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Saturnalia knowledge

  • One month before going to Brno, students worked in four groups to describe the Roman Saturnalia using a table. Each group compared past Roman Saturnalia traditions with nowadays traditions in our countries. These were the groups and their main aspects:

    • Red colour:
      • Dates. Roman: from 17th to 25th of December. Currenty: two weeks in December.
      • Greetings. Roman: "Io Saturnalia". Currently: "Merry Christmas, Happy new year".
      • Greenery: Roman: houses decorated with plants & branches. Currently: Christmas tree, mistletoe branch. 
      • Candles and lights: lights everywhere. 
    • Blue colour:
      • Holiday. Roman: schools and courts closed, cancelling executions and wars. Currently: schools and working places closed, prisoners pardon, time of peace. 
      • Eating. Roman: banquets, baked goods, sweets, fruits and nuts. Currently: time of drinking and overeating. 
      • Gambling. Roman: playing dice games, amphitheatre and other public games. Currently: gambling, sportive events and spectacles. 
      • Socialization time. Roman: family and friends. Currently: time to meet relatives and friends. 
    • Yellow colour: 
      • Charity. Roman: charity and generosity to the poor. Currently: time of peace, love and charity. 
      • Singing. Roman: singing naked from house to house, playing instruments. Currently: singing from house to house, concerts.
      • Gifts. Roman: exchanging gifts (sigillaria), presents to children. Currently: exchanging gifts, St. Nicholas, Epiphany.
    • Green colour:
      • Inversion. Roman: inversion of social roles, direspectect from slaves to masters, masks-wearing. Currently: the Feast of the Holy Innocents, Carnival.
      • Mocking. Roman: election of the king of Saturnalia. Currently: Feast of the fools, Bishop for a day, the King of the Banquet. 
      • Debauchery. Roman: madness, behavioral license, drinking, sexual indulgence. Currently: drinking, private and public parties. 

    Each one of the four groups completed and expanded the information of one set of the four topics. This information was used to prepare a short presentation of the information on the Roman tradition of Saturnalia during the day of the Skype session. 

    You can watch for more information of the Saturnalia traditions in this Youtube video.