian age and a mythical period in history.

[Mayte Gomez Rejon]

Yeah, because in the Roman world, you know, the gods were real, and so they had, at certain points, lived on Earth and done things. And so Saturn, his story is that he'd founded this village and reigned on Earth for a while before he became this deified being.

[Dan Snow]

Is this the difficult bit? But the Romans had sort of allied the Roman gods and the Greek gods, and Saturn we think of as sort of Chronos or the father of Zeus and everything. Is that a useful comparison? Is that. Are they, like, for, like, should we think about Saturn in a more specifically Roman context.

[Mayte Gomez Rejon]

Well, I think he is sometimes linked with Cronos and, you know, there's loads of those Roman deities out there who have got a Greek name. And he spoke to someone who's studied Greek. They were like, oh, no, they're called this. I don't know in this sense, when we're talking about Saturnalia and Saturn, how much? He's kind of the founding father as much, but he was probably associated a little bit, but it's, you know, his role in the Roman world, I think.

[Dan Snow]

And when did the festival take place?

[Mayte Gomez Rejon]

So it first started off just as one day on the 17th of December. There's hundreds of festivals in the Roman religious calendar, but by the late Republic, So sort of second first century BC, it was between three and seven days long, starting on the 17th still, but running right through to the 23rd. And included in that big run, Opalia, which was a festival day for Saturn's consort, Ops Ops was the Earth from whose bounty the sustenance of life is sought. So she's linked very much to Saturn because he's sowing the seed in the land. And her day was the 19th of December. And then there was a day called the Sigilaria, which was the day of President giving on 23rd December. So it does sort of fluctuate and, you know, as it goes through the imperial period. But it's not just one day, which is quite nice, isn't it? If you can have a jolly time for all that period, I'm for it.

[Dan Snow]

I'm for it was the shortest day of the year. Was that. Was that a feature? Was it just by accident it happened then, or was that sort of referred to and cycles and looking ahead to new, slowly lengthening days?

[Mayte Gomez Rejon]

Well, I think the fact that he is a God of sowing and she's the goddess of sort of, you know, the Earth where, you know, food is grown in the midwinter, even though it's not quite as grim, you know, in the Mediterranean as it is up in, say, northern Britain in the midwinter. Days are short. You need something to sort of look forward to and you're thinking about plowing and planting your seeds ready for the next year, aren't you? So it makes sense that that's the period. I don't know if they measured the length of the days exactly and knew it was the shortest day, as we do now. But you see through, you know, through the age, don't you? The midwinter celebrations are often about Planting and hoping for good harvest next year. Because you need something to look forward to because you're going into the hard months.

[Dan Snow]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And the harvest in. You want to get cozy. What about this sort of reputation that Saturnalia has for. There's gift giving, there's partying and food and friendship. But what about this social inversion that strikes me as interesting.

[Mayte Gomez Rejon]

Yeah. So, you know, Roman society is very hierarchical. Everyone knew their place and they'd have rules to sort of keep that in place. And particularly with the slaves. You know, slaves are lowest of the low, no kind of standing at all. But on Saturnalia, each household would choose a mock king who would preside over the festivities. And quite often the mock king was someone from the lowest part of the family. So it could be a slave or, you know, or maybe a child. And supposedly, as well, traditional roles would be reversed. So the slaves could sit at the, you know, the top table and be served by their. Their masters, perhaps even wear, you know, nice clothes that day. It's really sort of, you know, switching things up just for one day, which is quite nice.

[Dan Snow]

Was it a sort of wild time? Perhaps more wild than normal on. On the streets and in public spaces as well?

[Mayte Gomez Rejon]

Yeah, absolutely. So at home you would decorate your house, but all over the city or wherever you live in, it really was kind of a carnival atmosphere. You would be allowed to gamble in public, which was illegal otherwise. I mean, I'm sure it took place, but, you know, you're allowed to do it. You would shout as you walked around if you saw. And I owe Saturnalia. You don't just say sort of hello. And it's very much. It's a public holiday, everyone's having a great time. I think what was socially acceptable would probably be reduced. So you. I imagine there's quite a lot of, you know, merry people wandering around.

[Dan Snow]

Merry people's good way of putting it. Feasting. I mean, there's something about this time of year, isn't it, with the feasting, that. I mean, did the Romans just feast all the time on their religious holidays, or was there something particular about Saturnalia, which involved really going for it like we do today?

[Mayte Gomez Rejon]

Lots of Roman religious festivals, when you read it, you know, a feast's part of it. You know, it's kind of like a lot of our celebrations, aren't it? Let's go out for a meal. It's your birthday. Let's go out for a meal. It's a christening. But in Saturnalia, overeating, drinking, singing, you know, getting together, that was a really key part of it. There were at the very beginnings of the festival when, you know, it started back in the Republican period, there was a public festival after sacrificing the temple to Saturn where everyone would come. But it develops and everyone has feasts at home. Heavy consumption is expected over Saturn, I think more so than in other festivals.

[Dan Snow]

Do we know anything about what they ate? We have such pronounced food traditions this time of year. Was that something do you think that the Romans would have had?

[Mayte Gomez Rejon]

No, it doesn't seem to have been a part of that. There was sort of set menus, you know, of, you know, certain things. It was just lots of food, lots of drink, you know, maybe slightly more expensive and luxurious meals than you would be having on a day to day basis, but on a grand scale. But there wasn't a set sort of Saturnalia meal that we know of.

[Dan Snow]

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[Eva Longoria]

Do you ever wonder where your favorite foods come from? Like what's the history behind bacon wrapped hot dogs? Hi, I'm Eva Longoria. Hi, I'm Mate. Our podcast Hungry for History is back. And this season we're taking an even bigger bite out of the most delicious food and its history. Seeing that the most popular cocktail is the margarita, followed by the mojito from Cuba and the pina colada from Puerto Rico. Listen to Hungry for history on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 1 800Flowers.com knows that a gift is never just a gift. A gift is an expression of everything you feel and helps build more meaningful relationships. 1-800-FLowers takes the pressure off by helping you navigate life's important moments by making it simple to find the perfect gift. From flowers and cookies to cake and chocolate, 1-800-flowers helps guide you in finding the right gift to say how you feel. To learn more, visit 1-800-flowers.com acast that's 1-800flowers.com acastic Ready to pop the question? The jewelers at bluenile.com have got sparkle down to a science with beautiful lab grown diamonds worthy of your most brilliant moments. Their lab grown diamonds are independently graded and guaranteed identical to natural diamonds, and they're ready to ship to your door. Go to bluenile.com and use promo code LISTEN to get $50 off your purchase of $500 or more. That's code LISTEN for $50 off bluenile.com code LISTEN.

[Dan Snow]

Do we know anything about what gifts were given? And has your experience at Hadrian's Wall and perhaps the tablets of Vinland or anything? Have they taught you anything about whether people are thanking each other for things or asking for gifts?

[Mayte Gomez Rejon]

Yeah, so gift giving is a really big part of Saturnalia. It's really key. You know, it's got its own day within that run the Sigularia. And the most sort of information we've got about gift giving is from Marshall, who's a 1st century AD poet. He's a prolific writer, but he writes quite a lot about Saturnalia. And in a lot of his poems he lists things that could be given as presents. And it's quite interesting that he says, you know, they could be really expensive gifts or not expensive gifts. And he seems to suggest that token gifts of sort of a lower value might actually be more well received and measure better the higher quality of a friendship. So you don't necessarily need to spend lots of money. Which is quite interesting in a lot of the debates we have nowadays, isn't it, about, you know, the materialistic nature of gift giving, whereas against a thoughtful gift. But you know, he lists things like a toothpick, cones, lamps, a pig, a sausage parrot, which is quite interesting. Statues.

[Dan Snow]

Can I just stop this for two seconds? If anyone out there, I don't Think my family listen to this podcast, but if they do, if anyone out there gives my kids a parrot for Christmas, they're gonna have to come through me. I consider that a terminal event in our relationship.

[Mayte Gomez Rejon]

Would you be happy with a pig? That was also an option that Marshall listed.

[Dan Snow]

I'll take a pig. I'll take a pig. I know she wouldn't mind a pig.

[Mayte Gomez Rejon]

The gifts that Marshall lists in his poems, it's a real variety. We know that Augustus like to give sort of joke gifts or gag gifts. Suetonius, one of the sources we have, you know, talks about the lives of the Caesars, says he gave things like hair cloths, sponges, pokers, tongs, but he would kind of give them under misleading sort of names, and it'd be a real trick sort of way of sort of giving them. So you might get lucky, I think, from Augustus, and he'd give you something quite valuable. But you could also get a sort of equivalent of a whoopee cushion sort of thing.

[Dan Snow]

That is the ultimate flex, isn't it? You sort of. I'm so powerful, I can either give you a sort of country estate, or I might just give you a piece of coal or something. And it's just everything. And then you can imagine all the courtiers sort of laughing uproariously. And it's just. It's just a pure expression of his power, isn't it?

[Mayte Gomez Rejon]

Well, exactly. He could do what he wanted. You know, children often receive toys, but also maybe sort of practical things. And there are some very specific things that were made, so pottery or wax figurines called sigillaria, which is the same day as a giving day. So there may sort of bespoke presents, but you all to just give something useful, something a nice treatment.

[Dan Snow]

What's our best account of Saturnalia?

[Mayte Gomez Rejon]

So, as I said, we've talked about Martial, who talks quite a lot about it, but obviously in poems, whereas we also got a really nice source, so a writer called Publius Papinus Statius, who was sort of first century ad, and he's a poet in the court of the Emperor Domitian. So Domitian, who's the son of Vespasian, they're the Flavian dynasty, they're the ones who created the Colosseum. Statius describes a Saturnalia event that Domitian held actually in the amphitheatre. You know, it's a bit different. It's not at home like a lot of these ones, but it's obviously a huge show of imperial wealth. And also the fact Domitian was a big fan of gladiatorial combat. And the amphitheater, the day apparently started quite early. And they talk about sweet meat raining from the line and that's little pastries containing dates and other fruits like figs that were scattered to the people seated in the amphitheater from a rope that stretches across that they would have used. But other sort of things in the gladiatorial arena. And then people who came to the amphitheatre, to the arena to watch these games apparently came with baskets of bread and wine, you know, and sort of very fancy food while the crowd would watch the spectacle. Apparently there's female gladiators there, which is quite rare.

[Dan Snow]

Yeah, that is rare. That's unusual.

[Mayte Gomez Rejon]

Yeah. Gladiatorial combats are free to attend. And so this is Domitian's gift for Saturnaya to, you know, the populace of Rome to put on this show. And it's his way of sort of really showing that he's got this wealth, but also his benefaction of the populace by putting this on as an extra special thing and even providing refreshments.

[Dan Snow]

It was a religious festival. So presumably there is a religious focus as well in the big temple in the heart of town.

[Mayte Gomez Rejon]

Yeah, that's right. So Saturn, there is a temple dedicated to him right in the heart of Rome. And the start of Saturnalia would be a ceremony, a sacrifice to him at that temple. The priests and the higher social status people might have had to go to sort of show that dedication to Saturn. But equally, even if you didn't go and watch that ceremony, Roman religion's just so different to any of the modern religions because they thought of them as real people who really could have an influence on their life. And so although you're gonna have a great time because it's Saturnalia, you might also make an offering to Saturn because if you don't, you might anger him. And Roman religion is contractual. So if you're a farmer or just anyone hoping that the harvests are good so there'll be food to buy on the market stalls, you want Saturn to be happy with you and keep an eye on you and make the harvest well. So you're going to ask Saturn for that, but he will accept something in return. So that might be that you sacrifice a pig, it might be you put upon altar, it might be you, I don't know, follow the rules of Saturnalia to show that you're offering something to him. Because the Romans really thought that gods could affect day to day life. So it was Important for them.

[Dan Snow]

How should we think about Saturnalia and its impact on our midwinter, our Christmas holiday traditions? I mean, it's not as simple as saying Christmas is just Saturnalia, but do you think it did have an influence on what came next?

[Mayte Gomez Rejon]

I think if you look at any Midwinter celebrations, people need something to look forward to, don't they? Because times are hard. You've got to hope that you're all going to survive the winter and food is going to keep you going. And so you can think about when Christianity is becoming adopted as the religion for the Roman Empire. They're trying to remove pagan festivals, but, you know, not everyone is happier with the changes in religion. So if you can kind of make that transition easier, then you're going to as a church. And so you can see that a lot of the traditions of the activities that you did in Saturnalia would link to Christmas. And I imagine it's just sort of transitioning. So we're not losing Saturnalia. You don't get to. You don't have to just all be sad. We still can have a celebration. And here are the things that are still similar. So nowadays in Saturnalia, you lit wax tapers and torches because you're bringing light into the dark that is Midwinter. We do that now. They would decorate their houses with wreaths of evergreen plants, give presents. As we've talked about, Christmas almost just becomes the Midwinter festival, doesn't it? You know, it's got a very different connotation, it's linked to a different God, but there are those things. You know, I don't think it's specifically because they were worshiping Saturn and now they're worshiping, you know, the Christian God. It's just things that make that festival seem attractive, isn't it?

[Dan Snow]

And Francis, obviously the elephant the room is Christmas itself is on the 25th. Is there a link with Saturnalia there? The exact date.

[Mayte Gomez Rejon]

So picking the date for Christmas seems to have been a big thing. So the first time Christmas is attested is in 336 AD, but that was originally held on what we now call Epiphany, the 6th of January. And it only moved to the 25th of December between 354 and 360. And there's a possible other pagan residual for that, not the Saturn pagan. And that's because that's the day of Sol Invictus. So Saul Invictus is or was, you know, the unconquered sun is a Syrian sun God really associated with Mithraism, the Cult of the sun became quite linked to imperial power. So we wonder if there's some decision, because nowhere in the Bible does it say what day is Jesus's birthday. The shepherds are watching lambs, which might have suggested it was spring, but obviously the Church has decided to keep it in that midwinter period. And so the fact that it's the 25th of December and there's a link to Sol, is that another way of the Church sort of trying to link in with previous celebrations and previous things to make that transition to Christianity more manageable for people in terms of, you know, their mindset and understanding what the meanings are? So Saturnalia was the run up to Christmas, wasn't it? It was almost like the twelve days of Christmas. And then they had sol Invictus on 25 December, which has now become our Christmas Day.

[Dan Snow]

So, as Francis said, Christianity began spreading across the Roman Empire and eventually, naturally arrived in Britain, changing once again the dynamics of these pagan winter traditions. The Romans left in the 5th century, but Rome and Christianity had shaped Britain's spiritual landscape and enduring ways. Much so, festive symbolism was adapted. The holly decorating the hearth, which had once been a simple charm against evil, became Jesus Crown of Thorns, the red berries his blood. Germanic migrants settled in Britain from the 5th century onwards and they too slowly converted to Christianity. The festivals took on a more religious nature. We have a really full account of Anglo Saxon Christmas given to us by Egbert of York in the 8th century. He was a contemporary of Bede and he wrote, the English people have been accustomed to practice fasts, vigils, prayers and the giving of alms, both to monasteries and to the common people for the full 12 days before Christmas. And it may well have been those Germanic settlers who brought with them their own winter celebrations, Yule that they marked on the 25th of December. We're going to get into Yule, folks, and how people through the ages have survived the darkest months in Britain, which, if you don't live here, trust me, can be a little grim. We're going to hit that later in the series when we get to the winter solstice on 21 December. But between now and then, our Christmas story is galloping ahead a few centuries from the end of the Anglo Saxons all the way to the Tudors. I'm heading to Hampton Court palace to discover more about how Henry VIII enjoyed a lavish Christmas of feasting, entertainment and excess, and how the Tudors invented some of our favorite Christmas traditions. Make sure to check back here next Wednesday. For all that. See you next.

[Eva Longoria]

Do you ever wonder where your favorite foods come from? Like, what's the history behind bacon wrapped hot dogs? Hi, I'm Eva Longoria. Hi, I'm Maite Gomez Rejon. Our podcast Hungry for History is back and this season we're taking an even bigger bite out of the most delicious food and its history, saying that the most popular cocktail is the margarita, followed by the mojito from Cuba and the pina colada from Puerto Rico. Listen to Hungry for history on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Francis Mackintosh]

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