When Was Saturnalia? Rome’s Midwinter Festival Explained

Saturnalia was ancient Rome’s midwinter festival of the god Saturn. It began on 17 December: one day of rites under the Republic, three official days under Augustus, five under Caligula and Claudius, and up to seven days of popular merrymaking, with feasts, gifts of candles and clay figurines, role reversals and the shout “io Saturnalia”.

Key takeaways

• Saturnalia began on 17 December; Augustus made 17 to 19 December official holidays (Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities).
• Caligula added a day called Juvenalis (Suetonius), which Smith’s Dictionary counts as the fifth; popular merrymaking could stretch to seven days, closing with the Sigillaria fair.
• Enslaved people wore the pileus, the felt cap of freedom, spoke freely and were waited on at table by their masters.
• The classic gifts were modest: wax tapers called cerei and clay figurines called sigilla.
• Pliny the Elder dated the winter solstice to 25 December; historian Andrew McGowan doubts that Christmas’s date was simply borrowed from pagan feasts.

When was Saturnalia?

Saturnalia began on 17 December. Under the Republic only one day was set aside for Saturn’s rites, though the feasting already ran longer.

Before Julius Caesar’s reform, December had 29 days and Saturnalia fell on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of January, which was 17 December. Caesar gave December two extra days, so 17 December became the sixteenth day before the Kalends. Smith’s Dictionary (1875) reports that this confused people, so Augustus hallowed three whole days, 17 to 19 December, covering both reckonings.

Suetonius, in J. C. Rolfe’s translation, says Caligula added the day “to make a permanent addition to the public gaiety”.

What did Romans do at Saturnalia?

Romans stopped ordinary business and turned social rules upside down. Law courts closed, schools took a holiday, and starting a war was considered impious (Smith’s Dictionary).

• Role reversals. Enslaved members of a household were released from work, wore the pileus, could speak their minds, dined in their masters’ clothes and were waited on by them (Smith’s Dictionary, citing Macrobius and Cassius Dio).
• Holiday dress. Citizens swapped the toga for the synthesis, a loose dinner gown.
• Games. The aediles allowed public gambling, and households chose a mock king; World History Encyclopedia gives his title as Saturnalicius princeps, “leader of the Saturnalia”.
• The temple. At the Temple of Saturn in the Forum, the woollen bonds on the feet of Saturn’s statue were loosened for the festival (World History Encyclopedia).
• The shout. Crowds filled the streets calling “io Saturnalia”, a cry known as clamare Saturnalia.

Seneca, in Richard M. Gummere’s translation of Letter 18, complained of the city’s preparations and quoted a saying: “Once December was a month; now it is a year.” Pliny the Younger retreated to a garden building he had put up at his seaside villa, where, in William Melmoth’s translation, “every other part of my house resounds with my servants’ mirth: thus I neither interrupt their amusement nor they my studies.”

What gifts did Romans give at Saturnalia?

Saturnalia gifts were mostly small. Smith’s Dictionary says friends exchanged presents, and wax tapers (cerei) were the usual gift of humbler people to their superiors. Little earthenware figures (sigilla) were sold at the Sigillaria market and given to children as toys; World History Encyclopedia adds that people gave dependents money to buy its cheap goods.

Suetonius writes that Augustus gave clothing, gold and silver or old and foreign coins, and sometimes joke presents such as hair cloth, sponges and tongs. When Claudius pressed his uncle Tiberius for the consulship, Tiberius sent him forty gold pieces for the Saturnalia and the Sigillaria instead.

How was Saturnalia linked to the winter solstice?

Saturnalia fell in the darkest stretch of the Roman year, about a week before the Roman winter solstice. Pliny the Elder’s Natural History (18.59, Bostock and Riley translation) places the solstice, in general, on the eighth day before the Kalends of January: 25 December.

The Latin word for the winter solstice was bruma. Varro explained it in On the Latin Language (6.8): “It is called bruma because the day is then shortest”, and he defined the year as the time from bruma to bruma. Saturnalia itself honored Saturn, a farming god; Smith’s Dictionary calls its early form a sort of harvest-home after the year’s work in the fields.

Julius Caesar’s reform ended years of calendar drift; to catch up, 46 BC ran to 445 days, later called the year of confusion. Smith’s Dictionary notes that Caesar probably meant to start the year near the shortest day. The Julian year ran slightly long, so the solstice slipped earlier until the Gregorian fix, which is why it now comes on 21 or 22 December. See why ten days vanished in 1582 and why the earliest sunset is before the winter solstice.

Did Christmas come from Saturnalia?

The festivals look alike, but historians are cautious about a direct line. Smith’s Dictionary in 1875 saw “a remarkable resemblance” between Saturnalia customs and Christmas and the Italian Carnival, and World History Encyclopedia and History.com argue for a strong influence.

Andrew McGowan, writing for the Biblical Archaeology Society, sets out the case against a simple borrowing of the date:

• No ancient Christian writer makes that claim. “It’s not until the 12th century that we find the first suggestion that Jesus’ birth celebration was deliberately set at the time of pagan feasts.”
• The earliest known Christmas celebrations (around 250–300) come from a time when a persecuted Christian minority kept apart from public pagan festivals.
• From the mid-fourth century Christians did adapt pagan festivals, so Christmas may have picked up pagan trappings later.

Midwinter gifts, candles and a lord of misrule echo Saturnalia, but “Christmas is Saturnalia renamed” goes beyond the evidence.

What can Saturnalia teach about rest in the longest nights?

Saturnalia paired rest from work with company and light in the darkest weeks, and Seneca added balance. In Letter 18 he weighed “whether we ought to make no change in our daily routine” during the holiday, and wrote: “For one may keep holiday without extravagance.”

The camping study had five people and measured timing, not health. More in should you sleep more in winter.

Your day on My BodyClock

The day above on My BodyClock is a Saturnalia-style winter holiday: wake at 7 AM, walk in the morning light, and wrap up work by 11:30 AM. The afternoon holds a gift errand, handmade presents and a quiet hour, as Pliny kept. The evening brings a feast at 5 PM, games and gifts by candlelight, and conversation. A warm bath and low lights lead to sleep at 10 PM.

Build your own winter holidays in Owaves: My BodyClock, the World’s First Wellness Planner, Powered by Your Body Clock. Take the Body Clock Type quiz, download Owaves on the App Store, or join the Android waitlist.

FAQ

When did Saturnalia start and end?

Saturnalia started on 17 December. Augustus made 17 to 19 December official holidays, Caligula added Juvenalis for five days, and popular celebrations could run to about 23 December, ending with the Sigillaria fair.

Was Saturnalia a winter solstice festival?

Not exactly. It honored Saturn, a farming god, at the close of the farming year, and fell in the week before 25 December, the date Pliny the Elder gave for the winter solstice (bruma).

What does “io Saturnalia” mean?

It was the festive shout Romans raised in the streets during the holiday, known as clamare Saturnalia (Smith’s Dictionary), used much like a holiday greeting.

Did Christmas come from Saturnalia?

Not in any simple way. The festivals share gifts, candles, feasting and a mock ruler, but historian Andrew McGowan notes that the earliest known Christmas celebrations date from a time when Christians avoided pagan festivals, and the idea of a deliberate borrowing first appears in the 12th century.

Sources

1. Ramsay, W. Saturnalia. Smith’s Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1875), LacusCurtius. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Saturnalia.html
2. Calendarium. Smith’s Dictionary (1875), LacusCurtius. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Calendarium.html
3. Seneca. Letter 18, trans. Gummere (1917). Wikisource. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Moral_letters_to_Lucilius/Letter_18
4. Pliny the Younger. Letters 2.17, trans. Melmoth. Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2811/2811-h/2811-h.htm
5. Suetonius. Caligula 17, trans. Rolfe. LacusCurtius. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Caligula*.html
6. Suetonius. Augustus 75, trans. Rolfe. LacusCurtius. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Augustus*.html
7. Suetonius. Claudius 5, trans. Rolfe. LacusCurtius. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Claudius*.html
8. Pliny the Elder. Natural History 18.59, trans. Bostock and Riley. Perseus. https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0137:book=18:chapter=59
9. Varro. De Lingua Latina 6. The Latin Library. https://www.thelatinlibrary.com/varro.ll6.html
10. Cartwright, M. Saturnalia. World History Encyclopedia (2016). https://www.worldhistory.org/Saturnalia/
11. McGowan, A. How December 25 Became Christmas. Biblical Archaeology Society. https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/jesus-historical-jesus/how-december-25-became-christmas/
12. Saturnalia. History.com. https://www.history.com/articles/saturnalia
13. Stothard ER et al. Current Biology (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2016.12.041

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