Saturnalia: Christmas in the Waiting
By Mark Storer
“The walls and ceiling were so hung with living green, that it looked a perfect grove; from every part of which, bright gleaming berries glistened. The crisp leaves of holly, mistletoe, and ivy reflected back the light, as if so many little mirrors had been scattered there; and such a mighty blaze went roaring up the chimney, as that dull petrification of a hearth had never known in Scrooge’s time, or Marley’s, or for many and many a winter season gone…”
–Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
Saturnalia was a widely celebrated Roman and Pagan holiday before Christianity spread across the west. Usually held in mid-December, the roots of the holiday go deep into the heart of agriculture at the time, originating as a way to celebrate and even worship ‘the unconquered sun,’ a term used to invoke a sort of optimism that spring was once here, and so it will be again. Saturnalia’s link to Christmas in the modern world is simply impossible to ignore, as its rituals and traditions continue to this very day wherever Christmas is celebrated.
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–Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
Saturnalia was a widely celebrated Roman and Pagan holiday before Christianity spread across the west. Usually held in mid-December, the roots of the holiday go deep into the heart of agriculture at the time, originating as a way to celebrate and even worship ‘the unconquered sun,’ a term used to invoke a sort of optimism that spring was once here, and so it will be again. Saturnalia’s link to Christmas in the modern world is simply impossible to ignore, as its rituals and traditions continue to this very day wherever Christmas is celebrated.
Subscribe to the New PRS Journal to read on...
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